12445124R0001 2024 Southern Research Station Shortlist (SRS) CONTRACTOR TOWNHALL TRANSCRIPT.pdf

12445124R0001 2024 Southern Research Station Shortlist (SRS) CONTRACTOR TOWNHALL- 20240125_140315-Meeting Recording

January 25, 2024, 7:03PM 1h 22m 29s

Alves, Steven - FS, KY started transcription

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 0:05 My camera.

So as we go, I'm gonna try to answer as many of the typical questions as possible.

So this is your meeting.

I allotted an hour, but as my team knows.

I can talk for hours and days on a particular subject.

So what we're gonna do is, uh, we're gonna pace it.

For what you want to hear, because that makes it more beneficial for you.

I do this every day.

You might be new to the process, so we'll take as much time as it need as as you need to be comfortable.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 0:46 So with that, I'm gonna go ahead and turn off my camera and we'll go to the slide show.

And I'm making sure I don't leave anybody in the lobby as I go.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:05 So our first slide again is just the typical cover slide where we're talking about this is gonna be the SRS process specifically to give the engineering firms that may be interested in it and idea of what it is.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:22 And I'm gonna go through.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:26 What the short list is the process for us using it.

How we evaluate your data when you submit it to us and what happens in years one through 3?

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:42 So again, my first slide is a.

Again, I use this slide show for briefing, both contracting officers and engineers on the USDA.

But I'm gonna use it for you too.

So that way your process and understanding of the process is the same as ours.

There won't be any misunderstanding.

So the first big slide you come to is who in the the region 8 manages the SRS short list.

Both myself on CSA 11 and Jim Hunt.

He is on CSA 10.

I sit in just outside of Lexington, KY, and Jim is out of North Carolina.

So most of you, when you actually start seeing the shortlist being used, will be dealing with the contracting officer with an architect and engineering warrant at the local level.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 2:43 So they may be sitting in Mississippi or Louisiana or Georgia or with our short list, they may even actually be in Alaska.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 2:54 So our short list actually spans the nation, which is kind of a kind of neat.

So First off is what is a short list?

So within federal crime contracting, under far 36, which is labeled construction and engineering.

Architect and engineering specifically falls under like far 36 six.

So as some of you may have experienced in the past, you would see a sam.gov advertisement or call for qualifications for a very specific project on sam.gov.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 3:45 It follows a specific timeline and they go through a board evaluation.

A short list is permitted under 36 DOT 602-5, and what that is is a the creation of a pre, uh reviewed pool of vendors for projects under the simplified acquisition threshold.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 4:15 So we do a call for qualifications and this gives you this slide gives you a little bit of information about how that process works and I'm going to go into it a little bit more, but it also under 36602 dash 5, it explains how the selection boards operate under the short list.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 4:38 So when I go through the slides, this gives you a reference point back to where I pulled all of this information from.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 4:51 So.

Off of this slide, most of the most of the first questions are is what is the short list?

Again, it's a pre vetted pool of engineers.

They all have to be small businesses and it's for projects under $250,000.

So that's the when I say projects, I'm talking your engineering fees and analysis and designs.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 5:20 All of that has to be under $250,000.

So how do you fine the SRS call for qualifications?

So this particular.

Call was placed on sam.gov.

It was approximately a the second or third of January.

So if you two were to go to sam.gov.

And type in the solicitation number that 12445124 R 0001 you it would bring up that the call for qualifications and on there you will find all kinds of information.

So it'll give you this year, we actually put in there.

How many awards that we had?

How many?

How much did?

How was the dollar value of the cumulative awards?

What was it we have?

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 6:29 What was it we awarded for?

I give you.

I gave you a breakdown of that and I put these in the OR the the sequence in which, like we awarded them so the most projects we did were like surveying bridges and Rd replacements and then umm, as designs after that.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 6:52 So this Sam dot gudat advertisement will give you a lot of information.

And on this slide show which I'll I'll post up, it also has a link to that advertisement.

If you don't feel like doing a a contract opportunity search.

So one of the first big questions firms have is, you know, is this really worth my time?

Umm, let's face it, the cost to prepare an SF 3:30 is substantial on engineering firms.

That's why the federal government only requires an SF 3:30 to be updated every three years.

So we run on that same promise that.

Is it worthwhile to put an SF330 together and one of the questions we get is well, can you tell me how many projects you're gonna have in the upcoming year?

So the good news is I've got answers for all those questions.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 8:02 So the first question is, how do I know is?

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 8:08 Is it worth my while to prepare this SF 3:30 and submit it for the short list?

Well, on the USDA, actually, all federal agencies are required to prepare a procurement forecast.

