registered into the program and we felt that we did raise awareness around a local neighborhood area. in the coming year, we do hope to move forward with another campaign to increase awareness of the program. >> the program was able to connect with the hotel council of san francisco and we are able in the partnership to put on a green business forum to put on hotels of san francisco and their partners and the forum was very well received by the council and so we are actually moving forward with a five-part workshop series to assist the hotels, to green themselves so this is a very industry specific out reach that we are trying to do here. and other items that the program is moving forward with, is a set of translated checklists for the office/retail and the restaurant sectors we will be having those created in spanish and chinese and those are

currently in the process at the moment and so we are hoping to complete them shortly and as wells the second thing that we are working on further is the businesses work very hard to receive this recognition and to achieve, the high environmental standards of the program and so we created a video to help the businesses market their green recognition to the clients and customers, so they understand what to do with the green recognition once they have received it. >> and, to conclude, the san francisco green business program does offer many benefits to businesses in san francisco. we as a program do strive to help the businesses go green and take advantage of the many free resources, services, audits and rebates offered by the city here. >> and so, from myself, and my colleagues, gabby and sue ellen thank you for having us here and we will take any of your questions if you have any. >> thank you very much.

>> do we have any questions? >> i just want to thank all three of you for coming this evening. and one of the things that i would like to mention because like commuter checks, we do those in my office and we started off with just five people, and now we are up to 47 of the employees that use the checks and they don't live in the city they live in the east bay and they use them on the ferry and that. and on your out reach, have you especially, with the green and everything, have you been going and contacting merchant groups to do these presentations? >> yes, particularly around the annual compliance cycle and we asked the businesses to submit an annual compliance form in and due at the end of april and particularly focused around that out reach, and we send information to the different merchants associations through

the chamber of commerce and through the office of small business, information for them to share via e-mail, social media, and newsletter, with all of their members, and offering information about the ordinance, the requirements, and the option to do the free consultations with our department. >> do you get a lot of requests to speak in front of merchant groups? >> we have a few and not as many as we hope for and so we do encourage everything to invite us to come. >> that is important. >> because i know in the green energy, like i saw some of the merchants from the upper market and i used to be involve with them and i know that you have been out there and i noticed some of those. but i think, the out reach, needs to be out there and especially with the over all green being in compliance, and just keep pounding away, and so you think that this is important. >> sure, great, thank you. >> director? >> well, one of the great things the way that the commuter benefits program is designed and entities that help to support the businesses, is

that i talked to many businesses, that are or have four or five employees, and find it very economical in terms of administering the program and so even though it is mandated for 20 or over and in the commercial districts we have a lot of businesses under that number in terms of employees. and the other thing that i just thought about, that would be kind of a dual incentive for any certified registered business with the city is that if they are a certified green business, if that is sort of noted, like you know, and noted as, you know, if you look in the vendor list and you also see that there are certified green business, and i don't know if it is... additional benefits that we do have is that we have two on-line green marketing directorries so we do

definitely again, we want to try to have the ad additional public recognition for them and so we do list them on a city web page through sf green business.org and also through the bay area green business web page so it would be great to find a way to cross-reference and put that information on the lbe list or what you have you. >> i would just like to call public comment on item five, if anybody would like to make the public comment on item five you will have three minutes to speak? >> anything none, public comment is closed. >> any other xhepts? >> thank you. >> thank you very much and this is very good and this is important and so thank you very much for letting us know that it is on tv and hopefully a lot of people are watching and we will get the commuter checks starting tomorrow. >> could you leave us some

cards? >> okay next item. >> that brings us to item 6, a presentation on the events, activities and out comes of small business week, 2013. that will be provided by adam strauss of strauss events. >> this is a discussion item only. >> welcome mr. strauss.

