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're Randolph Shepherd podcast. This is the We are Randolph Shepherd podcast, promoting blind entrepreneurship and Independence. And now here's the dynamic duo, Nikki Geicos and Terry Smith.
Nicky (00:26):
Welcome to the October, we are Rand Shepherd podcast and of course we need to thank our sponsors, the National Association of Blind Merchants, Coca-Cola, Blackstone Consulting, Southern Food Service, sideline Wealth Management, dexo, Integra, our Technologies SIG. You selected cantaloupe and KE Dr. Pepper. Terry, how are you?
Terry (00:54):
Well, Nikki, I'm doing pretty good. I guess things are going well down on this end. And just for the listeners out there, I did survive my nine days with the grandkids in Texas and if you didn't listen last month I was Oman Pops. Went to Texas to take care of the grandkids for six days while the mom and dad went away to celebrate their wedding anniversary. And I tell you, Nikki, I slept well every single night that the kids are nine and five and there's a reason God gives you kids when you're young because that was quite the adventure. But man, we had a great time and it's good, but it is good to be back at home and back in the saddle and back doing work. But yeah, we survived it and maybe a little better off for it. And got to see my grandson played basketball in his first basketball game and they won by a whopping score of 24 to eight I think, and he scored 18 points. And the next Michael Jordan, watch out. Watch out. Watching five-year-Olds play basketball is hilarious. It really is. It is a fun thing to watch.
Nicky (02:13):
We're just going to get some soccer games today with the young ones and it's just, they have no idea what they're doing, but they got smiles in their faces and they're having fun.
Terry (02:22):
Well, Nikki, I guess the good news is that fall is finally here and what's your favorite season, by the way? Is it fall?
Nicky (02:31):
Well, is summer growing up at the Jersey shore? It's summer, the ocean and the beach and the water and riding the waves and that type of stuff. Poles becoming a close second. I got to tell you, I really like the weather. I like wearing sweatshirts and these humidity that goes away and all that kind of stuff. The World Series and football, pro football and college football are coming good. And the start of hockey and basketball, it starts in, so I like to fall. The only thing I don't like about it, the time change that comes in early November, but it's the start of holidays, but Halloween and Thanksgiving and going right into Christmas season. So it making a good run for summer's, kind of a relaxing kind of day, but it gets my juices going again in the fall. What about you, Tara?
Terry (03:24):
Well, I always thought of myself as sort of a spring and fall guy. I did some research on just to see how most people feel and I always, every survey
Terry (03:35):
That you had said that 40 plus 41% of Americans say fall is their favorite season and spring and summer are split at 24% and only 11% say that winter is. And I think it's funny though, you are right in line with the baby boomers and you and I are baby boomers. Only 4% of baby boomers say winter is their favorite month. And it's like 30 something percent say summer, way more than the rest of the population. But I really like fall. There's a lot about it. And you sort of gave me a list there of things that you really like about fall and I think I echo those. I looked up and just real quickly tell you the top 10 things that people like about fall, why fall is their favorite season and the number one is the fall colors. Now I'm down in Tennessee, we get the fall colors
Terry (04:35):
Are absolutely beautiful. Do you get much of that in Jersey?
Nicky (04:39):
We do do up in the northern part, not around the shore, but of course the northern part. We do get beautiful colors.
Terry (04:46):
Well, you're the garden state and we got the mountains around here so we get beautiful colors. The second thing, which I don't get this one being number two is pumpkin spice. I guess Starbucks is having an influence pumpkin spice. Every year people just go crazy about it. Third thing is the cool weather. The fourth thing, which is the thing I thought you'd hit first was football season. And so that's something that you like about the fall and I don't see how this one made the list bonfires. When's the last time you went to a bonfire?
Nicky (05:25):
Probably college
Terry (05:28):
Number six was carving pumpkins. Number seven was haunted houses. Number eight is Halloween movies. And you know what a movie buff I am, but I'm not a fan of Halloween movies, so I'll just skip right on over that. Number nine is Halloween
Terry (05:44):
And number 10. And this one surprises me says it is a fresh start. And so I sort of think it's the opposite from a fresh start. You're sort of
Terry (05:55):
Going off into the winter and I think spring has that fresh start feel and a little bit of optimism and fall, not so much. What do you think?
Nicky (06:07):
Yeah, I think it's more spring when you come out of the winter and it starts getting warm and I think it spring is the fresh feel, but every day's a fresh start.
Terry (06:15):
Yeah, well, I mean it is a fresh start, it's just,
Nicky (06:19):
But I never think of ball being a fresh start.
Terry (06:23):
I agree. I agree. So Nikki, maybe
Nicky (06:26):
Full starting and stuff like that. Maybe that's pretty easy.
Terry (06:28):
Right, right. So Nikki, we always do our WhatsApp section where you get to talk a few seconds about what's up with you. So Nikki, what's up?
