In this month’s episode, you’ll get all of the latest and greatest news in the world of Randolph Shepherd. It is time for the quarterly Blitz.
Intro Music (00:02):
We are Randolph Shepherd Podcast. We are Randolph Shepherd podcast. This is the We are Randolph Shepherd podcast, promoting blind entrepreneurship and Independence. And now here's the dynamic duo, Nikki Gecos and Terry Smith.
Nicky (00:26):
Welcome to the We Are Rand Shepherd podcast for the month of July, 2025. And of course, we want to thank our sponsors, the National Association of Blind Merchants, Blackstone Consulting, Southern Food Service, Sodexo inReach, Greenway Paper Supplies, Coca-Cola, Tyler Technologies. You selected Cantaloupe, Kerick, Dr. Pepper and Commissary services of Nashville. Terry, how are you?
Terry (01:08):
What are you doing? I'm setting the mood, Nikki, the mood for what are we leaving the, oh man, you ruined it. You ruined it. Have you not heard? I mean, we are the go-to podcast for lovers. I mean, I had a call from one of our listeners and he's listening now so he knows who he is and I'm not going to tell you his name, but he said that he's a single gentleman and he was on his first date with this lady and she knew nothing about Randolph Shepherd or anything like that. And it's his first date. She comes to his apartment and he's telling her about the program and he says there's even a podcast about it. And she really, and they sit on a Friday night alone in his apartment and listen to the We are Randolph Shepherd podcast now. How's that?
Nicky (02:11):
I love it.
Terry (02:13):
Now there's a part two to this. We either get blame or credit for where that relationship goes.
Nicky (02:23):
Either we'll be invited to the marriage, to the marriage or we'll be yelled at.
Terry (02:29):
So to my good friend who's listening to this now, so good luck with that relationship and I hope we get credit for it. So Nikki, let's move on. We got a lot of positive feedback from Nikki's Bar and Grill last month. People seem to enjoy it. I think we need to do that more often. I mean that's the second time we've done it over what, three years now. And so I think we need to do it more often. What are your thoughts?
Nicky (02:57):
Oh, let's do it. Let's do it. If anybody wants to come up to the bar and buy a few drinks, let us know and let's do it a lot more often. That was a lot of fun.
Terry (03:07):
Yeah, I agree. So folks, if you want to be part of the Nikki's Bar and Grill, then let us know. I did catch a little flack, Nikki. I got to be honest with you. Within 24 hours of it being released, I caught some flack about not having any women there. I had a quick response. I said, my wife doesn't let me go out drinking with women, but so we're going to have, we need to need get the ladies on here. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, let's do that. So yeah, we'll do that more in the future and we'll see. Nikki, I was listening to something and I can't remember where I heard it. It was a podcast I was listening to, but they referred to New Jersey as the jersey of the state of first, all the first things that happened in New Jersey. Can you think of any of those? Do you know what any of those would be?
Nicky (04:11):
I think we were the first to have politicians go to jail.
Terry (04:14):
I doubt that, but maybe
Nicky (04:21):
I think we had the first boardwalk, I think the first boardwalk. And we also had saltwater taffy. We're the first have saltwater Taffy, which is famous for the boardwalks.
Outro (04:32):
That's true.
Nicky (04:33):
And we're going to have blast on the boardwalk coming up in October. And then of course, Thomas Edison Edison, New Jersey is a famous town, well with Menlo Park and right by the train station there. I think he invented the light bulb and a lot of firsts that Thomas Edison had. They were going to be the first state to hold a World Cup in the United States coming up in next year. And I think that we have a lot of famous food, Taylor or Hammond, which is called either Pork Roll if you live north of the Philly area or Taylor Hamm if you're south. Also, I think one thing about New Jersey was that it was actually the first baseball game was played in New Jersey. I thought
Terry (05:20):
That's correct. There's actually a famous painting of that game, which I have seen many times and I did not know that that was actually a depiction of the very first professional baseball game. And it's a famous piece of art, which I found very interesting when I googled and started looking at these. But I Googled it to see what in the heck they were talking about. And you hit a lot of them, most of them of the big ones. Two you left out that I'll just bring up the first drive-in movie was in Camden, New Jersey. How long has it been since you were to a drive-in movie?
Nicky (05:58):
Many, many years. Many years.
Terry (06:01):
We have one that's about 15 miles from us and it's one of those double screen where if you're facing one direction, you can watch one screen. If you're facing the other direction, you can watch the other screen. So they have two different movies going on and it's been years since we were down there and I started romanticized about how great it was and we went and I burned up and the bugs and I said, I don't know if this was as great as I really remembered it being, but good memories. You also had the first Miss America was in Atlantic City. You had the first radio station was in Peterson, New Jersey. Let's see, the first tunnel under a river, the Hutch, is that the one that goes from Jersey?
Nicky (06:54):
That's the Holland Tunnel.
Terry (06:56):
The city.
Nicky (06:57):
Yep. It goes right from New Jersey underground. And that's in downtown New York?
Terry (07:02):
Yep.
Nicky (07:03):
We have two tunnels, the Lincoln Tunnel and the Holland Tunnel.
Terry (07:07):
And the also just last thing I'll mention is the first brewery in the United States was in New Jersey.
Nicky (07:15):
I'll tell you another first that I'm surprised you forgot. The first Randall Shepherd facility was in Trenton, New Jersey.