>> thank you all for allowing me to come after the 9th annual san francisco business week. >> if you could speak in the microphone. >> thank you all for president adam and commissioners, director, for allowing me to come back and speak with you about san francisco's small business week, we just celebrated our 9th annual san francisco small business week, and our biggest yet, with more than 4,000 small businesses participating in a range of different events. and, we were really excited with a lot of the out comes and the involvement of the new sponsors and new workshops and the new opportunities that we

were able to provide. as mark quin likes to say we were not only the largest san francisco small business week in the country which is a national sba program that happens throughout the country in small business is really a local program hosted by the local communities to celebrate small businesses and national sba also does the activities and really where the action is, and it is in the local communities. we are not only the largest small business week, we are the only small business week that really engages the small businesses and activities through mix you ares and through workshops and educational opportunities. for most, communities have a luncheon with a few awards and with the chamber and sba or a couple of groups in a hotel ballroom and so we really through our committee, at which i would like to acknowledge

president adams as the co-chair and and really working to keep those engaged and to participate. >> and we in our surveys education, is still more valuable than networking. and we found again, we have a lot of the small business owners who come year after year but also a lot of new ones, there is a lot of people out there still looking for resources. over all, for the events that we are able to count, there is a lot of events that happen on the periphery of the san francisco small business week that we are not able to track, and we had 3600, attendees and flavors of san francisco, and 76 of the board of supervisors and awarding in the ceremony and 1600 of the small business

conference. and one interesting thing that we noticed this year is that our while our attendance was the same as it has been in the past, registration was down. and so, in the past, because it is a free event, we register many more people than actually can fit in the room because we want to, you know that a lot of people just don't show up and what we attributed that to is that the economy is doing better unless the people are looking for workshops and less people are looking to network and more people are out there actually doing the work so we saw that as a good sign for the small business community. >> and the flavors of san francisco, are a kick off at the (inaudible) and we added a tent outside this year, to have about 8,000 square feet of additional space. and we did not add many more tables, and we did add a few more restaurant and we really wanted to create a better flow and really allow for ned

working and we got a lot of very positive response. and you know, it is a celebration, and in flavors of san francisco has taken a life of its own where it is very much about the food, and the celebration and the fun. but we really hope that it is a chance for small business owners to network and to connect with all of the small business resources that are in the city, we invite and we have probably about 20 city agency and 30 non-profit small business resources to attend, and to kind of network and we put them strategickly between the food and the alcohol so that if you want to taste all of the alcohol you actually have to walk past all of the small business resources. we are thrilled that they are hosting them in the small business awards on tuesday.

and we have heard that was a fantastic event and so thank you for all of your support in insuring that continues on. what we think is the key is the small business conference and we provide 50 different workshops this past year at sfstate downtown campus we really pushed ourselves to come up with some new topics that we had, and we worked with the san francisco economic development alliance and the chamber of commerce to do some success stories ora they are we called them failure stories to bring the panels of small business to talk about what worked and didn't and you can learn what didn't work than what did and we had great feedback >> the small business award ceremony at city club was a

really fun event. we raised the level, i think a little bit from years past, and this was our second annual event and the first year was hosted by rocology in the open space and due to increased fund-raising and we were able to take the penthouse and staoet club and mayor lee was in attendance and it was really elegant and fun night and all of the awardees and from the san francisco business alliance and the mayor's award really felt were very appreciative about the opportunity for them to be put on such a stage and shown the recognition for their hard work as a small business. we worked hard to step up the marketing donation, we were able to get, 45 bus adds throughout the city, and which is an increase over last year's 30, and we had a partnership

with clear channel and we had a large number of radio ads that ran and we also built what, or designed what we called the wisdom blog and so we did the out reach and interviews with the small business experts and owners. and really tried to spark a conversation around what takes to be a small business and provide the nuggets and the tools to continue and we got a lot of positive feedback about that. >> over all, 80 percent of those who responded, said that it was excellent or very good. and which was up from 75 and 76 percent the year prior. and 55 percent, so, who attends san francisco, small business week, 55 percent are small business owners, and another nine percent are small business employees, and the rest peg themselves as free lance or

consultants and then we have about ten percent corporate employees. and 66 percent, come from san francisco, and then we have the rest come from the rest of the bay area. and, 53 percent of the businesses who attend have been in business for three years or more which we are really happy to target the small business owners and we want the people who are in the small business community to celebrate with them and so we are happy about them. i hope that you all had a chance to attend and i am not sure if you guys have an experience that you just wanted to call out and something that you felt was very important about san francisco small business week? or that we should continue to