Nicky (06:39):
Well, we call October here. We call it Rocktober rock and roll and stuff. And just Bruce Springsteen. I just celebrated a birthday, which somebody led out of the bag. I don't know who that was, Mr. Smith. But anyway, so I've made a promise that this is going to be the best year of my life that I'm going to eat well and exercise and make sure it's done because we got a lot of travel coming up. We got blasts coming up, we got a lot of stuff going on. So I'm going to make this, I sold Bruce in Asbury Park a couple weeks ago, 75 years old, a little bit older than me, but he played for three hours and ended with Jersey girl and said, God bless you and God bless Asbury Park, New Jersey where I grew up and he looked great. So I'm going to say this is going to be my year exercise feeling better.
(07:31)
The other thing, Terry, is it's going to be the year that I want to peel the bandaid off, peel the bandaid off. We've been put too many bandaids on Randolph Shepherd as we go through the apathy of blind vendors, the SLAs just not doing grow the program and RSAI wish they would get a little more proactive in this October month and as we've moved forward. So I'm going to feel better do something and I want to pull the band-aids off, do what we need to do. I want to get moving on some stuff. I want to get, I think we need training, more training, which we will have with Blast. We just had a successful training in Atlantic City, was a great show at Vista, building more relationships and partnerships. But what's up with me is going to be the best year of my life and we're going to pull off the bandaids and maybe we'll get that national nominee that I've wanted for a lot of years. What's up with you there?
Terry (08:24):
You always outdo me on this WhatsApp. We may have to eliminate this section. You always outdo me on this, but what's up with me? And I can't believe you didn't mention it when I mentioned college football. What's up with me is the Tennessee volunteers undefeated and ranked number five in the country and just fresh off of a win at Oklahoma. Got a text message before the game. I don't know if folks remember Ray Hopkins who was from Oklahoma and
Terry (08:55):
It was with RSA then the director in Virginia and he's a big Oklahoma fan. So we've gone back and forth for years and so that was a sweet win to go in there and get that. And I tell you folks on Rocky Top are excited about football and really, really looking forward to see how the rest of the season plays out. So go big orange, what's up with me?
Nicky (09:21):
Okay, well I also said in our predictions, I think that Arch Manning would lead Texas to an national championship playing game as we record this. We'll see, it's a long season Ole Miss getting beat today. And did Florida State win a game yet? Terry? I got to ask my friend Alan.
Terry (09:40):
Yeah, I think they won one. They finally, you got to get that dig in, don't you?
Nicky (09:47):
Yeah, well they teased us about the first year we made our predictions. Oh, you guys are terrible and all this other stuff we can get even on this podcast.
Terry (09:57):
That's right. You mentioned Atlantic City and we had a meeting up there in conjunction with the Vista and Northeast Buying Show and we had some vendors show up and we had a little training that went with it. I thought it was funny that how many people comment about the podcast when we're at events like that.
Terry (10:23):
I had one person who I won't name come up and say, I met you last night, I did not know who you were. And later it hit me. You're the one that does the podcast with Nikki.
Terry (10:37):
So it's really interesting the people that are listening to it and how many people now have really tied us to this podcast.
Nicky (10:44):
I hear you. It's fun. It's fun, it's fun. You're right. How many people say it? Even some not in the blind community that listen to it too. Really get great podcast guys.
Terry (10:56):
So Nikki, we got our big blast conference coming up in November and things are shaping up. We're less than two months away when this thing drops. We're going to be about six, seven weeks away from that conference and we're putting the finishing touches on the agenda. And man alive, it looks like it's going to be a great conference, doesn't it?
Nicky (11:19):
It does. And then it came together really well and two months seems like a long time, but it's really not that long and thank you and Barbara for all the work that you do on this, but we're very excited about the turnout. I think we're going to set records with this. It's our first blast in six years, November 19th through the 22nd, not too late to sign up and register. So let's break all these records and get people there. There's a lot, like I said, let's pull the bandaid off and let's get some things moving and let's get some things done. So being together there will be the way that we can do that. So we're looking forward to it coming here in just a couple months. It's crazy. Wow.
Terry (11:56):
Yeah, we always talk about, well, we're going to have 500 people and four to 500, 600, whatever the number is. And based on already registrations paid, we're right at approaching the
Terry (12:09):
400 mark of actual people who have already paid their registration fees. And I can name you off the top of my head 20 or 25 people that I know are coming who haven't officially registered yet. So we're going to have 500 paid registrations before we get there and it'll be the largest Randolph Shepherd training event ever and I'm really, really looking forward to it. And so that's shaping up to be really, really good. Nikki, I want to bring up, I know news broke this last week about what was happening with the buying group and you've been heavily involved with that buying group and you deserve a lot of credit for getting it started and there's some changes being made and some developments
Terry (13:02):
There and I wanted to give you a chance just to comment about that for a minute.
