IAC explores forming GWAC group

Industry Advisory Council

The Industry Advisory Council (IAC), an organization intended to bring together contractors and agencies, is considering creating a special interest group to cover governmentwide acquisition contracts and the General Services Administration schedules.

The contracts are popular vehicles with agencies and companies, especially smaller firms or those new to the federal space. About 65 people attended a March 12 exploratory meeting, said Dave Nadler, co-chairman of the gathering. Nadler is an attorney at Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky LLP in Washington, D.C.

The IAC board will have to decide whether to create a group. The next board meeting is in May.

IAC members who attended the exploratory meeting expressed interest in having regular gatherings to exchange ideas and information — among companies as well as between industry and government.

"The biggest problem is that all of us are busy, and it's hard to keep up with what's going on," said consultant William Blocher, principal with Access Solutions Inc. in McLean, Va. "There's not a lot of inside information because it's all so public," but finding time to keep up with the contracts can be difficult.

"The most important thing [a special interest group] will bring about is knowledge," he said. "What you know, you can deal with."

Vincent Young, with Galaxy Scientific Corp. in Arlington, Va., was concerned that only a couple of government representatives attended the meeting.

"We want to have the participation of government," he said. "Otherwise it's not as effective."

Organizers highlighted some main concerns of the potential special interest group, including cooperative purchasing, GSA's modification process, the reorganization of GSA's Federal Supply Service and Federal Technology Service, the e-government initiatives, contract bundling, and competition issues.