Terry (07:21):
The very first,
Nicky (07:23):
Yeah, 1936 post office in Trenton, New Jersey. The first Randall Shepherd facility.
Terry (07:28):
I did not know that.
Nicky (07:30):
Yeah, looked at,
Terry (07:33):
You've educated me a little bit because I'm going to bring up Randolph Shepherd because isn't there another first Randolph Shepherd that happened at the Jersey Post
Nicky (07:41):
Office? Yeah, first Dunkin Donuts first franchise.
Terry (07:46):
So Jersey is just hanging in there, so doing a great job.
Nicky (07:53):
It gets a lot of flack, but I'll tell you one thing, and I live here now primarily because of family. The kids live so close, I would never think of moving, but I spent three days at the Jersey Shores past weekend and it was just absolutely gorgeous. It got a little hot on Monday, but the first two days were just beautiful. And sitting there looking at the ocean relaxes you so much. And Jersey's got a little attitude, but I kind of liked that. I think I do too, but Jersey Strong we call it. And we got great music and great rock and roll and people come from Jersey and got good sports, but it's expensive place to live because of taxes and a lot of other things. But you can't beat that Jersey shore. You just can't beat it.
Terry (08:42):
I keep waiting for an invitation to come up there and let's do a planning weekend at your Jersey Shore place, but that hasn't come through yet.
Nicky (08:49):
Well, we'll think about that in Atlantic City or something. Maybe you'll come up and spend a couple of days and
Terry (08:56):
You mentioned singers,
Nicky (08:59):
Maybe we'll do Nicky's Barn Grill live from Jersey Shore. There you
Terry (09:02):
Go. There you go. You got the three of the most famous singers in the world in history. You got, Bruce is from New Jersey, you got Bon Jovi's from New Jersey who you know. You know both of those guys personally. And then Frank Sinatra. Did you ever meet Frank?
Nicky (09:19):
Never met Frank. I know people that had great stories about that. And Whitney Houston too. Don't forget.
Terry (09:24):
Oh, I didn't know Whitney was there too.
Nicky (09:27):
Yep. Newark, New Jersey.
Terry (09:28):
Wow. Okay, awesome. Alright Nikki, let's move on. I know you were at the NAMA fly in last month. You want to give us a little update on what happened with that?
Nicky (09:42):
Well, I think we had a great blast. First of all, the first two days, a day and a half before nama, we had a great turnout from the blind community. I don't know what the numbers were, 150, 160 and got a lot of comments, positive comments from the NAMA board and everything about the number of people we brought. The technology just keeps getting crazy with things that are coming out. A lot of robotic, a lot of AI stuff too much. It's just we start walking down the thing and somebody grabs you and then you're gone and then you're over here and over there. But I think we had one day of rain the first time it ever rained in Vegas. I think it rains about five days a year. We had rained, but conference was very well attended, very big in technology and robotics and that the blind was receptive very well.
(10:34)
Always makes me happy. There was a time many years ago where we weren't even welcome in nama, so it's good. And Carla came and spoke to us. Carla Balaji came and talked to us as she's leaving at the end of this year and she was really excited and cried. She got a standing ovation from our crew. So we've made a difference. The blind community, not just me but the whole blind community have made a big difference in the industry by attending nama and hopefully we'll do something next year where we go to Los Angeles at the end of April. That's where N will be next year. I think it's April 22nd to the 25th in Los Angeles, California. What'd you think, Terry? You were there?
Terry (11:19):
Well, I thought it was good. You were right. Technology was the big thing that is obvious and they are on the verge of really having something that will in the way of cooking hot foods and making it more readily available through vend machines. Each time you go you see some new machines and they're getting very, very close to really having some really quality products that you're going to be able to sell hot foods through your VENDY machine. And I mean they're there now, but they just keep making improvements and I think the big theme was everything related to artificial intelligence and how that's playing into the future. Artificial intelligence is changing so fast. You just Google something on your telephone now and artificial intelligence takes over and just gives you all the information in the world. Sometimes the information's not accurate, but you got to be careful about how you use it. But it is really the vending industry taking over and doing some crazy things and it's only going to get better or worse depending on your perspective. So Nikki, we got, let's see, this is dropping on July one, so nine days from today we're going to be in the big easy and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Nicky (12:49):
We have our board of directors meeting and training down there. I keep getting calls. The people are coming down, I guess they want to eat some good food in New Orleans and see the new technology. They'll be at the center at the National Convention of the National Federation of the Blind. We'll be having our meeting on the 10th of July from 1230 to about four. We have a few elections to do this year. We also have Jesse Cher coming by to talk to us about what's going on. But on the hill we have President Rick will stop by and say hello. We'll be talking about a few other people. We'll be having some hellos from Kevin Monk and Neil from Louisiana. So we expect a nice crowd for this event and if you want to come it's July 10th at 1230 and Salon D at the Marriott on Canal Street. We're looking forward to it. It'll be my 28th convention. Didn't miss any except for COVID. So we're pretty excited about that.
Terry (13:56):
Dorothy Young, who's president of N-C-S-A-B from Mississippi I think is going to stop by and say hello and have a few words for us. Is Lauren going to be there?