Nicky (13:08):
Yeah, thank you. So a lot of people thought, I talked to a lot of people since the news spoke. The good news is that a couple years ago we made a decision to move the buying group from USG to so Integra, which benefited us a lot. The kind of bad news was that we weren't speaking for ourselves, that John had done a job getting us put together and done all that, but it was time for the blind to start talking for the blind and with all the relationships that we have and partnership. So the good news is that we've worked at a deal and unfortunately for John's had some health issues, but John's deciding to give up the buying group so we don't report to John Good news. Sodexo is and was getting all our data. So there's no new changes. The only changes in the positive thing will be the rebates will go up.
(14:01)
We'll be speaking for the buying when we say we and Association of Buying Merchants Rebates will be going up and the only thing that we have to do and that this news will be coming soon is to fill out the information of how you want to get paid, either by real check, not an internet check or by a CH deposit and a W nine. We'll have an accessible website set up that you can just go give that information or you can call an 800 number and give it to it. There'll be a 24 hour customer service number with Sodexo Integra and that you can call if you have a question and you will be receiving data, which we never did. So it's just real positive and I'm very excited about it and done the news book that's trying to buy Aramark on top of that.
(14:49)
So they are the number one food service company in the world that we're part of their buying group, not just for rebates but for purchasing power too, as far as pricing on things like cups and different things like that. And they have national pricing for Red Bull and a number of things and zip code pricing for Pepsi. So very excited about it. Thank you to John for doing that, but we got a great response down in Atlantic City about good time. You guys are doing it now. We can speak directly to you. So very positive and we're very excited about it and we'll be getting more information out probably on a weekly basis until we get this all set up. And also the big news too that if your state wants to do a call with us and Integra to explain how it's going to go, we're willing to do that. They've done a number with states, but very exciting time, very, anytime we can put more money in buy people's budget, that's a good thing and that's a very good thing right now.
Terry (15:48):
Yeah, I totally agree and I think it's exciting news. I think John Mer and you deserve a lot of credit. I've been around for
Terry (16:00):
40 years and the first 30 years I saw different people try to put together a buying group for the blind and it always failed. It never worked and you guys really, really made it happen. And you see the kind of dollars that are coming in now and going into the pockets of blind people. You guys deserve the credit for that and I appreciate what John has done and wish him nothing but the best, but really looking forward to see the impact that this has in the future. So good job and keep up the good work on that.
Nicky (16:47):
So Terry, this is the month of the blitz where we tell everybody what's going on and what we've been doing. And the other thing too is we got a lot of trips coming up for the next blast coming up in December with trips coming up to Kentucky and Texas, Seattle and Georgia and all over there. Our team will be gone to. So I'm going to get out of here and go to a watch party for USC where Jasmine goes to school and get excited about that and we'll see about what's going on. So I'm going to get out of here on the Saturday afternoon and look to tell everybody about the blitz. So see everybody in Nashville.
Terry (17:23):
Okay, let's get on with all the news. That is the news in the world of Randolph Shepherd. As we bring you the October issue of the blitz. Nikki and I talked a little bit about the Blast conference coming up and I just wanted to follow up on that and just provide a little additional information to remind you what's going on. That conference will get kicked off on the Tuesday with the staff training all day Tuesday. So staff and attorneys who want to attend that training will need to come in on Monday and the training will go all day Tuesday. It is exclusively for SLA staff and the training is being done by some of the, well, actually all of the renowned Randolph Shepherd attorneys in the country will be there participating in the training. Andy Freeman, Lauren McLarney, Andrew Schumacher and several others will be presenting during that day long training and we hope that as many BEP staff as possible and as many of their state attorneys as possible will be in attendance for that day long staff training.
(18:30)
Then on Tuesday afternoon we will start our breakout sessions. They start at one o'clock and those are available. We'll have four breakout sessions going at one time and they'll repeat one time. So you'll have an option to pick up four different sessions while you're there on Tuesday afternoon. So we'll have some interesting topics for you on Tuesday afternoon, so you'll want to be there in time for those. Tuesday night we kick off with our great opening night reception. Most of you who have been to blast know that that's a big deal and we have a great time and great food. So plan on being there for our reception on opening night on Tuesday the 19th. You're not going to want to stay up and party late because Wednesday morning, right and early we have our leadership breakfast and we have some special things planned for Wednesday morning, some entertainment.
(19:25)
We're going to get you awake and a lot of good information, a lot of good training, so please get up early, come join us for our leadership breakfast on Wednesday morning and then on Wednesday afternoon we will have our trade show. We are expecting some great exhibitors to be joining us and so that will be all afternoon on Wednesday. Wednesday night will be a free night so we don't have anything planned. So if you want to go downtown Nashville and check out lower Broad as they call it, check out all the honky tonks, then you're welcome to go downtown Nashville and have a good time and I think you'll want to do that because Nashville is a very, very special place. Then on Thursday we will have all day training and lunch will be provided on Thursday. Thursday night we have our banquet and then we conclude on Friday morning with a special workshop for blind entrepreneurs being conducted by Jimmy Nuisance.