They do it at the beginning of the year and then it is updated midway through the year in which they list all of their contract opportunities that that may be advertised during the year.

I've provided you a on this slide show.

I've got a link.

And the big fancy arrow and what happens when you go to this?

I'll take you there right now.

Again, this is run by our small business advocate in Washington, DC and all agencies.

I'm I have some form of it.

This particular site is for the USDA, so if you go to either this dash or this dashed down here, business opportunities.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 9:17 It will bring you up.

Umm, a forecast?

Let's hope it works here and I don't crash the system with everybody.

This brings you up.

I will try to make it larger.

All the opportunities that the USDA let's go this way.

Is going to be potentially I'd advertising for for the year.

So as you can see right now it's up to 3823 lines within it.

It gives you.

Actually I got a better slide, but you can see it gives you a description of what it is they're looking for.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 9:56 The next code that's one of the big questions people ask is you know what?

What next codes do you process?

Engineering awards under it gives you a potential price range for the project.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 10:09 And then as you scroll to the right, this also provides points of contact email numbers, phone numbers and the quarters in which they intend to.

Ohh solicit it since I made this like if I scroll over here you can see that other information.

So a wealth of information here it's free of charge and you don't have to have a Freedom of Information request filed.

So it's just sitting there for the for the asking and I'll have that slide show out for you.

So you can click on that link and go in and explore.

Now the good thing about it is is it exports in a Excel or CSV file.

So the good news is, is it's very sortable and you can look at it and potentially develop a business plan around some of those projects.

Now I one thing you have to remember and we'll get into it is architect and engineering is the one thing in federal government that's unique in that.

Firms are selected based upon a best qualified status and not by price, so it's contradictory to everything else we do in the federal government.

Architect and engineering firms just remember the term best qualified.

So going back to the procurement forecast and answering the question is of how much are you gonna spend potentially this year if you download that Excel spreadsheet and you sort it to the next codes and I'll give you a listing of naked codes here in a minute.

These are largely these are the next codes that are on the SRS short list call, so I'll show you that sheet here too.

We're we're working to the actual solicitation on this thing.

So there's your naked codes.

Then you can also do a sort by state.

This will get you to.

The areas that are covered by the SRS short list.

So basically I'm getting your funnel down now to point you towards.

OK, now now I know what they may be doing in these engineering categories in these states.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 12:52 Here is an example.

Let me go to my next slide here.

Here is an example of what that would look like.

The mission area.

So why is missionary employment missionaria and agency?

This is open to all USDA agencies, so the Forest Service might not have anything in

UM.

Bridge work this week, but rural development is getting ready to do something so rural development, farm production and conservation can use this list.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 13:31 Animal, plant and health can use this list, so again, don't narrow down your search to simply the Forest Service, unless we're where your favorite agency and you're not gonna work for anybody else.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 13:49 So always cast the broadest net and then again in the description column it'll give you a brief idea of what they're looking for.

So if your expertise is boundary surveys, you might wanna look for the boundary survey flag words.

Now, as you're gonna see, even with my list of awards, it's only as good as the information that people are typing in.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 14:21 And these description fields are free form, so there's no standard.

One way that it's worded so sometimes you have to use the best guess on it.

Anyway, you'll sort by your naked code, your descriptions, and then over at the far right you got city, states, and then you have your points of contact out on the far right hand, and so you can look at this and.

Get a rough guess as to business.

That's going to be generated.

So when I look this morning and I know I'm recording this but don't quote me as saying this is all gonna be short list information short list process.

There was roughly 70 to 75 lines that matched up with.

Projects that could potentially use the short list and that's for FY24.

So it's actually not a bad thing umm, to give you an example why the procurement forecast is better on our advertisement.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 15:38 We had roughly 70 to 75 projects over three years that used the short list, so you may actually have, umm, when when you add in the other agencies, it could be worth your your business model to pursue shortlist use.

OK so here is some data I pulled out of our award history.

Umm.

Again, by the naked code, the descriptions and dollar values and the number of awards we had, this is actually on sam.gov.

I'm call for qualification, so if we put that out there for everybody to see.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 16:33

So.

How do you go about preparing your SF 330?

You're lucky you're in luck today.

I'm not gonna go through line by line on how to put together your SF 3:30 unless you really need me to.

Uh, it's a federal form.

Nine of the 1st 14 pages of it are how to put it together and so if you need me to go through that, I will.

What I'm more interested in is giving you the information you need to submit your SF 3:30 to the short list.

So here's a slide.

These are attachments to the sam.gov advertisement.

