Changes are coming for those seeking to obtain long-term U.S. government contracts. 

Under the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), the General Services Administration (GSA) issues long-term governmentwide contracts that provide a variety of government buyers access to commercial products, services and solutions at pre negotiated pricing. This ranges from federal to state and city or county.

By June, the GSA will be issuing a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) modification. The modification will help joint ventures to secure all Special Item Numbers (SINs) under the consolidated MAS contracts. SINs refers to certain products or services that a GSA contractor offers to government buyers

This is good news for contractors wanting to consider whether to use their joint ventures to apply for MAS contracts that were formerly unavailable. This is especially useful for junior partners and emergent business people who can get into a joint venture with experienced contractors.
 
So if you only have fewer than two years of experience that means you! With a joint venture you can benefit from using the experience of other executives and professionals. In the past this reform was only intended for information technology SINs but now it is being extended to contractors working on all matter of products and services.
 
This could be especially useful for those up and comers active in the Mentor Protégé Joint Ventures (MPJVs) and aiming for federal contracts. However, it is important to note that mentors in an MPJV will be limited to only one joint venture per SIN. Mentors out there, you might have multiple protégés and multiple joint ventures, but the benefit discussed here can only be used for one of your joint ventures.

For more on the Mentor Protégé program run by the Small Business Administration (SBA), see here.