(20:32)
Some of you may remember Jimmy, if you were at our Blast innovation conference in Orlando in February, he was one of our presenters and he's going to join us in Nashville. He's very excited about it. So all of our blind entrepreneurs want to part of that special workshop on Friday and those who complete the workshop will get a special certificate of completion. So we're really, really excited about the first blast that we've had since 2018 and so it's been six years and we're going to try to make this the biggest and best blast ever. We know we're going to top 500 people and we hope that you're one of those 500 people. Some of the news that's been happening to discuss the biggest news is probably the technical assistance circulars that RSA the Rehabilitation Services Administration has issued this fiscal year. We talked about one of the first tack on an earlier podcast and we actually talked about the second tack on a podcast as well, but I think these technical assistance circulars that RSA has issued have certainly created the opportunity for state agencies to be creative in the way they approach Randolph Shepherd and to be innovative in the opportunities that they present for blind vendors.
(22:01)
Some of the things that this last t talked about that was really interesting is that states can buy vehicles for Randolph Shepherd vendors. Now many states are going to say we can't buy vehicles and they generally are relying on their VR regulations when they say that, but VR regulations have no application to their Randolph Shepherd program. Now there could be other restrictions in the state. I'm not saying they're not, but it's not the VR regulations that they can rely on and I think this is one of those situations where if the state agencies and the vendors really want to be able to start making vehicles available to their vendors that they can advocate with those in-state government to make it happen. So that was something that was huge. They also, in the same line of vehicles this last tack, they talked about being able to buy food trucks.
(22:57)
That food truck is a vending facility, so state agencies can buy food trucks, they can help with franchises and they can even pay the franchising fees for the first six months. And so a lot of things that states can do, the tech even went so far as to say the state agency could use federal money to buy property that has a building on it. Then renovate that building for a Randolph Shepherd vending facility that was probably a little more than most states are going to do in terms of going out and spending a million dollars on a piece of property in a building. But it is something that's available more likely that you're going to see is a state agency going out into the private sector in renting space and that you can rent space for any type of operation. It does not have to be selling food or traditional vending facility like we think about.
(23:57)
So they could go out into the private sector into a strip mall as the tax says, rent some space, support the vendor for the first six months, pay the rent for the first six months, help that vendor get up and running, and then it becomes just a regular vending facility. So a lot of opportunities in the private sector if state agencies will just do it and our blind vendors and our committees out there will advocate to make that happen. I'm anxious to see who are going to be the first states to really take advantage of what RSA has given them. I'd like to be optimistic and think that you're going to have every state out there excited to do something and the reality is that we'll have very few and I'm anxious to see who those few are and maybe they can lead the way and the other states see how it's done and make it happen.
(24:53)
I do want to remind you about the first T that was issued, I think it was 24 0 3 that talked about the establishment period. Just as a reminder and a refresher that state agencies can provide assistance now for the first six months of being assigned into a vending facility, it doesn't matter whether it's your first facility, it doesn't matter if it's a new facility or a facility that's been around 20 years. When a vendor goes into that facility, the six months clock starts and the agency can provide whatever kinds of supports that are necessary. Most states historically have provided just inventory and said, here you go sink or swim. The RSA recognizes that that's not the way to ensure success. There's a reason that the regulations talk about a six month cap because they believe that six months is something and that's put in their regulations.
(25:48)
That gives the business a better chance to succeed. So the state agencies can help with the inventory capital, they can help with paying payroll, they can help with paying fees and licensing fees, your credit card fees, your kiosk fees, all that kind of stuff the state agency can help pay for and I would like to see state agencies out there changing their VR policies particularly so that they can do more of this because we know that vendors fail most often in the first year and the more supports we can give them during that first year, the more likely they are to succeed. I did mention franchises. We have been talking to a company called Fran Net that many of you may remember. Fran Net is a company that matches people with franchise opportunities. We tried to get them to blast, but I don't think that's going to work out.
(26:43)
They have offered to do a webinar for blind merchants as the first step to see if there could be opportunities in franchises. None of these, I say none of these, very few of these are food franchises. There are all kinds of other franchises that might be out there. So we are going to continue to explore that and try to get information to give blind vendors opportunities in franchises. We're not talking about buying a McDonald's or anything like that. We know that that's unrealistic, but there are a lot of franchise opportunities out there that we could take advantage of and we're going to continue to explore that. You've heard us talk in the past about trying to get some money from Congress to do innovation projects and we thought we had it in the legislation two years ago. It was pulled out at the last minute at the request of the Department of Education, which was disheartening to us at the time, but we have continued to try.