The first is attachment A.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 17:25 That's a cover sheet and I'll show you these here in a second.

Then the actual standard form 3:30 and the good news is attachments.

C through F are all informational.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take you to my next slide.

This is the attachment a.

And I'll pull you up an actual copy of it.

So you're not having to squint at the little itty bitty slide here.

So.

What we do when you fill out this attachment a.

We use this information to build an Excel I'll spreadsheet of all firms that are included on the SRS short list.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 18:20 Name of your firm telephone number.

It's pretty excellent.

Explain it.

It's it's self explanatory.

I getting tongue tied here.

The main thing we find with with this form where we run into problems is people give us.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 18:39 Obsolete email addresses, so usually we'll get.

We'll add add of 100 contractors.

I'll usually get 5 or 10 where the emails start rejecting, so make sure you give us a good email address.

I'm does.

Your firm is your firm, participating in any socioeconomic programs.

So for example, the 8A program woman owned small business service disabled veteran.

Uh hubzone, there's a five blocks there for you to put your participation in those.

Simple email address on where to send it to.

Please do not send paper copies.

We've gone, we've gone 100% uh, a tree free.

So we use a virtual trees in our products.

Now page two of the attachment, what project locations are you looking for?

Say for example?

We really wanna work in Alabama or Alaska or, you know, what are your preferred locations?

Future project areas that you may be wanting to work in or get into now we have a list of states we would like you to check off which state you would like to work in.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 20:12 Now, in some cases you're required to be licensed in that state to do work there.

So as you check those, just make sure of of the requirements.

Sometimes they don't.

It's it's just there's no one answer fits all for that.

Because sometimes on federal property they don't require it, some states do.

But check off what states you would like to be working in and then down below #6.

Check off what snakes codes your firm would like to be considered in.

This form is very important, so if you can just do us a favor if you if you incorporate this into another PDF, please leave it in editable mode.

Because if you leave it in editable mode, I can just drag and drop this stuff onto my Excel spreadsheet.

Whereas if you lock it down, I can't copy and paste and then I have to sit and hand hand type all of this stuff for 100 and 100 plus vendors so it makes it very time-consuming.

What we can't drag and drop.

OK.

So that's the first big attachment attachment a.

OK so.

Some information for putting your SF 3:30 together.

Let me throw up a quick shot.

This is attachment bee.

This is what and SF 330 looks like.

So again, the first nine through four, nine of 14 pages is examples on how to fill it out.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 22:13 So the first you know those first nine pages, you can separate them off, throw them away.

When you get down here to part one and two, those are the sections we absolutely have to have.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 22:26 Again, you're gonna tell us a little bit about your firm, the projects, your, your proposed team that you're gonna have.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 22:36 An organized org chart resumes.

Brief description of projects in places.

So, uh, section G again, you've got key personnel and then you check off.

In your example, those projects that they worked on.

And then any additional information and it allows you attach a supplemental sheets.

When I train my engineering team on reviewing SF Three 30s.

When you have 100 of them, it takes quite a lot of effort, even when you're doing your draw down to find the firms that may be able to meet your requirements.

As you put together your 3:30, when you get to Part 2 this section and I think I let me make sure I got it back here.

Yeah, in your in your first part one, again, these are the projects that we do the most of in order of of awards for historical purposes.

So as you put your 3:30 together, this will help you structure it in terms of the potential for consideration.

So if you're a multi.

Faceted organization. Umm.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 24:21 It may not be a good decision to build your first part of your SF 330 solely around drafting services.

Why would you not want to do that?

Well, if you go back up to, you know, Business Awards like our drafting service, our drafting services, you know had zero awards.

So you wouldn't really want to build your 330 solely around that function.

So take a look at this list and you can see the types of awards that we that we process the most of.

And then again, back to the 3:30 going on to Section 2. Here's.

The way I I instruct our engineering teams to look at this Section 2, Part 2, the general qualifications is your best friend when you're doing your drawdown and you might do an initial consideration of 20 firms.

The Part 2 in the very back down at the bottom blocks 910 and and 11.

I just dropped his resume.

Norman Wixon 25:41 In the chat of this this girl for you guys to pull up if you want, but the blocks 9.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 25:50 10 and 11 are reviewers friends because it lists the disciplines.

How many people you have in those categories or how many employees?

How many you have at the branch?

So you have an instant block to measure potential capacity to do work.

The block on the right, the average.

Experience and and profit or revenue for the last five years, this block and it's not filled in.

But this block gives us where your firm is generating money.

So for example, if I need a drafting service and I look on here and you have $0.00 in drafting.

You might not be a good fit for the requirement, just like if I need a bridge inspection service.