Nicky (14:04):
Lauren will be there also. And she's, how can I forget when we get free attorney advice, how can we forget that Lauren will be there? And I think people, I think from somebody from Sodexo's coming to meet and greet and say hello and talk to him about that. But opportunities, Terry, I like to say this now, one thing that came out of NAM and also at the fly in was I had a number of meetings of there's a lot of opportunity for blind entrepreneurs out there in the private sector and is it going to be like, is the state going to buy the equipment or the blind vendor going to buy the equipment or is there financing? There's a lot of opportunity and I hope we don't pass up a lot of these opportunities because some of 'em are going to be pretty good. And I think that that's something we're going to talk about at convention too, is how do we do this?
(14:56)
And I think, I know I haven't talked to you fully about this, but I think we want to come up with a plan for state agencies and blind vendors and committees on if these opportunities from AFIS or other opportunities come up, how are you going to get if you don't have the money or the financing, how else can you do it to put blind people to work? And I think we need to come up with a guide to lead a pathway for state agencies and committee chairs and blind vendors to follow to make sure that we get these opportunities. We got opportunities the next day after flying in Minnesota and in Chicago, a number of opportunities in Texas that came available, one in Tennessee. So I think we need to be, I think that's something we're going to work on at convention is this pathway for people to lease purchase whatever to get machines to take these opportunities, not just to give them back.
Terry (15:52):
We've got some other things coming up, Nikki, in the way of training. We've got a small specialized training coming up with cantaloupe in River Falls and then we have Atlantic City coming up and we're already planning next year so
Nicky (16:09):
We, it was very nice of cantaloupe. It's nice, we've got a lot of feedback in the past on these smaller little blasts for training because people get to talk to each other and talk and I think we're in the low twenties now, at least a month ago, six weeks to go before that training. But it's right at cantaloupe headquarters and if you really want to know about micro markets or the smart stores or the walkthrough stores, it's the time to come and they're going to take us on a river cruise down the river and stuff and they've been a great sponsor and host, so that will be exciting. And then we have a lot of state meetings coming up in July, starting end of July in Arizona and coming up in Florida and August and a number of 'em. Then we go to blast on the boardwalk and October 7th and the ninth and a number of other state meetings and hopefully we'll be at N-C-S-A-B in San Diego in November to talk about AFEs and other things.
(17:08)
And then next year already, canop University will be in Scottsdale, Arizona the 20th and 21st and 22nd of January. That's a pretty interesting, we went last year in Miami, only took a few people last year, but very interesting. Of course, blast in Florida March 30th, 31st and April 1st. And speaking of Florida, I think we finally have a day for Bill Philly. I think he said September 30th. I don't know if that's 2026 Terry or 2027, but he keeps moving it back so I'm happy, but I got that the other night. I had to make a joke to him like we always do with Bill and it was good to see him in Vegas too. It was good to see him and participate and hope these state agencies can get back out and travel so that we can get some training for them.
Terry (17:59):
If you haven't been listening or you haven't been at some of our meetings, it's a running joke, the retirement, that will never happen. I mean Bill has announced a retirement date. I don't know how many different occasions. Finally I think this one might stick.
Nicky (18:14):
Yeah, I think they posted the job and I think Alan's going to get it and they posted Alan's job, so I'm glad I'll be down there to say goodbye. One more. I laughed because we gave him an award two years ago. It blast on the board Atlantic sink because he was leaving and here he is two years later still hanging out. So he is a good guy though. He takes it in stride and stuff like that.
Terry (18:37):
Oh yeah, love Bill. He's a good, good one. So
Nicky (18:41):
We got a lot coming up. Usually his summer slows down a little bit, but we got a lot coming up, so exciting times hopefully. And don't forget too, not last before I leave and not leave to retire, but leave this podcast hang. Got another rumor, another one. We we're going to announce that at national convention that the 90th anniversary of the Randall Shepherd Act coming up in 2026 and we'll have a lot of celebrations and make it fun and talk about different programs. Who's the top 10 like we were going to do a couple of years ago, who should be on the Mount Rushmore, Randall Shepherd, some fun things, but you know what, it's time to celebrate. It's been a great 90 years for a lot of people and we want to make it to continue and grow and pick up facilities and maybe this year in 26 will be afis and other opportunities that we have that we've talked about. So it could be a great year and a great year to lead us into year 91 through a hundred for the next ones.
Terry (19:45):
Yeah, looking forward to next year and as you said, we don't have everything really mapped out as far as what it's going to look like, but planning some fun activities and celebration of the Big nine zero for next year.
Nicky (20:01):
I'm going to go get the bar open for next month and see who else we can get. Maybe we'll round some people up in New Orleans that want to be at Nikki's Bar and Grill. And Terry, I know you got some information for everybody on the Blitz, which somebody called me this morning and said, when's the blitz coming out? I said, it's coming out, we're doing it today. It's coming out 1st of July like it always does. So Terry, I'm going to leave you and hope to see you. I can't wait to see you in New Orleans and I hope you have a great, and I hope everybody has a great 4th of July this year and great celebration of this great country we live in. And Terry, let's get that information out for the blitz and I'll see you in New Orleans.
Terry (20:41):
Thank you, Nikki.
Nicky (20:42):
Take care.