push forward p, and any you do an excellent job and i would like to say publicly that since your involvement with this you have really elevated this event and i remember years ago that we first had the room at the hotel in japan town and it was a one-day event and where it is at now and you have really raised the bar on this and i don't know how we can top it. >> and i am sure that we will about to hear how we will top this later on. and so, which i don't doubt that you can do. and i thought that flavors was excellent and i like, you know our committee decided to, you

know, charge with flavors and it worked. and i mean, and so we kept out mostly kept out, but you made it more interesting and more of of a networking event and i noticed this year, they were kicking us out at 8:00. and in the years past it was empty by 8:00. and so i thought that was a great sign. >> yeah. >> just as a comment, while we do charge a $20 fee, we still do sent 75 percent of the attendees coming through with the free passes through the merchant at work and through the sponsors and the neighborhoods and non-profit communities and our goal is not to exclude small business owners but to rather filter the people who just want to come for free food. >> it works i think, that is great. >> and i thought that it was fantastic and i participated in the event. nice work. >> thank you. >> so, real briefly, the tenth anniversary of san francisco,

small business week, 2014, has a lot of really neat, unique opportunities and some challenges, and so, the tenth anniversary of san francisco, small business week also cohen sides with the small business commission and it is the 30th or 40th anniversary and so we have had some discussions around maybe there is a collaboration of partnership or how we can talk about the small business at the table and something that is, and i think that is really to pull together to try to elevate and really just have a dialogue and celebration with some of it and within the core community. of the small business and we are very excited to take what we have done and push it forward. >> and we do have a few challenges for this upcoming year and the space that we have held our conference at in the

downtown campus is the sf state downtown campus gave up their lease and so we have nowhere to hold the conference and we are currently in process and we are talking with a number of hotels, and with the director we are trying to reach out to see if the city is interested in a partnership. >> what about the grams? >> the bill grams civic center, could, and the classrooms are challenging. and okay. >> i think, and there is a number of them, but they are rather small, and the av would be a bit of a challenge, i think for the cost being and we looked into this last year and it is visually not the interesting but it is not... there is a lot of very small rooms and so, we think, that bill gram, if possible or a

hotel which will be a lot more expensive. than in the past, we are also running in the date challenges with the metrion in terms of being able to bring in a tent for the first couple of weeks and so that is the challenge around the flavors of san francisco that we are kind of looking at. >> that is why we have you. >> we are currently working and we are not just me, and i have to say that you know, we have a tremendous committee and they are already working on like, the directors and already reaching out through the city to try to have a partnership with mascone and leslie maloy is working with the assistant managers of the larger hotel and we are trying to just find out what the opportunities are, and we are also, we also may approach the new port crews ship terminal about the flavors and that is a large space and that may be an opportunity. >> so we see a lot of

opportunities in terms of you know it is a great event, and we have some great partners who are celebrating their important anniversaries this year as well. and hopefully we can get some press around all of that and hopefully we will find the homes for these events that the small businesss in san francisco have come to really appreciate. if you guys have any ideas around that, it is welcome. otherwise, i think that the commission is very, very much for their continued financial support and the support of the staff that you allow to work on the committee, we could not do, but we do, without the director and her team supporting san francisco small business week, so. >> great. >> thank you, and before you finish, is there anyone who would like to make public comment on item number 6? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. thank you, again, adam for everything. >> thank you very much.

>> thank you, adam. >> next item. >> it is number 7 on the agenda and following item 7 we have items 8 through 12 and they are six sets of meeting minutes and we must go through each step in the process, but seeing, there may not be the public comment on each of these we may be able to do that quickly. we will move along, item 7 is the approval of the february 28, 2013 minutes. >> approve. >> move. >> second. >> we have public comment on item 7? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. we can take consensus, do we all approve? >> i just have one minor correction. so we do need to change the date, on the front sheet to thursday february 28, 2013, not 2012. >> okay.