I look back here and if you have very little bridge inspection service and very low dollars generated in that category, it's potentially not a good fit.

Just like if you if you have a lot of dollars in there.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 27:18 You could also not have the capacity, so sometimes it's a double edged sword.

So these boxes right here actually help our review and assess a capacity.

Potential expertise in those areas.

And then a block that a lot of people don't even realize is there down in the very left hand corner.

Federal work, non federal work.

It's not a bad thing, but sometimes the government can be a little finicky on certain things.

So down here we also have the ability to see how your firm.

Again, where the where the dollars are generated from, whether it's just a commercial work or to include federal work, we get a good breakdown of that.

So a lot of times it's good to consider non federal work because you might bring in different business practices in terms of the design effort that our people hadn't thought of.

So let me go ahead and I'll get out of this.

So that's your SF 3:30.

SO4R SRS short list we're trying to limit the SF 332 a total of 50 pages.

And again, it's a the reason we're doing that is one we've issued a generic call for qualifications, which you could try to answer every single thing on this list.

We know you can't.

Focus on those things that are important.

We'll take into consideration that last page that I was showing you and as we go through the process, I'll show you where we can roll those things together to try to generate a a complete picture of your firm.

Let me I see a hand up.

Let me see if I can make this work here.

Oops.

Dog on it.

I think I just denied you.

Let me do this.

Let me go to the chat and I'll look back in here.

So since I just.

Hung up on the.

See, you're go back here too, people.

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Michael Werner 30:02 Hey, this is Mike.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 30:02 This is a.

Michael Werner 30:03 I had my hand up.

I put the ohh there.

There you go.

I thought I you last time you.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 30:06 Usually I end up hanging up on everybody and everybody drops off, so I try not to hit too many buttons on this thing.

Yeah, no worries my my question.

Michael Werner 30:14 Question is simply in in section 9 in Block 9, when you're listing them the employees and as an architectural firm we have a staff member who is an architect and an interior designer.

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Michael Werner 30:26 How do you list that on?

How do you interpret that in the?

In that section where we're not trying to exaggerate, right, we don't want to exaggerate our tour total employee count, but we have somebody who wears a dual hat.

This this put it this way.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 30:45 Why I don't have?

I'll be honest with you, I never be BS.

I don't have a true answer for you.

If I had to bet money, we're going to go back to the Department of Labor and they're gonna say whatever the preponderance of their work is, is where you would list them.

So that makes sense.

So I mean that's that's the typical.

Usually they say, well, the preponderance of work put it this way.

We aren't.

We aren't gonna look at this and go holy.

Smoke.

You're you know this this is.

It's it's not a, it's it's.

It's a representative representation of your firm, and as long as you do your best and it's accurate to the best of your knowledge, we aren't gonna put the hammer on you now.

The the only time I think you would run afoul on this is if for some reason, uh, I don't know.

You decide to put 50 bridge engineers on there and you only have one and we start seeing problems with awards that were generated as a result of looking at this.

Then we could have a problem.

So a dual a dual hat person I I would say represent it the best you can.

Usually it's the preponderance of the work they do.

OK.

Kafil Jamil 32:18 And just looking real quick here.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 32:22 OK, so how does one of the questions I see over in the comments and I, I'm sorry I've I've been kind of churning along like a little train here and like I'm making sure, uh, let's see here.

Can you share the word breakdowns by date?

The I can, but I'd have to go back into my spreadsheet and like rerun it and all that.

Umm, off the top of my head, Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

I know of only like 1, one or two, so northwest and Alaska been slow to to use it.

Umm.

Some of them, there is one out in California and all that that.

Umm, they run that I don't get involved with out there.

Umm do you want the cover sheet submitted separately from the SF 3:30?

You can we will not freak out if they're filed separately.

We'll we'll work with that.

It's not a problem as long as it comes in as what we're looking for.

Kafil Jamil 33:33 Umm, what are the pros and cons of selecting all?

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 33:36 All the states versus the states that your firm has a lot of experience in.

So let me hold on to that question and I'll show you how it works and it'll make more sense when you actually see it.

Umm, OK, piggybacking is forest region 6 and 10.

OK, so right now the.

Region 10 or put it this way, let me get to the spreadsheet and some of this will make more sense when you see it.

Some people this is not a replacement for DOI Department of Interior ID IQ or other agency may talks.

This is just another tool or another way in which you can obtain architect and engineering services.

Some of the approval processes in terms of who has to sign off on the selection does change depending upon the tool you use, so that was for Ryan Elliott.

Umm the split one?