Terry (20:43):
Okay, I'm back. Took a little break. Appreciate Nikki joining us. We're going to give you all the news that is the news from the world of where you are Randolph Shepherd. Before I do that, I cannot believe that I did not know that the first Randolph Shepherd ending facility was located in New Jersey. I started that little thing because of something I'd heard and to maybe tell Nikki some things he didn't know about his own state. Instead he turned it around and told us all something that very few of us probably knew and that was the first Randolph Shepherd facility was in New Jersey. Of course I did know that the first Dunking Donuts in a Randolph Shepherd facility was in New Jersey, but interesting stuff. You learn some stuff every now and then. I also can't believe that I forgot to do the WhatsApp segment. We always do the WhatsApp segment so I won't do the WhatsApp segment, but I will say I'm recording this on June the 28th and I am in Marshtown, Tennessee at my mom's place and it is her 93rd birthday today, so we are celebrating her birthday and just an unbelievable woman.
(21:56)
Before I get into the really big news, I want to say that we continue to work on updating the NABM website. Josh Harper is trying to do some updates on that. We were sort of derelict, we had some technology problems and we're trying to get all the information up to date and then we're going to add some things to it later on. So over the next couple of three months you're going to see some changes@blindmerchants.org, so we'll keep you posted on that. Nikki, I think last month we mentioned Nikki wanted us to do the scorecard again, the SLA scorecard and we've been asked by a few of you when that's going to happen. Well, we can't really do the scorecard until all the RSA fifteens are up on the website, so as soon as those get approved and they're up there on the website, we can get started on that.
(22:50)
So hopefully by the next time we do the blitz we will have that scorecard ready for you. Getting into the news now, looking first on what's happening nationally and we always look at Washington DC RSA seems to be cranking right along. There's been little talk about any impact to our friends at RSA. They continue to work hard and actually doing some good things up there. I've worked with them on a couple of states sets of rules and I believe we will talk a little bit later about some of the things going on with the multi-state contracting and I think that stuff would not have gone as well as it had and we wouldn't be as far as we are without the assistance of RSA. So we appreciate the work that they have done. People always know that I'm a hard critic of RSA, I have high expectations, but I also appreciate when they do good things and I think we have seen some good things happen as of late, so we appreciate that from RSA, the Trump budget bill.
(24:03)
Now I want to clarify to everybody that the budget bill and the big beautiful bill are not the same thing. The beautiful bill deals with tax reform and mandatory spending and some of those kinds of things. The actual budget bill deals with the regular programs, the discretionary programs and vocational rehabilitation falls into that category. Trump, the administration has submitted its proposed budget many times what happens, the administration will submit a budget to congress and Congress will just then say thank you very much and then go on and do their own thing. But this administration may be a little different so they may give it more deference than maybe some congresses have in the past. The big thing that we're watching is what's the funding for vocational rehabilitation? Because we use a lot of vocational rehabilitation dollars in our program. It looks like that the president is proposing level funding for vocational rehabilitation compared to 2024, so or 2025.
(25:16)
This is the 26 budget, so it'd be level funding for next year. So it doesn't look like we are going to be taking a lot of cuts. However, there are some that he does eliminate things like funding for the protection advocacy program and supported employment and the CAP program. Some of those programs are zero funded out and he's leaving it up to the states to figure out how to fund those programs. So it's unclear at this point as to whether or not states will have to use their VR grant to help offset the loss of funding for those other programs. If they do, then the net effect would be an actual reduction in funds for vocational rehabilitation, which makes the dollars even tighter overall in this budget. You see more and more of a transfer of some the funding responsibilities to the states that's going to make competition among state agencies even harder to get state dollars and even if you're drawing down federal match.
(26:19)
So I say all of that to say that the next year, next couple of years could be challenging times for state administrators and certainly you guys as in the Rand Shepherd community need to be watching it because it could impact you as well. Another development in the Congress is a house resolution that passed 1621 and it relates to small businesses and we had been meeting Nikki and I had met, this goes back to when Jeff Klock was at the NFB and more recently with Jesse Sherik at the NFB and had had meetings with the small business committee. We've had conversations about how to expand opportunities for blind business owners outside of Randolph Shepherd and how we access the eight A programs and some of those things and there is some interest in Congress to do something like that and this bill is sort of step one to that.
(27:21)
It's basically going to require the collection of some data and to do some analysis of how many current businesses are owned by people with disabilities and things like that. So this could be the step one to eventually the small business administration doing more to create opportunities for blind business owners in the small business arena. So stay tuned for that. That is not going to be a quick thing that you're talking long term here, so don't expect there to be a miracle in the next six months. In terms of eight A opportunities, some developments happening at the Chicago Lighthouse that we contract or we, the National Association of Blind Merchants contracts with the lighthouse to do the B-E-P-L-T, these entry-level training online modules, the Lighthouse got a grant, a federal grant to develop some modules that'll be part of that training program related to healthy vending and they've started to work on that.
(28:33)
It'll be training that'll be included in the entry level training, but it'll also be modules that'll be made available to other vendors out there who can take them as a standalone training. Now while this is happening, all of Scott Cass, he's been at all of our conferences, Scott is instructor with the Lighthouse. He is focusing now on writing the curriculum for these new modules and working on some other things related to internal things related to the training and the Lighthouse has brought on Chris Maza, you know that name Chris Maza. Chris Maza is the former director of the BEP program in Nevada and Chris has a lot of business experience, has a lot of good ideas and so he will be working with the Lighthouse for the at least foreseeable future and he will be picking up some of Scott's responsibilities in terms of actually doing the instruction for the B-E-P-L-T.
