Featured Articles:
Technical Assistance Center Information Update
Government Affairs Committee Update by Riall Johnson, Chairman
Membership Committee Update by Christina VanMiddlesworth, Chairwoman
February GM Photo's Courtesy of Flyright Productions
Newsletter Graphic Design and Editor, Kalea Perry, Independent Contractor
1. 1
March 2018
Message from the President
It is Spring again and as the sun peeks
through the clouds making our days
warmer, things are heating up at Tabor 100
as well.
We had a great 2017 and we are looking forward
to an even better 2018. So far, this year is proving
to be a year when we make even more headway in
our aggressive agenda to advance the cause of
minority business, especially those owned and
operated by African-Americans. Unfortunately,
study after study has indicated that
African-American owned businesses tend to be at
the tail end of economic opportunity.
We are pleased to see that the State Department
of Transportation is promoting a DBE waiver that
would give four times the credit for a prime
contractor using an African-American owned
Disadvantaged Business (DBE). Tabor 100 intends
to be present as the Department discusses this
new initiative that could be a big boost to our
businesses and we will weigh in strongly to support
this proposed policy.
The Technical Assistance Center is moving
along well with a solid game plan being laid
out and key players from several different
places promoting it. The center is essential
to ensure women and minority-owned
businesses do better when competing for
contracts and carrying them out when they win.
Our efforts in Olympia this year on I-200 has
stirred many to come together and promote a
proactive and aggressive campaign to repeal this
law that has cost us so much. We found out this
year that 97 to 99 percent of all state contracts
since the law passed go to firms owned by
Caucasian men. This is unacceptable in 2018 and
we intend to keep up the fight to right this wrong.
I will sign off by once again appealing to you to join
our efforts to get involved and weigh in on crucial
issues such as the WSDOT African-American
waiver. I ask that you consider offering your
expertise and resources to what will soon be one
of nation’s’ best WMBE technical assistance
centers. Finally, I request that you join our effort to
overturn I-200.
TAC Update
3
Government Affairs
4
Glimmers of Hope
5
Membership
7
Tabor 100 is an association of entrepreneurs and business
advocates who are committed to economic power,
educational excellence and social equity for
African-Americans and the community at large.
Get the newsletter online and stay
connected through social media!
“THERE’S POWER IN UNITY”
3. 3
WMBE-WORK: A Tabor-driven Technical Assistance Center
Want to help grow your business?
PLEASE COMPLETE THE SURVEY!!!
Your first step to greater business revenue is to fill out the city of Seattle’s WMBE
Technical Assistance Survey. You may have been sent the survey by email — fill it out
as soon as you can. If you did not get it, you can use this weblink to complete it:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/F9M7Q53
It takes less than five minutes and all responses are CONFIDENTIAL.
There is also an opportunity to participate in a focus group on technical assistance to
WMBE firms. You can sign up after taking the survey.
Tabor 100 is well on our way to creating a long-
imagined technical assistance center. For the last
several years, many have talked about this
possibility. However, Tabor is moving
aggressively to having a viable concept with
funding for a 2019 launch.
Tabor has designed an approach to be
particularly attractive to minority firms, while
leaving no interested firm unserved. Disparity
studies have proved underutilization and barriers,
and are a source of understanding a design that
will serve the needs of our minority-owned firms.
The center will offer high-quality, professional
private and shared office spaces for low-cost rent,
back-office services for low or no cost that can
supplement a small business or sole proprietor in
ways that large firms have already in-house. It will
have attractive training and conference rooms, a
receptionist and offices for other support service
non-profits focused on minority interests. It will be
in a location favorable and accessible for minority
firms, most likely in the south Seattle area.
A space search is underway with promising
options. We have early discussions to co-locate
with the Urban League for new space they seek,
adding to the vitality of the center. Despite the
nice intersection of interest, SVI will not be
available for some years out.
The center has already proved viable with
sufficient demand. More than 487 WMBE firms
expressed interested in using such a center,
including 75 construction firms, 86 goods/services
suppliers and 386 consultants. Should even a
small share of those become clients, it proves
sufficient to support the concept.
Tabor is uniquely positioned as we bring our own
funds, private funds, and individual donations to
launch the center. We are locally created, by our
own community. We are not imposing a solution
upon the community; we are creating a
community-driven solution to address proven
barriers. Tabor uniquely brings our history of
delivering responsible and trusted guidance,
completing successful contracts, and robust
private funding.
