Three MWBE/SDVOB outreach notices landed on the NY State Contract Reporter this week, and two of them close today. If you're a small minority-, women-, or service-disabled-veteran-owned shop looking for a way onto a bigger job, this is the on-ramp — and the clock's already running on half of it.

First up: SUNY Southampton's Student Center Structural Floor Replacement (RFI-001356), 39 Tuckahoe Road, Southampton, is out to bid through Stony Brook University and due today, September 4. Riding right alongside it is RFI-001420, an MWBE/WBE/SDVOB subcontractor outreach notice for the same project — the prime doesn't have an agency name listed on that notice, but the underlying bid does, and the two share the same due date and site. Both are posted through NYSCR's ad search.

Same day, same story at Queens College. RFI-001588 is a subcontractor outreach call for the Rathaus Hall Second Floor Renovation and Associated Asbestos Abatement at 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing — also due September 4. No trade or agency is listed on the notice itself, but the scope is plain: renovation work with an abatement package, which usually means separate openings for demo, abatement, and finish trades.

Here's why these notices exist at all. On state work, a prime has to show it went out and looked for MWBE and SDVOB firms before the contract gets awarded — it's not optional paperwork, it's a documented outreach requirement, and the notice you see on NYSCR is that outreach happening in public. For a small certified firm, replying to one of these isn't a long shot; it's the prime doing exactly what the state told it to do, and you're the audience they're required to find.

Four days out, Monroe County runs the same play twice on one job. The Peck Road Culvert Replacement over Buttonwood Creek Tributary (RFI-001449), on Peck Road about 1,000 feet west of Spencer Road, has its own MWBE/SDVOB outreach notices posted separately for Hilton (RFI-001615) and Hamlin (RFI-001617) — two towns on either side of the same culvert, both notices due Monday, September 8. None of the three postings list a dollar value, so treat this as a small-to-mid infrastructure repair until a tab says otherwise.

None of these six postings carry an agency name on the outreach notice itself and none list an estimated value — that's normal for MWBE/SDVOB calls, which ride separately from the main solicitation. Don't read the missing numbers as small potatoes; read them as a prime doing its homework before bid day, and an opening for whoever picks up the phone first.

If you're certified MWBE or SDVOB and you do structural, abatement, or sitework, today is the day for Southampton and Queens College — check RFI-001420 and RFI-001588 on the NYSCR ad search before close of business. If culvert or drainage work is more your lane, you've got until Monday on RFI-001615 and RFI-001617. Either way, the prime already told the state it's looking. Make sure it finds you first.