(29:36)
So we are very excited that Scott is now on board with the Lighthouse and I mean that Chris is on board with the lighthouse and look forward to some of his ideas. He's an innovative guy and I think he can be an asset to the lighthouse and be an asset to our people who are going through the training out there. Switching gears a little bit and going to the Department of Defense, we always have a lot to say about the Department of Defense when things are really going better than probably any time that I can remember, to be perfectly honest with you when it comes to DOD. So even though there's a lot of things to ring our hands about DOD right now, things are going very very well. Let's start with the good news. Congratulations are in order to two of our vendors who won the NA awards, there's an East Coast Award and a West Coast award that the Navy gives to the best food services at a Navy base and this year Randolph Shepherd swept those awards winning both the east and the West coast.
(30:42)
Congratulations to Jerry GaN at the San Diego Naval Base in California. He and his partner FSIG won the award for the West and on the East coast. Eddie Turner, who many of you know, he's the chair of the Committee of Blind vendors in Mississippi and the manager at the Meridian Naval Station, he won the award for the East coast and he too partners with FSIG. So congratulations to Jerry and Eddie. Really proud of that. We like to see our guys recognize for good work and that's a feather in everybody's hat. People keep asking about the lawsuit or the arbitration against the Army Air Force Exchange Service. As we reported previously, we had filed a lawsuit. The judge dismissed that lawsuit, which did not come as a surprise to us. So now we are trying to put into place a process whereby multiple states can sign on to one arbitration complaint, NA BM is going to help fund this.
(31:53)
We need the states to help fund it too and it's really going to be an opportunity for states to really do something positive in terms of creating opportunities for blind vendors. On the military basis, we would like to have as many as 15 or 20 states sign on to this arbitration and in one arbitration complaint would be filed and so that when we get a ruling, then it would affect everything in those 15 or 20 states. If you don't sign on, if your state doesn't sign on, the arbitration panel may not be able to direct the military in your state to comply with the act, but we're going at it from the standpoint that if we get as many states as we can, we can get the majority of the basis covered under a single arbitration. So you're going to be getting something on this.
(32:51)
All the documents have been prepared to send out just going through some clearance right now. So in the next little bit you will be hearing a lot more about this and we encourage the SLAs to participate. The Ohio had actually filed an arbitration on its own against the Army Air Force Exchange and they, at first we were concerned that that could actually hurt our lawsuit, but it turned out that it really didn't, but they have settled that it didn't even go to a hearing and the Department of Defense has recognized that the Randolph Shepherd priority does apply and that they are working to identify additional locations at Rot Patterson Air Force Base that can be assumed by blind vendors. So there's always the possibility that Ohio filed arbitration and they came to a negotiated settlement. It's always possible that we could do the same thing.
(33:56)
Let me stress, our emphasis is not to put the exchange out of business. Our emphasis is to create opportunities on every base out there and figure out a way that we can co-exist. So stay tuned for more information about that coming in the next few weeks. Some more good news, the state of Colorado and Kevin Worley and Blackstone Consulting are being awarded the Air Force Academy contract now. They already had a presence out there. I think it was the Cadet School, maybe I'm misspeaking there. They had a small contract out there already, but now they're going to have the regular Air Force Academy is going to be now under Randolph's Shepherd. So congratulations to Colorado, Kevin and BCI. That's a real coup. Also in Florida, they are in their second month of operating at Eglin Air Force Base, so that's another new one that's fought coming into the Randolph Shepherd community.
(35:00)
So congratulations to the state of Florida. We keep expecting to hear good news any minute from Idaho hoping that Idaho will be getting into the military dining business. They are partnering with Blackstone Consulting and are very close. We hope to getting the contract at the Mountain Home Air Force facility there in Idaho. So again, when we get to the next issue of the blitz, which will be coming out I guess now October one, hopefully we will have good news to report there. I think we had reported previously that we actually had a blind vendor who bid independently on a contract at Hurlbert, failed in Florida, filed a protest arguing that the Randolph Shepherd priority did not apply to that contract. I'm not exactly sure all the ins and outs, but anyway, it looks like that protest is not going to really go anywhere and so we're optimistic that that will be back in the hands of the SLA soon.
(36:16)
The Florida SLA is involved in an arbitration at Tyndall Air Force Base. To my knowledge, I think that's the only DOD arbitration that is happening. The irony is that the vendor that I talked about who filed the protest at Herbert is actually won that one at Tyndall and is in there operating at this time. But the SLA filed for arbitration and we're waiting to see how that progresses. We did lose the facility in Georgia at Kings Bay. I really haven't gotten all the details of what went on, but it was more or less a thing where the state was not able to bid for some technicality related to security and I don't know all the details to that, haven't involved myself in it, but we are losing the Kings Bay. I do know that was an FSIG facility and I do know that FSIG and the blind vendor bid it on their own and I'm not sure where that whole thing stands.
(37:23)
A lot of stuff happening with multi-state contracts and we keep talking about this, there is a multi-state contract that the campus Dining on five Army bases and the Army wants to sort of modernize and change the way it provides food service on a lot of its bases and it has one contract with five different states, five different bases and the four of the states obviously were not going to step up, but thank goodness Colorado did and the five states are partnering with Sodexo. Those bids go in, I think they may go in, I know they go in early July and so we'll have to sit and wait and see if we're going to get our first multi-state contract. Partnering with Sodexo would be a real good opportunity for us to move into that arena. The second multi-state contract that we're looking at is another five state contract for five army hospitals.