(27:48)
We were making some progress on that this year because we were asking for money that the states did not spend and that they turned back that they would give a percentage of that money back to the states to do innovation projects with Randolph Shepherd. Nobody can really argue against using existing money because we weren't asking for new money. So we members of Congress were fairly receptive. However, we just recently learned that the states spent all of their money, all of their 2024 money. So what happened is they turned in 135 million I think it was, and there was additional funds. There was $174 million sitting there in the pot, but other states gobbled that money up and so there is no money left to do what we had requested. So we're having conversations with members of Congress about other ways to approach that request, not looking real promising, but we continue to plug away to try to get resources for Randolph Shepherd because if we had that kind of money then states would be able to do things like convert their facilities into modern type facilities.
(29:12)
They'd be able to do things like food trucks and going out into private sector. We recognize that states do not have unlimited resources and so we're trying to get them the resources that they need. Now the other part of that issue is that many states requested more federal dollars during this allotment process than they were able to get and that means that their budgets are going to be somewhat impacted since they're going to have fewer federal dollars available to them to run their programs. Now, that could have an indirect impact on some of the Randolph Shepherd programs out there because the agencies may be coming to you if you're on the committee and they may be saying that, Hey, we've basically taken a cut. We're not going to get these millions of dollars that we thought we were going to have to cut, that we were going to get. And so therefore we got to figure out how to either make cuts in your program or how we can come up with additional dollars out of your monies to fund it. So expect those kind of conversations. I know those conversations are already happening in one state, so I think it's something that could impact other states as well in those states that requested more money than they got during the re allotment.
(30:38)
Let's talk a little bit about the Department of Defense issues and when we talk about Department, department of Defense, it always starts with AFEs, which is the Army Air Force Exchange Service. All of, we filed a lawsuit against AFEs and we filed it in Dallas, Texas and I say we that's being the National Association of Blind Merchants filed that lawsuit under the guidance of Nikki Gecos and Lauren McCarney is our attorney that is representing us and so we filed the case a fees and the Department of Defense responded. We responded, they responded. They have asked that the case be dismissed arguing that we do not have standing that the only way to resolve these kind of issues is through the arbitration process, which means that each individual state must file for arbitration and so we'll have to see how that goes, but everything's been filed and as we go to the date that we drop this, we have not gotten a decision.
(31:45)
So we are in wait and see mode to see what the judge in this case is going to rule. If he dismisses the case, we do have the option of appealing it to the Court of appeals. Not saying that we will do that, but it is something that is out there and we have the option to do that. So stay tuned. Hopefully by the time we do the next B blitz on January one that we will have some news about that and can give you good news at that time. But as soon as we know something, we will get the word out to everybody. Some other things going on with DOD in the troop dining area. Got some really great news in Oklahoma. We got Fort S Seal back, we had Fort Sill for years. The SLA lost it and they got it back just recently and Southern Food Services had gone in an emergency situation in that location without the SLA and had cleaned things up there, got it back up and running and then partnered with the SLA when it was solicited and they got that contract back.
(33:06)
David Osta is the blind vendor there and we congratulate Oklahoma. We congratulate David and we congratulate Southern for getting Fort Sill back into the Randolph Shepherd family. Great news down in Georgia at Fort Moore. Fort Moore is our largest military dining contract and it was the subject of litigation and went to arbitration and to federal court. They res solicited it. The agency, the blind vendors there, Wayne Dye and Bob Matus and the teaming partner, Blackstone Consulting, have done a really bang up job there and they went through the competitive process. They were in the competitive range and they got that location. So great news that Randolph Shepherd will have Fort Moore for at least another five years if things go as planned. We reported several months ago that the Kansas SLA had been awarded the contract at the Leavenworth Army Prison. This is separate from the base.
(34:19)
They already had the Army base doing the troop dining. This is the army prison there at Leavenworth and there were a number of missteps along the way. The contract was awarded with a teaming partner but then there were problems with the teaming partner, so the vendor went alone and there were issues problems. Without getting into detail, we were really on the verge of possibly losing that contract, but I think they have salvaged it. Southern Food Service again is coming in as the teaming partner to try to get that thing back on level playing field and we're confident that they will do just that up in Alaska, we're expecting to hear word on Fort Wayne Wright just any time now that is a DFA or dining facility attendant contract. They did recognize the Randolph Shepherd priority in the solicitation and so we are expecting word just anytime on the award of that contract, optimistic that we will get that one and it's Alaska is teaming with Blackstone Consulting on that one and they have not selected their blind vendor yet and kudos to Alaska for going after that one.