Yes, I will make the actually, I'll, I'll, I'll turn the PowerPoint slides into a PDF.

So I make them really small, so it won't like blog up your your email box.

And good question, Tom.

That's a what is the process?

The the shortlist process I was actually getting into that, so it's a good a good segue.

Section F requires 10 projects.

How many should be from prime and and the subcontractors?

The balance is up to you as far as the mix between prime and Subs.

When we look at it, we consider it as a 100% capability.

So when we look at it, we go, OK, well, you know, the prime is has got six or seven and they use subcontractors on three now if you're.

Prime has one and and nine subcontractors that could be sending a message in terms of capacity or capability.

And that's just me being open and honest and saying.

When we look at considerations, that's one thing we do look at.

We treat it as a whole, but that balance, umm, is also considered.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 36:19 Umm.

Do we need to include engineering?

You can you can.

Again, you can submit for.

Whichever naked code that you want, you can you can put one down or you can put three at.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 36:41 Well, whichever firms you're can, your firm is capable of working.

So you can you can if your form can do all of them and has experience and all of you can check all of the lakes codes.

Sorry, I should have been showing the the slide here.

You can select all of those.

There are.

I'll show you an example of the sheet from last year.

So anyway, this slide here was just me going over that last page of the block to or Part 2.

The general qualifications for Blocks 910 and 11.

So how does this process work?

1st I'm gonna show you umm I've got to show you this Excel spreadsheet because then it will make more sense.

You've done your due diligence.

You've put together.

Your SF 3:30 and I know on your screens if your screen is little itty bitty you're looking at this and your eyes are hurting right about now.

Yes, I see nods.

Yes, this is insane.

What the heck?

We have to take all of your information and fill out the contractor, block your unique identifier number, your point of contact, your email address, your phone number, your firm's website.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 38:09 I'm gonna hide these columns to get them out of the way.

So if you remember on the attachment a.

See if I can highlight this right here.

We ask you which state you would like to work in, so we have these states all listed.

So wherever you put a check, we put a check for you.

Here we put a check for you.

So that's how we map the states.

And again, this is at the state level too.

So it's not just the Forest Service.

Now we get into the naked codes where you're asking about whether you can check 123 all of them.

Here's an example of a firm that only selected 1234.

They selected four different lakes codes.

Here's a firm that selected all of them.

So we go through and we we transpose all of the information from that attachment a you send us and we put it into the column that you the next code in the states that you want to work in.

Then we also upload any socioeconomic program that your firm may be participating in.

So each little X is where the firm what the firm is participating in.

One of the questions may be well, can I participate in more than one socioeconomic program?

Well, yes, that's possible.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 39:51

You may be.

I'm sorry.

Somebody just keep me in on this thing here.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 39:58 So I gotta thank you.

I'll let him in.

Anyway, you could be more than one.

You could be you zoom in on this.

You could be 8A and A hub zone.

Phone you may be.

I think we got a couple down here.

You may be a hub zone and a woman owned business.

So once we fill out this Excel spreadsheet.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 40:30 Will do a quick review of your SF 3:30 and let me show you that slide.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 40:38 I don't know if you're interested in it or not, but I will show you we do have a process, so this is our sheet where we go through and we look at your firm technical past performance.

And then contracting side does a responsibility assessment where we look at things like your, you know, do you have any Sam warnings?

Have you had any terminations for default?

We go through all of these things and it's a simple yes or no.

If we have comments, we write them in.

Same with engineering.

They go through and they'll look at your SF 3:30 on a generic nature and they'll assess.

Do we think your your potentially high risk or we we do a confidence risk we think you're gonna do great.

You'll do.

You'll do probably average umm, they may need some help.

Now again, we put our review comments in down at the very end, the engineering team, the team lead will sign off the contracting officer that's ahead of that team will sign off and will make the recommendation to include or do not include umm in the three year four years I've been doing managing this, I've not seen a firm not being included.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 42:17 So if you are going to be excluded, we are gonna let you know and we'll we'll get with you.

And I hate the word adjudication.

We will get with you and see if we can resolve what is causing that potential low score that do not include recommendation.

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Kafil Jamil 42:43 OK, so that's the the.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 42:45 Find the scenes what we do with your package when it comes in.

We do that in conjunction with filling out the spreadsheet.

Looking at your three 30s, so once that all happens and see I told you, I could probably talk for well over an hour.

Sorry, the dogs are demanding lunch.

OK, here is how all of this pulls together.

The engineering group will generate a actually they don't.

They won't generate it in the system right away.

They'll email A-Team lead and say hey, I've got a engineering need for let's let's say.

I need an aquatic fish passage designed in conjunction with erode design.