Tabor Vice President Brian Sims is heading up
this effort and he can be reached at
VP@Tabor100.org
4. 4
Government Affairs Committee
By Riall Johnson
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
I have recently had the
honor of being appointed to
the position of Government
Affairs Chair for Tabor 100
and I am proud to have
been tasked with helping to
coordinate Tabor's biggest
priority this year, which is
repealing I-200.
For those of you that have expressed interest in
legislative affairs with Tabor, I will be forming a
new committee for Tabor 100 that will spearhead
advocacy for Tabor 100 and the communities we
represent.
The first step will be an in-person meeting for
those that are interested in helping with this
cause. Our first meeting will be on April 11th,
at 6:30pm at the Columbia Tower in downtown
Seattle.
I encourage you all to attend this meeting as we
will be discussing details on how we will proceed
to build on the progress made during this year’s
legislative session and what it will take to get the
full repeal done in the coming year.
For those of you that cannot attend the meeting in
person, there will be a conference call in number
available.
Please contact me at
GovernmentAffairs@Tabor100.org for more
information about the meeting and the conference
call number.
Janelle Boyd, Janelle Boyd Design
Sara Kadletz, Montlake Partners
Commercial Real Estate
5. 5
Among Glimmers of Hope, Stubborn Problems Persist in South King County Schools
Originally published March 13, 2018 at 5:47 pm Updated March 16, 2018 at 9:25 am
By: Claudia Rowe, Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Road Map’s annual report card measuring
school results for South King County students
shows reasons to be hopeful for younger
students, but major holes in college
preparation among older kids.
No one disputed the aims of Road Map, an
ambitious and well-funded effort to raise the
performance of students in seven South King
County districts by approaching their schools
collectively, as a regional challenge. But eight
years and $40 million later, even the consortium’s
savvy and sober-minded leader has found that
creating deep change is harder than anticipated.
“It’s what keeps me up at night,” said Mary Jean
Ryan, executive director of the Community Center
for Education Results, a nonprofit that supports
Road Map’s data-crunching and analysis. “It’s
taking a lot longer than I thought, but I do feel like
we’re on the right track and we have to stay with it.
If we want a better society, I don’t see another
path.”
Ryan’s comments were prompted by Road Map’s
2017 Results Report, released Tuesday, which
tracks everything from kindergarten readiness to
college-graduation rates for the 127,290 students
in Auburn, Federal Way, Highline, Kent, Renton,
Tukwila and South Seattle schools.
There were some bright spots, particularly for
young children. More 4- and 5-year old's are
attending preschool and ready for kindergarten
than were in 2013 — a rate that jumped from 37
percent to 44 percent last year.
There is also more money for after-school
programs. And some schools, like White Center
Heights Elementary in the Highline district, have
made major improvements to student absenteeism
through sustained outreach to parents. At White
Center Heights, the chronic absenteeism rate
plunged from 24 percent of students to 8 percent
in three years.
“The thing I hadn’t expected is that it would be so
much about a community,” said school Principal
Anne Reece. “You are shifting norms.
One-hundred percent of our chronic absences are
the result of adult choice, not kid choice.”
But the larger patterns are impossible for Ryan to
ignore, particularly around college-going. In 2008,
89 percent of the region’s ninth-graders aspired to
earn a college degree. Only 29 percent of
high-school graduates in Road Map schools
actually do so by their mid-20s.
A major reason for this is high-school counseling
— or the lack of it.
Continued on Page 4
6. 6
INTERESTED IN HAVING YOUR BUSINESS
HIGHLIGHTED IN THE NEWSLETTER?
DROP AN EMAIL TO
Staff@Tabor100.org or
PublicAffairs@Tabor100.org
OR CALL
(425) 882-4800 Ext. 107.
Among glimmers of Hope, Stubborn Problems Persist in South King County Schools
Originally published March 13, 2018 at 5:47 pm Updated March 16, 2018 at 9:25 am
By: Claudia Rowe, Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Continued from Page 3
While more applying for financial aid and
graduating in four years, only 61 percent have
completed the courses necessary to apply to
college. While hailing efforts such as Seattle
Mayor Jenny Durkan’s vow to provide two years
of free community college to the city’s graduating
seniors, Ryan has her eye on more systemic
fixes.