(38:28)
Those army hospitals, the Army wants one contract to do the food service, the patient feeding and the public cafeteria at all five of those Army hospitals and so we are waiting to see if we can get that thing off the ground. They issued the request for information but there's not an RFP out so the states are having conversations and what to see. What happens with that. Of course the biggie, the biggie is the marine contract. The marine contract is actually a seven state bid. It's a huge contract. It's a $3 billion contract over 10 years I think it is. And so you've got the seven states that are trying to work together to put together a proposal to see if we can't get that contract as well. I'm thinking that I've been told that the scope of work and the RFP will be drafted in probably the next 60 days or so and so we will have a better idea then on where we stand in terms of being able to put together opportunity that would get us, that contract will put 13 or 14 blind vendors to work and all making good money.
(39:55)
That would be such a coup for Randolph Shepherd and we've been working on that for, gosh, Nikki and I started having telephone calls on this one probably four or five years ago, so we're very, very hopeful that we're going to be able to pull this one off and Colorado is taking the lead in that and again, we appreciate Colorado being able to do that. Let's look at what's happening on the state level in some of our programs. We have been participating in a number of statewide vendor training conferences. I think Nikki went to Utah to their conference and I was in Kansas and I think Michael Talley was in Ohio and then we did New Mexico and Illinois virtually. So the last quarter, I'm sure I'm leaving somebody out but not intentionally, but we will leave it at that right now coming up this next quarter. A lot more trainings are beginning to take place starting in July with Louisiana.
(40:59)
Louisiana's going to have some virtual training. I'll talk about that a little bit more in just a minute. West Virginia is going to have virtual training that we will be participating in as will New York in-person training will take place and we'll be at all of these Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Florida, California, Michigan and Indiana and between now and the end of September, so we will be at all of those. I remind you if you're having an annual training conference and you want us to participate either in person or virtually and you're one of our subscription states, you need to get in touch with Nikki Gecos and let him know that you would like a speaker who could come speak. I left out one state that is Tennessee. We are going to be doing the Tennessee meeting September 26th and 27th. Tennessee is contracting with us to do their annual training conference.
(42:02)
This is maybe the third year we've done it. We're in a BM contracts for the state of Tennessee to do their annual training program, everything from A to Z, we handle the hotels and everything and so we're going to be doing that again this year. Anybody out there that's listening, you'd like to come to the Tennessee conference to see and if you're interested in us contracting maybe to do your state, then we would welcome you to come to Tennessee to see how we do things. So September 26th, 27 in Nashville. It's going to be at the same hotel as we had Blast, which was the Music City Sheraton. The last two years we've done the Mississippi annual training for them in October. Yeah, October. And so we're having conversations with them again, not exactly sure, we haven't gotten anything finalized on that, but it is going to be in October.
(42:59)
I mentioned the Louisiana training. They are going to be doing actually regional trainings and they were wanting us to participate. They were wanting the Randolph Shepherd one-on-one training, but we couldn't do that four different times because of scheduling. So we're going to record the Randolph Shepherd 1 0 1 and they are going to be able to play it at their annual training conference. I'm going to try to call into as many of those as I can to do a q and a when it is over. So that's going to be something unique. And then once we have completed this, the video and audio portion for this Randolph Shepherd one-on-one, we'll be available to anyone out there that wants to use it. You can just go to our website and watch it on your own. You can use it for training, however you want to use it, it will be available to you and so we're looking forward to making that available.
(43:59)
A year ago we were talking about the number of vacant BEP director jobs we had and I know we were up to nine and we were really happy. I mean we got it down to two, but now we're starting to slip again as we've had some people who have left or are in the process of leaving. So now there are six states according to model list that are looking for BEP directors. North Carolina is still looking. They have not come up with anybody yet. I think they may be close Kansas. Matthew Miller is no longer in Kansas, so they are looking for somebody in Michigan, James Hall, who's been around for a while and many of you know James has been promoted and they're doing a national search. So if you have any interest in being a BEP director in Michigan, they would love to talk with you in California.
(44:55)
Got word just recently that Kelly Snow, who's the BEP director there is retiring, so they're going to have a vacancy there. Nebraska, Eric Alder is leaving there and so going to have a vacancy in Nebraska and in Mississippi. We a merchant retired and that position has been vacant for a while now. They really, I think they're sort of maybe in a job freeze there and not unable to fill it, so got some vacancies that are starting to creep back up. We need to get those positions filled. They're critical positions in the state BEP. There are some new directors to report. I told you that Chris Maza had left Nevada and his replacement of Shehan Perrys and been working with him a lot on some issues. So Nevada is in good hands, New Hampshire. Patty left up there and Kathleen Ur and I'm sure I misspelled that, I mispronounced that.
(45:56)
I never asked her the correct pronunciation, but she is now in New Hampshire and I'm actually doing something with her, which I do with a lot of directors and as you fill your positions, this is something we can do with your positions as well. But I do weekly calls with her mentoring calls and we have a planned agenda with topics and so I'm enjoying getting to know her and helping her out with a lot of things that she's encountering as a brand new BEP director. Can't remember if we mentioned it last time or not, but I'll go ahead and mention it again. Morgan Manning is the new BEP director in Illinois and Leaf Jacobson in Colorado, so we welcome both of those aboard. You heard Nikki mention Bill Finley. Bill Finley in Florida has announced that he is retiring, so they are recruiting to fill a position down there and so if you're interested in going to Florida, they do have a position and you can reach out to Bill, we can get you in touch with them and you can talk with them about that position because there's a lot of potential down there and so we would encourage you to look at that.
