Business alliance to host upcoming events

WOODRBIDGE — The Quantico-Belvoir Regional Business Alliance will step up its community outreach efforts with events in Stafford County and Woodbridge this fall.

On Nov. 15, the alliance will host a community covenant-signing event with Fort Belvoir at the Woodbridge campus of Northern Virginia Community College. The community covenant is a Department of the Army initiative that seeks to bring together citizens, employers and organizations to support local soldiers in the National Guard, Army Reserve and the regular Army.

“We have offered to host a community covenant event for Fort Belvoir,” said alliance president Miles Friedman. “Obviously, the highlight will be the signing of a community covenant. We’ll be inviting dignitaries at the local, state and federal level to participate. One of our missions is to make the military feel welcome in our community.”

The alliance is a not-for-profit business organization whose mission is to position the region as a welcoming and supportive community to the military and its business partners. This comes as Quantico Marine Corps Base and Fort Belvoir prepare for expansion related to Base Realignment and Closure. BRAC 2005 will bring nearly 20,000 jobs to Fort Belvoir and 3,000 new jobs to Quantico by 2011.

In addition to the covenant signing, there will be booths to provide attendees with information on how to start a business and how to find a BRAC related job. Representatives from Quantico have also been invited to attend the event, Friedman said.

“There’s going to be a second BRAC impact event,” he continued. “We’ve got two dates for it. The most likely date will be Nov. 20 in Stafford County. We’re going to hold it at the University of Mary Washington Stafford Campus.”

Stafford leaders are putting an emphasis on redeveloping the northern portion of Route 1 in the county.

“Quantico actually touches parts of Stafford, and you’ve got people who are going to be commuting from Stafford to Belvoir, plus you’ve got businesses who may choose to locate in Stafford to access Belvoir,” Friedman noted. “It’s not that bad of a commute, especially if you’re not driving during standard rush hour times. All that development that’s going to take place on Route 1 from Belvoir to Quantico, it’s going to impact Stafford.”

Among the groups in Stafford working with the alliance are the Stafford Economic Development Authority, University of Mary Washington and Germanna Community College.

“They’re very anxious to participate in the alliance,” added Friedman. “We’re also going to meet with the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber and the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance. In Fairfax, we’ve been working with the Greater Springfield Chamber and the Mount Vernon Lee Chamber.”

The alliance has also launched an interactive database that will assist workers and firms in the region to identify and respond to opportunities that arise from BRAC at Fort Belvoir and Quantico.

The database, developed by MDA Technologies in Woodbridge, includes a roster of companies, contractors and workers, plus listings of business and job opportunities. It can be accessed through the alliance’s Web site at qbrbusinessalliance.com.

“We expect this database to help workers in the region spot job opportunities and connect with the people they need to reach,” said MDA Technologies president Tim Jackson. “It will also facilitate matchmaking among contractors and the major firms who win the big construction bids for the two installations.”

The team working on the database includes representatives from George Mason University’s Mason Enterprise Center led by James Regan, who also heads the Procurement Technical Assistance Program statewide.

Friedman will also spread the word about the alliance by writing several white papers.

“The first white paper is going to be about our community dialogue that led to the formation of the alliance,” he said. “That will be published certainly by the end of the year.”

The alliance will offer founding memberships for $1,500 through Oct. 3, the date of its first formal membership meeting.

Julia LeDoux is a contributing writer at Media General’s Potomac News in Woodbridge.