We are pleased to welcome Peter Wilkens, who will be stepping into Christopher’s former role. Peter brings a wealth of experience supporting businesses and will be an invaluable resource to clients navigating the government contracting landscape.

This month also marks the first full month with our newest team member, Program Assistant Patrick Stewart. He brings years of experience in marketing and communications, and has already hit the ground running in supporting our outreach and engagement efforts.

Holiday Office Hours

Please note that the Maine APEX offices will have adjusted hours during the holiday season. While we remain committed to supporting clients, there may be brief delays in response times during the final weeks of December. Thank you for your understanding.

A Note of Gratitude

To our clients, partners and statewide collaborators, thank you for trusting us as your resource for government contracting support. Your dedication to Maine’s economy and your willingness to innovate, adapt, and pursue new opportunities inspires us every day.

From all of us at Maine APEX Accelerator, we wish you a warm, safe, and joyful holiday season. Here’s to a bright and productive 2026!

Meet Our Newest Procurement Counselor, Peter Wilkens

A Wells College graduate, Peter joins the team from working nearly the past three years as a Senior Business Consultant at Covenstead, LLC. His 14 years of professional experience includes sales, business development, client relations, resource allocation, contract negotiation, talent management and much more. We're glad to have Peter on our team!

Marketing Your Business to Contracting Officers

SBA Small Business Search: This is a newer platform that was created in 2025 and replaced the Dynamic Small Business Search. This platform is used by contracting officers who want to verify a business’s capabilities and certifications. Most businesses will display their location, NAICS codes, certifications and other pertinent information. 

Capabilities Statement: A capabilities statement is a “resume” for a business. This resume is often submitted to the contracting officer at the time of a bid. If you get the chance to meet a contracting officer in person, paper copies or QR codes are useful as well. One of the biggest advantages to having a capabilities statement is showing the differentiators your business has that sets you apart from your competition. I recommend to clients to review their capabilities statement each year to make sure the information stays relevant. 

Website: We understand that not all businesses want or need a business website but if you do have this useful communication tool, please make sure the information that is displayed is up to date. Information should be recent and reflect work/capabilities your business has completed. You can display logos of approved certifications, pictures of completed projects and the best way to reach your business.

--Jessica Crowley, Procurement Counselor for Washington County

The FAR’s ‘Rule of Two’ for Small Businesses

In our September 2025 newsletter, we brought to your attention the "Bold rewrite of the Federal Acquisition Regulations", or FAR, that the Federal Government is undertaking to transform it into a more common-sense procurement outline. It has been called FAR 2.0 or sometimes the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul. Whatever you call it, we expect it to be simpler and more readable than before. They are stripping away non-statuary rules and rewriting the provisions in plain language. (con't, next page)

The big questions for our small business entities in Maine, which includes 99.2% of Maine businesses, is how the changes will affect the current Small Business “Rule of Two.” The Rule of Two is a provision that says that when certain conditions are met, a federal contracting officer must set aside an acquisition for competition among small businesses or use a small business program, like the 8(a) Program, Woman Owned, Veteran Owned, Service Disabled Veteran Owned, or HUBZone Program, to obtain the work. The Rule of Two is the key tool enabling the government to pursue the statutory policy set forth in 15 U.S.C. 644(a)(1)(c) and 15 U.S.C. 631(a) that "a fair proportion of the total purchases and contracts or subcontracts for property and services for the Government (including but not limited to contracts or subcontracts for maintenance, repair, and construction) be placed with small-business enterprises."  In short, as a matter of statute, acquisitions between the micro-purchase threshold (recently raised to $15,000 for most acquisitions) and the simplified acquisition threshold (recently raised to $350,000 for most acquisitions) are reserved for small businesses whenever the conditions of the Rule of Two are satisfied.

The good news is, the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul has kept the current Rule of Two in place until at least 2029, which is a relief for small businesses. As it currently states, all FAR sections that are not required by statute must expire 4 years after the effective date of the revisions to the FAR unless renewed by the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council or by Congress. It is our thought that either the FAR Council or Congress will have time to realize the importance of this program for small businesses in our country and deem this provision “essential to sound procurement.” But for now, we will take the win on continuing this important provision in federal government small business procurement.

If you have any questions, contact your APEX Counselor. It is what we do!

--Dana Delano, Senior Procurement Counselor serving Aroostook and northern Penobscot counties