All assign them as CEO, a contract of sorry, a contract officer or contract specialist to start working with the engineering team.

Dell have built the statement of work what they think the firm should be doing and we have them fill out a A recommendation package and it's not something they can sit down and complete just by looking at the SF Three 30s.

So.

I'm debating on showing you the form or just using this.

I'm not sure that you can really see what's going on here, so I'm gonna open up the form and show you actual.

When they generate the package, they tell us the type of project they have, the type of engineering firm they're looking for.

Umm, what are their qualifications?

What kind of past performance are you looking for?

Do they have to have specific specialized experience?

So sometimes?

You know, it might have to might be a project dealing with historical properties, or we had actually archaeological surveys on Native American lands.

So this is an opportunity to tell the contracting officer that will ultimately get this, the things that were considered by engineering.

So some of these fields will actually look very similar to remember the 10,010 thousand line Excel spreadsheet.

I'll pull that back up.

When you go over here, all of these things.

It's.

Well, go into the top of this sheet.

So for example, the snakes code, what are they looking for there?

Do you want to consider a socio economic set aside?

What is the cost of the project?

We need that to make sure it's under that $250,000 simplified acquisition threshold.

How soon do you want it to start and when do you need it by?

So a lot of our projects will be done in conjunction with requesting construction funds.

So a lot of times we have to, you know, you have to have the the horse before the cart.

But that's, that's where that comes in.

No.

Hold on.

Dogs were revolting.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 46:58 OK, the pack has left.

Uh, mark.

Go ahead.

You got a quick question.

Mark Lishen 47:11 Unmute my my mic that regarding the different project types as an architecture firm for certainly capable of of stumbling teams with a basket array of expertise on all of the project types you're looking for.

Uh.

However, if we were to include, for instance, a bridge and dam company under our prime contract, would you be more inclined to give a project like that to an architecture firm with a dam expert on the team, or would you be more inclined to give it as prime to a dam?

A firm?

Umm there's.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 48:00 There's there's no one answer for that.

We some of our damn projects believe it or not, are we utilized another USDA agencies contracts and the contractors actually joint venture.

So it it just as always in contracting, it depends.

There's no one when when they sit down and they look at your package, that's one of the things they may ask for in the all of the steps are numbered.

And I was going to get to that, but.

Good.

And and I think maybe to follow up on that, Steven.

Mark Lishen 48:42 It would depend on how we assemble the team to stay within the 50 page limitation.

Ohh but for all of the consultants that we include, are you looking for a part to for all of the consultants as well?

Well, again, it's a.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 49:00 It's a.

The the the way I look at the SF Three 30s on the short list is it's a.

It's a smattering of your capabilities across a generic requirement.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 49:16 There's there's no me saying.

OK, I'm gonna have five damn projects this week.

So you're you're constrained by the generic call.

I could have put one out.

That said, we're gonna do only damn projects.

And you know you can have 200 pages.

So So what I'm saying is, during this process, the CEO can request either additional information.

Umm, I discourage requesting an updated SF 330, mainly because the cost to do that can be prohibitive.

It's also could be prohibitive to.

You know, try to build your SF 3:30 for every potential scenario.

So like I said, I think I think when you look at the list of projects we've awarded that you can put together a fairly good smattering representative of what you can do.

I know that's not a definitive answer, but.

But it's a definitive enough thank.

Mark Lishen 50:29 As well, I mean sometimes.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 50:31 Hence the the having a 200 page having a 200 page SF 3:30 on a generic call can be counterproductive.

So that's why I do the look at the dollar values in the back and and if it's in an area that you're, we're looking for a firm, then I go back to the general section and I look for those projects in that section.

Mark Lishen 51:01

OK.

Thank you, Sir.

And so anyway, is is part of our.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 51:06 Process and I'll try to speed this up to make keep from making you guys all go cont.

Subconscious here.

They they tell us a little bit about the engineering firm.

So we take that information, we transfer it to step one, which again is our initial drawdown filter.

So these are not all encompassing.

They can pretty much use any category on this worksheet, so for the sake of.

I'm gonna make this real easy here.

This is how this is how I work.

Work it with my engineers.

I'll hide.

Let's let's pretend we're gonna work in my home state, Kentucky.

I'll hide all the other states.

And then I'll, I'll start applying my filters at this point.

So what you're seeing right here is our initial drawdown right here.

That's step one.

Kentucky.

I'm gonna pick one that I know isn't like huge geoserver geophysical surveying and mapping.

You can see how by starting to apply these filters.

Now I start narrowing down to firms that.

May we may want to consider based upon that attachment a now.

