{"id":295807,"date":"2019-03-20T06:06:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=295807"},"modified":"2019-03-20T06:06:08","modified_gmt":"2019-03-19T20:06:08","slug":"pacific-sbdc-accreditation-renewed-until-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/pacific-sbdc-accreditation-renewed-until-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacific SBDC accreditation renewed until 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_295808\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-295808\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Pacific-Islands-SBDC-pix.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Pacific-Islands-SBDC-pix.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"size-full wp-image-295808\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-295808\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, Pamela Peralta, associate network director,\u00a0Pacific Islands Small Business Development Center Network; Jane Ray, business adviser, Guam\u00a0Small Business Development Center; Cheery Fe Yeban, network program associate, PISBDCN; Laurine Q. Sablan, administrative assistant, Guam SBDC; and Denise M. Mendiola, acting network director of PISBDCN and director of Guam SBDC. (UNIVERSITY OF GUAM)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Pacific Islands Small Business Development Center Network at the University of Guam received a renewal of its accreditation until December 2023. <\/p>\n<p>The network oversees six individual SBDC offices throughout Micronesia, and every five years, it undergoes a review that determines if it is meeting the standards and requirements set by the U.S. Small Business Association and America\u2019s Small Business Development Centers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must be accredited or else we risk losing our membership with ASBDC and partnership with SBA,\u201d said Denise M. Mendiola, who serves as the PISBDCN acting network director and the Guam SBDC director. \u201cAccreditation ensures that we are operating efficiently and effectively within the standards they set.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In October 2018, an accreditation team consisting of other SBDCs contracted by the SBA conducted a site visit and interviewed the PISBDCN staff and advisory board members as well as the center\u2019s host, sponsors, and clients to assess the program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The accreditation process also reviews how PISBDCN can improve its services.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe SBA has given us new goals to achieve this year. Right now we\u2019re focusing on food security and the Micronesia Regional Trade Program\u2014a five-year project to encourage regional trade and international export,\u201d Mendiola said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The PISBDCN exists to support the growth and economic development of the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands in the Western Pacific region by providing training and free business counseling to existing and prospective small businesses. Under the umbrella of the Network lead center are service centers in Guam, Yap, Chuuk, Kosrae, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau. PISBDCN is part of the ASBDC network with 1,000 SBDCs within 63 networks across the United States and its territories. (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pacific Islands Small Business Development Center Network at the University of Guam received a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":295808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-295807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}