Quarterly Performance Reports Due July 31.
Your quarterly performance report is due a month after the end of the quarter. For the quarter ended June 30, 2008, send your report to your ITA team leader. Your team leader will share the report with other ITA members of your team for review. If these team members have comments or questions on your report, please respond to them promptly. The ITA leader of each team is supposed to send your performance report to the MDCP Manager by August 11, for final approval.

Let Us Know Which Companies Plan to Participate.
As soon as you know which companies plan to participate in your upcoming events, please let us know. We have a network of over 100 Export Assistance Centers EACs) across the United States. No company participating in an MDCP project activity should do so without having an opportunity to coordinate with their local EAC. Our local staff can be very helpful in being a nearby resource to answer trade questions, connect companies to needed trade resources, and helping companies to network with new clients. In some cases, we may even be able to help you to recruit companies for your events. Let your ITA team know who is planning to participate in events so that these participants can benefit from all the ITA has to offer.

Fiscal Year Operating Plans Due September 12.
Each year during the award period, the combined project team formulates an operating plan based on the work plan submitted in the application. The plan identifies project events, projected dates, team responsibilities, and a rough cost estimate for each event and ongoing activity scheduled during the fiscal year (October through September). Some of the planning by ITA and other federal MDCP team members is affected by the federal fiscal year. So, get together with your federal team members and plan for October 2008 through September 2009. Your ITA team leader needs to submit this plan to the MDCP Manager by September 12, so start coordinating now.

The fiscal year operating plan is a blueprint for team activity worked out between the MDCP partner and the federal team leader. For example, one activity listed could be a trade mission. In addition to dates and the person responsible, the MDCP partner would list a rough estimate of costs based on the project budget submitted in the application, as amended. This estimate does not need to be very accurate. It will not be cross-checked with the Grants Officer. In a separate column, ITA’s federal team leader estimates the amount of ITA administrative funds needed to pay for federal travel and certain other expenses incurred supporting the mission. (Funding of federal team members’ participation is subject to availability of funds.)

Are you taking photos of your project activity?

We've begun to update our success stories and hope you will be doing the same to appropriate audiences. Such stories work best when accompanied by pictures. Here's one example: HTC.

Do you include ITA's emblem on MDCP project-related webpages and promotional material?