This week they're doing, I don't know, the the Washington Small Business Administration has said we really need to generate business in hub zones.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 53:02 We can also come over and apply a hub zone filter.

So now I've got a list of four firms that provide me an initial pack to look at.

So what we'll do is we'll take this list.

Or there might be 15 or 20 companies on that list, and we'll go through and we'll we'll pick however many out of the pool we think we need.

So minimum is 3.

We suggest at least five I have had boards where they said no, no, we wanna.

We want information on all 15 of them.

What happens then is we'll take those SF Three 30s and we'll put them in a in a container box for the engineers.

That's when they go through Step 2.

So step through two is looking at the SF Three 30s and they will provide they'll.

They'll provide a confidence rating when you looked at the 3:30 on a generic level.

How do you feel about their professional qualifications?

They're fantastic.

They're they're good.

They're what we expect.

They have no qualifications in, you know, Electro stud.

You can tell him a business major, not an engineer.

They have no experience in XYZ.

Now what I always tell our engineering group when I train them is just because it's not there on the 3:30 or it's limited in nature.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 54:58 Don't do not penalize them because of that, because again, this was a generic call.

Look at that.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 55:07 Section 2 of the SF 3:30 and See where they're generating money from and then compare it back.

Do your ratings and what you're finding over here in the the capabilities and weaknesses.

So we do a strength and weakness actual.

I'm right out of what we saw within your 3:30.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 55:34 OK, I'm gonna go back to the comments because I figure people are gonna start throwing uh fruits and vegetables at us.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 55:43 So anyway, that's step two.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 55:46 We start drawing down this list.

Actually, we don't draw down the list at this point.

What we're doing in two is we're finding that we're refining.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 56:01

We're ultimately working towards that best qualified, so each step builds upon that firm's repertoire going into the next step.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 56:12 Step three is discussions with your with your best qualified firms.

So we actually will send out a letter where we may give you a copy of the statement of work we may give you some other kind of data or information to generate information from your firm to help us better identify who's best qualified.

So what I'll sometimes do.

I'll I'll sometimes ask for a two page.

What I call a cut sheet.

You know, it might be a simple Rd project.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 56:52 Send Me 2 pages of how you how you would do this road project in the statement of work attached.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 57:00 They look at that, they send me back, you know, this is a piece of cake.

We've done 200 of these, and here's here's 175 of them on the two pages.

The engineers will again sit down.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 57:14 They will look at that information and they will go back in and they'll I called the Lollipop chart.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 57:21 They'll go back through and they'll look at those same factors again and they will update that rating on the right.

Again, they will go through and look at the capabilities and weaknesses and they will expand upon.

OK, well now I've learned these new things.

Again, each step builds upon.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 57:47 On the the best qualified status.

The one thing I always like to point out to both the engineers and the CEOs, the one thing is on the leftover here, you've noticed there are no numbers.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 58:00 The firms are not racked and stacked at this point.

They do not receive a numerical rating until we get down into Step 4 letters.

Discussions we may even hold interviews and step three with the firms.

In step four, we do our final write up.

Here's how we see their overall, you know, factor 1234, the firm strengths and weaknesses.

Again, it's a culmination of all the steps you've taken.

And this is the first time where we've assigned a ranking one through three, so normally.

You rank them one through three.

You could have them one through 5, but the requirement is a minimum of three.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 58:58 And what they do with that is they will make a final recommendation.

The engineering chairperson and his board will sign off on this and they'll they'll include it with their requisition package to the contracting officer.

The contracting officer will review all of this information, all the data they've gathered, and they will either approve it or reject it and send it back to the engineering team for further work.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 59:31 That does happen.

So once the CEO approves it and they're comfortable with it, they will send a request for quote or sorry request for proposal to the number one firm and they will attempt to negotiate a price for the work.

Remember at the beginning how I said it's the one thing.

It's the one contractual action is contrary to everything else.

In this case, we get to best qualified before we even start discussing prices.

One of the big questions people say as well, we couldn't come to an agreement with with firm number one.

Let's negotiate with #2 and they start negotiating with #2.

And they go well.

No, no, no, no.

I've decided I want to go back to firm number one.

Their price was a lot better.

Architect and engineering.

That's a no, no.

Why don't you break off discussions with firm number one?

You can't go back.

You have to so.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:00:41 I always tell him sometimes the grass is not greener on the other side, so if you to break off discussions with one then you need to proceed solely with two.

And if you can't come to an agreement with two, you go to three.

You can't come to an agreement with three.

You can start.

You start the whole process all over again.

I've never seen that happen.

Yeah, I know.