(35:48)
They had it years ago, went back after it and maybe on the verge of getting it again and they've also been talking and pursuing a Coast Guard location in Alaska, which could be another opportunity for a blind vendor. So go get 'em Alaska, Olivia Carr up there doing a great job and really advocating for the program and that whole agency up there is really supporting and going after these military dining contracts. We're expecting good news from Hill Air Force Base just any day now. Willie Black who is a member of the NABM board is the blind vendor that was selected there. He is teaming with FSIG and so we think that they will get that contract awarded again by the time we report back in January. We think that will be back under the realm of Randolph Shepherd. It was at one time they lost it and went to arbitration and it's been rescinded and we think they're going to get back in there.
(36:57)
At least we're hopeful that that's going to be the case. Congratulations to Minnesota. They are pursuing or having conversations or attempting to pursue Camp Ripley up there and this is a National Guard facility. They've never gone into this arena with the military dining, so this is a new venture for them and whether or not Kemp Ripley is going to recognize the Randolph Shepherd priority is another matter, but they are Mike Colburn who is the second vice president of NABM, is the blind vendor there as I understand it and will be teaming with Southern Food Service if they do in fact get that contract. So optimistic and hopeful and that that comes about and congratulations to Minnesota. Big news is the marine contract and so the West coast, they will be bidding out this contract. This is a billion dollar contract. It is obviously the largest food service contract in the country. Sodexo is the incumbent and Nikki and I have had multiple conversations with Sodexo about teaming with blind vendors on the next go around and it looks like that is going to happen. It's two contracts. One in the west, which is California near Arizona. California has taken the lead. They have already selected their blind vendors. There will multiple blind vendors and they have also selected their teaming partner, which will be Sodexo on the east coast.
(38:48)
The contract there involves South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and dc. They are in the process. They're not as far along, they have not selected their vendors in most cases, but I think they will be teaming with Sodexo there as well. So going with the incumbent on both sides of the country and we are optimistic that we're going to get those contracts and that we're going to have blind vendors actually serving those marine contracts, which is something that we have been after for many, many years. So keep your fingers crossed. Now we have some time. I think those contracts aren't due to expire until 2026, but we're at the end of 2024 now. There'd be I'm sure sources sought and solicitations if we can't convince them to directly negotiate, that'd be a dream if it would directly negotiate. So it's not too early to get started on that.
(39:44)
And so that when 2026 does roll around and we are ready to go some news from the states, we send best wishes to Bill Finley, the director in Florida, in case you did not hear Bill had an accident and got burned very severely, was in the hospital for several days. He was doing, I think he was burning some brush and things got out of control. He suffered some burns, was in the hospital for several days but is on the comeback and is back working at least part-time now. And so Bill, we wish you the very best and a speedy recovery and hope that you are back to full speed very, very soon. You've heard us talk about Mississippi and trying to open up their first commissary inmate commissary in a county jail. Well, they've contracted all the paperwork has been signed and the vendor has been selected and that commissary is scheduled to open.
(40:50)
I believe that date is October the 26th. So keep your fingers crossed and let's hope that good things happen down there and they do a good job. And that one commissary leads to a lot of other commissaries for the Mississippi blind vendors and Dorothy Young, who is the director of the agency down there, strong advocate for the program and has really pushed to get these commissaries and she doesn't take no very lightly. So let's just go get some more down there and maybe some other states will follow suit. Currently Tennessee is the only state providing inmate commissary services in county jails. And so maybe Mississippi will be. And then let's say who's number three, number four, number five, the arbitration that the Ohio SLA has against the Air Force has been scheduled a couple of times I think to go to hearing it's been rescheduled for late October.
(41:51)
We're anxious to see what comes of that case because there are two issues there. One is whether or not the federal agency can require a blind vendor to pay for utilities. And the second one is regarding a fees. Remember we talked about afe earlier, whether afe can block the Randolph Shepherd priority. In other words, does AFEs have priority over Randolph Shepherd? So those are two very important issues that are going to be heard in that arbitration case. Now keep in mind arbitrations do not set any kind of legal precedence, but they are certainly helpful in other cases that may come up. So keep your fingers crossed on that one. If the hearing is late October, we'll probably have a decision by the early January sometime. So we're watching that one very closely. RSA was in Wisconsin and did a program review that came about, I think as a result of a number of issues and complaints that the committee was making with regarding the program and the nominee agency RSA came in and did a review.
(43:11)
They have issued their draft report. I think the vendors or the committee, at least in Wisconsin is very disappointed in the report that they did not feel it really accomplished much. But it is a draft report at this point and we will be following up on that with R-S-A-R-S-A has had a nominee agency for the last 20 years. The nominee was the Randolph Shepherd vendors of Wisconsin. They've been there for 20 years. There were many, many problems with that from the perspective of the blind vendors and looking at it from a long distance, it seemed like there were some significant issues that were with the nominee. The committee insisted that the agency rebid that contract, which they did and the solicitation did not result in an award. They rebid it. That solicitation did not result in an award. And so I think they're currently in the position mode of reevaluating.