(47:14)
So a lot of different positions that are out there available and we'd like to see some of you get in there and fill some of those positions. So go for it. Last I guess two months ago we talked about, we devoted this podcast to what happened. We called it the Tennessee experience, the bill that was introduced in Tennessee, which would basically eliminate the priority. Don't want to get into a lot of conversation about it, but since it did happen in the last quarter, I'd be remiss if I did not mention it. Just to recap, there was a bill introduced that said that if a blinder gets three complaints in six months they had to be removed. The vendors worked with the sponsors on the Senate and the house side to get the language right, so to make sure that it was done correctly. They didn't really have a real problem with the intent of it, but they worked with the sponsors to get the language right.
(48:12)
Then they came back and they said they wanted that if the blind vendors would not take it, that the SLA could award it to somebody with another disability if they wanted to do so through vr, meaning that the VR counselor could go in and buy the equipment and let a person with another disability operate it. I don't see that having a real huge impact. We put safeguards in to make sure that they didn't take any sites that were generating income for the program and it would only be new sites that the blind vendors turned down. So there is the, it's hard to say, nobody can have it if I don't want it. So they did come up with language that would work with that. Then they came up at the last minute with an amendment that said that all contracts had to be competitively bid and that the TBE only got a priority if their proposal was in 2% of the private sector proposal.
(49:14)
Well, that would basically eliminate the program because you can't compete on those levels. For example, I can tell you in the jail commissary business, some of those commissary companies will give a 38% commission. TBE would've to give a 36% commission in that case, and the vendors don't make 36%. It'd be the same thing in any type of facility that the private companies out there can give a larger percentage than our vendors make in profit a lot of times. So it would've killed the program, but the blind vendors were successful. It looked like we were going to lose it, but they were successful in turning that around and preventing that from happening and got a lot of educating to do as far as making sure that that does not come up again. California had a bill AB 800 that would regulate prices at the prisons and Max Dete who's on the NABM board and worked with the California Vending Association and they lobbied against that bill and I think Max testified and it has been basically put on hold and nothing happening with that this year, at least that was the last report I got.
(50:27)
There'd been some talk about North Carolina going to a nominee agency. North Carolina has had a lot of problems over there in terms of filling vacancies and getting staff on board. And so the vendors wanted to go to a nominee agency. A lot of work went into that. They prepared an RFP, they sent out an RFP and no one bid on it. So rather than go back to the drawing board and come up with another plan to get a nominee, nor Kline apparently has made the decision that they are going to continue to operate it with the state and not do the nominee concept. So that was a little disappointing that that happened, but they tried to make it happen in South Carolina news, hopefully. I mean you've heard us talk over now for the last two years, I guess it is, about the 10 vendors at Fort Jackson and there's been a lot of litigation around that whole issue.
(51:34)
Hopefully the last arbitration was just completed and we can put that one to bed. One of the vendors did file for arbitration arguing that they had to stay with the two vendors versus 10. And it was not that simple. The case was nowhere near that simple, but for our purposes, that was the major issue, two versus 10, and the arbitration panel ruled that they could have 10 vendors. And so hopefully, I think regardless of how you feel about the 10 vendor issue, that it's time to move forward and we can't just constantly live in litigation. Mississippi is the latest state to get new rules approved by RSA. I did check on the website just before I started broadcasting or recording this podcast to see if the Mississippi rules were up yet on the website. They are not. I would encourage you to take a look at them.
(52:38)
Did some really interesting and creative things when it comes to teaming partners as well as third party vending. So take a look at those rules and the policy manual that was developed to see how Mississippi decided to do that. We did not use the model rules down there. We took rules that we had in place and that they had in place and updated those. So take a look at those. In the area of set aside, I mentioned Tennessee. Tennessee has a $7.4 million surplus. It's sitting there in the bank and it's been something that I've been concerned about for a long time. Finally, the committee and the agency agreed to suspend setaside for two years. So that's going to mean a significant income bump for a lot of the vendors, especially those commissary vendors who make really good money. The Tennessee Setaside is 14% and for the next two years they will not be paying that 14%.
(53:42)
So that is good for the Tennessee vendors and I congratulate them for finally addressing that growing, growing surplus. West Virginia is sort of on the opposite side of that continuing. They have never had a set aside and they are facing some budget challenges. We talked about the budget earlier. West Virginia is facing some budget challenges and the SLA came to the committee and said, we have to have a set aside. The vendors there knew this day was coming because we had worked with them. I had worked with them in a BM had worked with them and we had gotten the rest areas off a third party and we got some, I think three different cafeteria contracts in there with teaming partners. And so they're to the point now they got to have some revenue and they worked on it. It was a healthy process I thought. And they're starting, I think July one with a 10% set aside there.
(54:46)
So that's the latest state to develop a set aside. A fun fact that was sent to me by Chad Keeney, the hillbilly barker. He goes by, many of you know Chad, he is the chair of the Committee of blind vendors, but he sent me a little fun fact and he said the Interstate 79 from Charleston, Charleston to Morgantown, West Virginia is called the Jennings Randolph Highway. And he thought it was how apropos was it that a blind entrepreneur today services the vending at all of the rest areas along that stretch of interstate. Of course, that vendor happens to be the Hill Bay biker himself, Chad Keeny. So interesting little fact there. West Virginia made national news when they voted and the governor signed into a bill eliminating the use of certain dyes in our foods or the foods that are sold in West Virginia. Now this band goes into effect July 1st, 2028.