>> okay. >> good catch, director. >> okay. next item? >> we need to take if there is no other corrections or changes to the february 20th? >> and we approve as corrected? >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> next item. >> 8. approval of the april, 22, 2013 meeting minutes. >> do we have public comment on the approval of the april 22nd, meeting minutes? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. do we have... >> move to approve. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> aye. >> aye. >> next item. >> item 9, approval of the may 20, 2013 meeting minutes. >> do we have public comment on the may, 20th, 2013 meeting

minutes? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. do we have a motion? >> move to approve. >> second. >> make this easy on you. >> yes. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> aye. >> copy and paste. >> item 10, approval of the june, 10, 2013 meeting minutes >> do we have public comment on the 2013, june, 10, minutes? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. do we have a motion >> move to approve. >> second. >> now you guys are going to mess it up for him. >> you go for it. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> aye. >> next item. please? >> mr. president, i have item 11, approval of the june, 24, 2013 minutes. >> do we have public comment on the june, 24, 2013 meeting minutes? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. >> move to approve. >> second.

>> all in favor? >> aye. >> aye. >> next item please? >> item 12, approval of the july 8, 2013 meeting minutes. >> do we have any public comment on the july 8, 2013 meeting minutes? >> seeing none, public comment is closed. do we have a motion >> move to approve. >> second. >> all in favor? >> aye. >> aye. >> and great. >> excellent. >> we are all caught up. >> moving on to agenda item 13, this is the director's report. the director will update and report on the office of small business and update on department programs and legislative mat and hers make announcements regarding business activity and this is a discussion item. >> well, first before i get into my report, i want to relevant come christian for his willingness to sit in on the seat of the commission secretary and to fulfill that role and function while we

during the interim. thank you and, welcome. >> you are doing a great jofnlt and commissioners now that we have a approval of the minutes, we have updated the plan and that is in your binder. and so, i am going to and i have adjusted my director's report to reflect, our action item and serve, the report each month, on goals that have so i just wanted to let you know that the quarter two, for 2013, or the first quarter two of 2013 for the dashboard and we will have complete this week

and you will be getting a copy of that. we are working with ken stram of two bridge communications to design some surveys for us. two of the surveys are to reach out to the departments, and now, that we are we have been in the assistance center has been in existence, we want to do an analysis on the effectness of the department of our department, the center as it relates to the departments to see, are we, or are the clients that we serve, more informed when we come to engage, are we hoping to make their jobs any easier? and things of that sort and get any feedback in terms of things that they would like to see us improve on as well. and the same thing for with our economic development organization and then to do a comprehensive survey to the clients that we have served to date. and so, those surveys will be designed and conducted over the

next three to four months. so, i will be having information on that to be reporting to you. and then, goal two, we successfully advocated for additional funding through this last budget cycle, to be able to do specific out reach for the gross receipt and that was really important to make sure that the businesses have a smooth transition into the gross receipts from the payroll tax and the business registration over the next two years will be doing a tiered increase and so we want to make sure that all businesses especially our sole pry pry proproters are prepared for that transition. >> and then, a couple and i am not going to go through necessarily everything, and on-line business portal, we have the funding for that, and

we are now in discussion and it looks like we are going to be the goal for what we are going to be accomplishing for the on-line business portal is developing sort of the entry section. and so, which, may sort of dove tail as a redesign for our office website as well. and developed some and then start transitioning the departments into an on-line fillable pdf for application forms. and so, those are kind of just the three key goals of what we want to accomplish in the next year with the budget and the funding that was received, for the business portal. and stream lining report, we are still in the final edits and so, hope to have this to you by the end of august for you to review. in terms of the goal four, so for the recycling centers and the crv, the reception value, we now have had the fourth

closure of a significant recycling center are almost fourth closure with the recycling center with the market street safeway. and so which is and i reported last week that there was a closure of the geary street safeway. and so this is escalating our need to sort of deal with this. and so, i have been in conversation with jason elliott to start looking at this as a comprehensive thing for the city to address. and some proposal to put forward to the state because this is a state law, and so, any unique things that we may need to do will have to be addressed sort of in that context of it being a state regulation. the task force has two meetings left and so, the last two meetings we will be setting forward some recommendations, and i will let