By the end of May, the General Services Administration (GSA) will issue a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) modification that will open all special item numbers to the GSA Springboard program. As a result, joint ventures will be able to secure all Special Item Numbers (SINs) under the consolidated MAS contracts, not just under IT SINs. With this good news in mind, contractors should consider whether to use their joint ventures to apply for MAS contracts that were formerly unavailable.

The Springboard program helps companies with fewer than two years of experience bid on MAS contracts by using the experience of their executives and professionals, or member companies in the case of joint ventures, to substitute for two years of corporate experience. As alluded to above, this previously applied only to information technology SINs.

Now, however, it will apply to all SINs, so contractors may start using their joint ventures, including Mentor Protégé Joint Ventures (MPJVs) on all federal supply schedules. It is important to note, however, that mentors in an MPJV will be limited to one joint venture per SIN. So, only one of a mentor’s joint ventures can secure a schedule with any given SIN, even if the joint venture has multiple protégés and multiple joint ventures.