(55:59)
So there is some lead time here, but I want you to just listen to some of the foods that are not going to be able to be sold as they're currently manufactured. The Americans for Food and Beverage Choice, which is a food industry lobbying group, claims that about 60% of food in grocery stores would be pulled off the store shelves if this actually comes into being. So here's some of the things that you guys are all familiar with that would no longer be allowed to be sowed. Mountain Dew, m and Ms. Skittles, Twizzlerss, jolly Ranchers, fruit Loops, nacho Cheese, Doritos, Utz Cheese Balls, Buffalo Cheddar and Sour Cream Ruffles, those ruffles, cheddar and sour cream, my apologies. Various jello products including the puddings, mint, Oreos, various Pop-Tarts, various Gatorades, various gums, and the list goes on and on and on. So I'm really anxious to see how our vendors West Virginia react. This is consistent with what Secretary Kennedy on the federal level has proposed. So it's going to be really interesting to see where all of this eventually leads. Will it go beyond West Virginia? And then how will our retailers react and how will our manufacturers react to that?
(57:40)
Their neighbors, well not quite neighbors I guess, but up to the north of them in Maryland, they just eliminated the tax exemption on savory sack snacks, so in vending machines. So that's going to impact our vendors in Maryland, but that's going to be $1 billion in new revenue for the state of Maryland. Before we close, just some quick news on the NAMA front. Nikki was at their fly in this month or in June where they visited the Hill. I know Mike Colburn was there, who's the second vice president of the merchants. He participated as did several other blind vendors as Nikki is on the board of nama. So that relationship continues to grow between the Randolph Shepherd community and nama. We were really saddened to hear that Matt SIUs, who is really their lobbyist if you want, for lack of a better term, is leaving NAMA to go to be an in-house lobbyist with Proctor and Gamble.
(58:49)
Matt was with us in Vegas, so if you were out there, you heard him speak. He has been on our podcast. He was at Blast in November. Anytime we've needed him, he has been there, been there for us. And so really a good guy to work with and we hate to see him go. Nikki also mentioned that Carla had retired as the executive director of nama, and so the search for a new executive director is on was unable get any inside information from Nikki Gako on which way they were going with that. So I don't know how much information is out there on that search, but that's going to be an important position for us to follow. One of them's big issues that they're lobbying for is the SNAP program and some of us old folks still call it food stamps and trying to allow hot foods, prepared foods for people to use their SNAP benefits to pay for prepared foods.
(59:56)
So that's still one of the issues that they're trying to drive home. Last thing I'll mention before I wrap it up is in case you did not hear the National Federation for the Blind joined a bunch of other organizations and filed a lawsuit against the Social Security Administration. The lawsuit alleges that all the recent mass staffing reductions and policies requiring individuals to seek services in person at field offices and the elimination of critical offices within the Social Security Administration unlawfully harm Americans with disabilities and older adults who rely on Social Security services. So I know there's been some movement in that regard, but did want to pass that along in case you did not hear it, that I know there've been a lot of lawsuits filed regarding all the different things going on with this administration and the firings and the layoffs and all of that stuff.
(01:01:06)
And the one that really jumped out at NFB was the social Security. We've talked about that in the past about especially how it affects our blind vendors. And so we are hoping that that's an agency that has continued to be efficient. And our concern, one of our concerns is they're supposed to do a review every three years. If they don't have the staff, is that going to be every five years, every six years? And then if it's ever five or six years and they find something you have to pay back, then it's just an astronomical amount that you have to pay back and it would bury you. So we're hoping that the Social Security Administration continues to be able to be as effective as it has been for us in the past. So that is all the news. That is the news that's happened this past quarter.
(01:02:02)
I think we talked about some of the things coming up and it starts with the convention in New Orleans, which will happen next week. This thing drops on July the first, and so next week we will all be arriving in New Orleans and we'll be participating in the merchants meeting down there as well as the convention of the NFB. It's not too late for you to attend if you want to do that. And then Nikki mentioned the other trainings that we have coming up for the rest of the year. Hope to see you at some of those. So with that, that concludes the blitz for the July one. We are Randolph Shepherd podcast. We appreciate you listening and I ask one thing of you when there's news in your state that we can share, especially good news in your state that we can share, please let us know so that we can let everybody know what's going on in your state. So with that, hope you have a wonderful July and Nikki and I will be back 1st of August. Goodbye everybody. The
Outro (01:03:12):
We are Randolph Shepherd podcast. We'd like to thank our sponsors, the National Association of Blind Merchants, Blackstone Consulting Southern Food Service, Sodexo in Reach. Greenway Paper Supplies Coca-Cola, Tyler Technologies. You select it, cantaloupe, Keurig, Dr. Pepper and Commissary services of Nashville.
Outro (01:03:42):
If You would like to support the We Are Randolph Shepherd podcast. We would love to have you on board. Corporate sponsors may contact Nikki geicos@nikkicolorado.netscape.net. Individuals who would like to support the podcast may do so by donating to the National Association of Blind merchants@www.blindmerchants.org. We would love have your support.