(44:25)
Are they going to continue with a nominee? RSVW is gone. So the state is pretty much running it themselves now. Are they going to do that and continue to do it without a nominee? Are they going to res solicit that remains to be seen. I think they are working with the committee now to try to decide what the best approach might be. A little bit off the Randolph Shepherd beat, but congratulations to the Philly fire from Pennsylvania for winning the BEAT Baseball World series. And I say that because a couple of the blind vendors from Pennsylvania are on that team. And I know I've reported about this in the past. I'm usually reporting about the Indianapolis Thunder and we've had some blind vendors up there who participate. But the Philly fire are the current World Series champions and Scott Hogwood and Dakota Hogwood, his daughter I understand are on that team.
(45:30)
So congratulations to Scott and Dakota and to that whole beat baseball team. We got several new directors. I can't remember a time when we in the blitz reported this many new BEP directors. Let's start in Arkansas. In Arkansas you've got Gustavo, Manza and Gustavo. If I mispronounced that last name, which I'm sure I did, I apologize we've not had an opportunity to meet yet, but want to welcome you aboard. We have a new director in the district of Columbia DC We have Sharon Vaughn Roach and that's V-A-U-G-H-N, Vaughn hyphen Roach. She's just been on the job a few weeks. We have a new director in Illinois, CalVet Brown, who's starting on October one who comes to the program. She is actually a former blind vendor who then was, went to work for the state in an area unrelated to Randolph Shepherd and has now been named the administrator for the Business Enterprises Program for the Blind of Illinois in Massachusetts.
(46:55)
We have Lori, IC and I again, I'm sure Lori, I butchered your name too and I know Lori and I apologize to her. Lori was the assistant director up there when Jim McManus left. She has been promoted to the director. We've had some conversations and she's trying to do a good job up there. Georgia has a new director just named Leon Allen. Leon comes over from VR and some job in the agency, which I don't know exactly what that was. I've not had a chance to meet him. We're scheduling a time to talk in the first week of October, so I look forward to meeting him. Tennessee has a new BEP director, Wachovia King Wachovia also comes over from the VR side of the house and it has taken over leadership of the Tennessee Business Enterprises program and Wisconsin. I was talking about Wisconsin earlier, they just announced they have a new director.
(48:01)
William Curry had left a few years, I mean a few months back. And so they have tj, jerk TJ again, I'm sorry if I pronounced it wrong. It's J-E-R-K-E. I don't know if that's jerk or jerky or jerk or whatever, but welcome aboard TJ and I look forward to having a chance to meet you and talk with you. To the best of my knowledge, we are down to two vacancies, which is amazing because we were at double digits at one point last year. So we're down to North Carolina, which that position has been vacant for quite some time now and we're, we have a vacancy in Kansas now. Kansas is being filled temporarily by Matthew Miller, who was the former BEP director who moved into another position, but he has had to come back and assume the roles there. I know they're trying to get a B director there as well, but those are the only two vacancies that I am aware of.
(49:05)
So I'm sure I missed one. NABM has participated in a number of state vendor conferences of late and I'm sure, again, I'm sure I'm going to miss some, but I know we participated in the Hawaii meeting that was virtual and shout out to Stan. Stan, you need to invite me and Nikki out there so we can make one last trip to Hawaii. Not that we're going anywhere anytime soon, but hey, got to get to Hawaii. Hadn't been out there in a long time. Arizona, we participated in that one. I was supposed to be there in person for Arizona and that was one of those weekends where the weekend that the airlines had all of the problems with the system going down and all the flights are being canceled, my flight was canceled. So I had to call in and do that one virtually. I did make it to Oklahoma for their annual conference and had a good time out there.
(50:11)
Met some new vendors and enjoyed spending time with the new BEP director. So enjoy going to Oklahoma City. Michael Talley, who's a newly elected member of the NABM Board represented NABM in Michigan. And Nikki Gecos, president of NABM was in New York and for their meeting last month, so been busy participating in those state conferences. Got a bunch coming up though. I mean a bunch of 'em coming up in October. I think we've got Mississippi coming up and we're actually contracting with Mississippi to do their training for them. Texas is coming up, Kentucky. Nikki and I both will be at Kentucky, Iowa. I'll be presenting at Iowa. That one will be virtual. However, at Georgia, both Dee Jones and myself will be there. North Carolina is coming up. California is coming up in December. And of course Tennessee's annual training conference is being held in conjunction with the Blast Conference and we're contracting with them to help bring their annual training conference that you can take advantage of because it is also blast. So a lot of stuff coming up and I'm sure there'll be another conference or two pop up some information about the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind. We have been doing monthly calls with N-C-S-A-B. These were monthly trainings for blind vendors and for SLA staff. We said we were going to do a series of six with a six, one being in October, which would lead us into blast in November.