“We can’t just keep looking at data year after year
and expect it to be better when we haven’t built
the system strength to serve kids,” she said,
vowing to fight for more school counselors at
every opportunity.
The Road Map report underscores this gap. Only
38 percent of ninth-graders said they were aware
of the course requirements necessary to apply to
a four-year institution. By the time they are
seniors and realize what they’ve missed, it is
often too late.
In the seven-district Road Map region, 71 percent
of students are children of color, and 55 percent
are low-income, precisely the kinds of kids who
rely most on school counselors for help
navigating the college-enrollment process. But a
typical public high school there has four
counselors for every 1,300 students. By
comparison, Seattle’s Lakeside School, which is
private, has five college counselors serving 586
teens.
Ryan, who served in the Clinton administration
and led Mayor Greg Nickels’ Office of Policy and
Management, has deep knowledge of the terrain,
but even she expressed surprise at the “crisis
level” of student homelessness in her region.
Now at nearly 5,000 children, it is more than
double the number reported when Road Map
began in 2010.
“Just seeing this continued spike in student
homelessness — a state of emergency during a
time of prosperity — is so disturbing,” she said. “I
can’t recall this kind of effect on families and
children in such a time of economic prosperity
and low unemployment. You can be working and
just unable to find an affordable place to live. It’s
a massive problem.”
7. 7
Membership Committee Meeting Announcement
By Christina VanMiddlesworth, Membership Chair
Calling all Members!
You've joined Tabor 100, now
what?
Perhaps you've been a
member, and now you're
looking to get more involved
and connected. Well, I invite
you to join the Membership committee.
The committee coordinates and promotes
membership recruitment initiatives for Tabor 100.
It processes new members into the organization,
maintains active and inactive membership lists,
and reports on new members to the Board.
Each person in our organization brings a unique
perspective to the table. The committee needs
both seasoned and new members alike to offer a
fresh take on both where we've been and what's
next.
Save the Date! We will have our first meeting on
April 12 at 6:30 PM. The meeting location will be
announced shortly.
Please contact me to rsvp or for more information
at Membership@Tabor100.org.
8. 8
THE TABOR 100 BOARD
President: Ollie Garrett
President@Tabor100.org
Vice President: Brian Sims
VP@Tabor100.org
Treasurer: Aundrea Jackson
Treasurer@Tabor100.org
Secretary: Sherlita Kennedy
Secretary@Tabor100.org
Membership: Christina VanMiddlesworth
Membership@Tabor100.org
Education: Kevin C. Washington
Education@Tabor100.org
Public Affairs: Henry Yates
PublicAffairs@Tabor100.org
Economic Development: Vacant
EconomicDevelopment@Tabor100.org
Government Affairs: Riall Johnson
GovernmentAffairs@Tabor100.org
Fund Development: Abdul Yusuf
FundDevelopment@Tabor100.org
Business Development: Anthony Burnett
BusinessDev@Tabor100.org
TABOR OFFICE
2330 130th Ave. NE #101
Bellevue, WA 98005
425-882-4800 x 107
Staff@Tabor100.org
Newsletter Graphic Design and Editor:
Kalea Perry, KaleaPerry@Hotmail.com
February 2018 GM Photo’s courtesy of
Keith Williams, Flyright Productions
(206) 860-9813, FlyrightProductions.net
WE ENCOURAGE YOU
TO REACH OUT!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Mar. 31: Tabor 100 General Meeting,
10am-12pm, Central Area Senior Center.
Apr. 1: 2018 NW Minority Business Expo
Applications Due Date.
Apr. 12: SMPS Seattle Networking Event,
4:30-5:30pm, Pyramid Alehouse Brewery &
Restaurant
Apr. 17: SMPS Seattle April Luncheon,
11:30am-1:30pm, WA Athletic Club Crystal
Ballroom (Pre-Registration Required)
Apr. 24: Elevate NW Conference, 1pm-6pm,
Seattle Center
Apr. 28: Tabor 100 General Meeting,
10am-12pm, Central Area Senior Center
COMMITTEE MEETINGS
Mar. 31 & Apr. 28: Education Committee
meets after the Tabor General Meeting, from
12-2pm at the Central Area Senior Center
Combined Library and Computer Room
Apr. 11: Government Affairs Committee,
6:30-7:30pm, Columba Tower– Skyview
Observatory Lounge
Apr. 12: Membership Committee,
6:30-7:30pm, Location TBA