(52:09)
So we've got five down and one to go and we'll be getting information out about the date and time and the content for the last session coming up. But we've really enjoyed collaborating with N-C-S-A-B and bringing these training sessions to the vendors and to the SLAs. Nikki and I will be in Seattle in October. I think it's the 23rd and 24th, 25th, something like that. And so we'll be in Seattle for the N-C-S-A-B fall training and he and I are on the agenda for that conference and we'll be talking about innovation. So look forward to spending some time with our state partners and talking about innovation. I mentioned Blast N-C-S-A-B is our partner, SLA staff training. And so we really appreciate the support that they are providing for the staff training. And as I said earlier, it is shaping up very, very nicely. I think the last number I checked, we had close to 90 SLA people already registered for that training.
(53:28)
So looking forward to doing that. And again, appreciate the support of N-C-S-A-B upcoming events. Not a lot to report here. I just want to remind everybody that next May, we will be doing a mini blast at Las Vegas in conjunction with nama. And I really encourage you, if you only get to go to one conference, go to this one in Las Vegas because we're going to do a day and a half of training. And then you get to go to the NAMA events. They have some seminars, but they have just an amazing show with two or 300 booths set up and everything new in the world is there. So you'll learn the latest and greatest. So make your plans now. We're totally focused right now on our blast conference in Nashville, but as soon as that is over, we'll be sending out information about registration and hotel accommodations and those things for the mini blast in Las Vegas.
(54:42)
Just some industry news to bring up before we close here. Nikki mentioned in passing that it was being rumored that Sodexo may be buying Aramark. That news just broke and it's all over the national media. So this isn't some kind of inside information we are providing. So we don't know whether that will happen or not, but it's something that is under consideration. We don't know what the impact that would have on Randolph Shepherd, but Aramark has a very large buying group. Sodexo has a very large buying group, and if they combine forces, you'll have a mega buying group that we would be part of. And so there could be many, many benefits to that merger if that actually happens. So stay tuned for that and be watching your news to see what comes of that.
(55:51)
Speaking of nama, I encourage you to go to their website and check out the state of the industry report for 2023. Some really interesting stuff in there. Our industry did $26.6 billion of sales in 2023, and those are expected to increase by 54% in the next five years. And that report has a lot of good numbers in there, a lot of good data. So go to the NAMA website and check that out. Also, referencing nama, they are rolling out their SNAP toolkit, snap, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which you owe. Timers like me remember that as food stamps, some of the vending machines and micro markets can now accept the SNAP benefits for purchases. Got to admit, not totally familiar with that, but you can go to the NAMA website and check that out. We appreciate the relationship we have with nama. Nikki Gecos, who is our president or the president of the National Association of Blind Merchants is on their board.
(57:07)
NAMA will be participating in our training, come at Nashville for blast, and then we will be partnering with them for the mini blast in May. So we are a key part of what they are trying to do. I do want to just, the last thing I want to mention something I saw very interesting, and that is the ammo vending machine selling ammunition. There is a grocery store, a supermarket in Oklahoma that you can now buy all of your bullets and everything you need for your guns. And they've now spread to Texas and to Alabama. So who knows, we may have blind vendors selling ammo here before long, probably not going to happen on government property, on federal property, but who knows, it could be an opportunity out there to make a little more money. So I thought that was very, very interesting.
(58:15)
One thing I did fail to mention when I was given the state news, I did not mention that Nevada looks like is going to be getting the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. They're going to be opening up a shop there. They have a gift shop there. Initially they were going after the gift shop and they were negotiating and it looked like it may go to arbitration, but now they've agreed that the gift shop will stay there and that the Nevada Agency will open up a vending facility. They have 3 million million visitors annually. And so the expectation is that it will do just fine as a standalone operation. And so congratulations to Nevada. They've been working on this for a couple of years now. So that wraps up this issue of the Blitz and we really enjoy bringing this to you. We hope you get some good information.
(59:19)
I want to encourage everybody, if something happening in your state, then let us know. Let us hear from you and tell us what's going on in your state so we can let everyone else know about it because this is the only way people stay informed on what's happening in the different states. So with that, on behalf of my partner and co-host, Nikki Geicos, I will bid you farewell and we will see you next month when we bring you another episode of the We Are Randolph Shepherd podcast. And we'll see you in January when we bring you the next blitz. Goodbye everybody.
Support Info (59:58):
The we are Randolph Shepherd Podcast. Would like to thank our sponsors, the National Association of Blind Merchants, Coca-Cola Pepsi Sodexo, you selected Southern Food Service, Tyler Technologies, Anderson Food Service RSA Management Group, Siteline Wealth Management, and Cantaloupe.
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If you would like to support the We Are Randolph Shepherd podcast, we would love to have you on board. Corporate sponsors may contact nikkiJacobs@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 to have your support. I.