It's I I see Irish shaking his head.

I've never.

I've never seen it happened to to go through #3 I've seen 2, but I've never seen three, so I've probably just jinxed myself.

Anyway, the process that I just went through is in these slides and I've got the little fancy arrows to show you how that drawdown happens.

The functions of the board.

And then the final slide, so actually my timing is not that far off.

There's only like 5 minutes over, so that's how, umm, the short list process works.

Believe it or not.

Even for projects over $250,000, if they advertise on.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:02:04 Sam.gov, if you see a best qualified call for qualifications, they will follow a process very similar to this.

The form may be a little bit different.

The justification blocks may be a little bigger.

Umm, but the general this is the general process under far 36.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:02:28 I just use PDF fillable forms because I hate people changing my word documents.

So I use this to lock them down.

OK.

So we're kind of at an end.

Umm, what I can do is, is there any particular?

Let's see here.

Please clarify the let me go through the questions here.

I will give you like all of the all of the forms I can give you samples of them if put it this way, I am open to critique.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:03:09 If you look at some of the forms and you go, Steve, this form is screwed up and doesn't comply with XYZ.

Please let me know because again we need to make sure the process follows the the Federal acquisition Regulation and our internal at least for four service our internal

PG I.

So I'll make sure I give you copies of all these.

Naturally, they won't be filled in, but I'll give you copies of them. Umm.

How often are the CEO's use like set asides for short list selection?

The when I ran the data that I put on the.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:03:53 Sam.gov notice.

Agency policy is anything under $250,000 is strictly reserved for small business.

That includes the SRS short list.

In fact, the SRS short list says specifically in the far you can only do this for under 250,000.

So when I ran our list the unfortunately the only way I can track if.

An award used the short list as if they properly load up the solicitation number on the FPDS Ng report and I know that makes everybody's head hurt me jumping around.

Umm, the data I gave you was based upon me sorting down by dollar value by the next code and by what they call the PSC code.

The product service code cuz all engineerings or C codes so.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:04:59 Just by narrowing down guesstimate we had, we had roughly 70 to 75 within the last three years that would have used the short list process.

Umm.

Mainly because they were all coded as a as a contract and not as a task order delivery order which you would have seen on the DOI, DOI or a may talk or some other.

Requirements type contract.

OK.

I think I killed that one.

Please clarify.

The 2:50 limit is for AE services and not the projected construction cost.

That is true.

So the 250,000 is the cost of the architect and engineering services, so within that.

$250,000 there is a 6% Brooks Act limitation on the design fee.

So your design fee is limited to 6% of the construction cost.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:06:14 And that law goes back to, I think I saw a show on it.

It's like 1929 and there's a lot of politics that were involved with it.

It's very interesting.

You can tell I'm a nerd on on the far it sometime but.

6% design fee and then you may have a analysis or research or some of those.

Those things don't fall under that 6% Brooks Act and would would make up the difference between your design fee and that $250,000 limit.

So let me give you an example.

A design fee on a construction project is $100,000.

Don't do the math.

This is just me throwing out to figure on the top of my head.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:07:08 I design fees $100,000.

Whatever that corresponds to on a construction project.

You have to do.

Subterrainian.

Borescopes you have to do soil perk tests, you have to do umm a I don't know, Native American NEPA analysis studies.

All of those come to $149,000.

Even so, my total contract would be $249,000 since it's under the 2:50, I can press with an award.

Normally I don't like to work them that close, cause usually you have some kind of change or something else involved, so I I don't like to recommend them.

They go that close, but you can see the the how the makeup is, umm, between the design fee and then all your studies, analysis and travel and all those things don't necessarily count against that 6%.

OK.

Did I?

I think I got that Kim Part 2 Section B for the company.

Or do we have to have one for every branch office we have that make participate?

I think I would refer you back to the directions for it, but I believe it has a section on there I it it's got it's broken down by branch too.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:08:47 I thought there was multiple columns for it.

Ohh.

Yeah, I wish I was with the DoD at times for that 10%, but sometimes the extra 4% might not be worth the hassle.

Actually.

Does usually when the DoD does it within the civilian world, usually you'll see.

You'll see the rest of the federal agencies change that.

Like I said, I think the 6% dates back to like it's, it's like night it's it's like right at the start of the depression and it had to do with different unions and stuff.

And influence in Washington. It was.

It's pretty interesting.

So they just updated the Davis Bacon Act after, you know, like 40 years.

Do you anticipate a future isby?

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:09:41 What is an ispy?

Sorry, some like I said this thing, but the older I get, the harder it is sometimes to keep track of all the all the changes.

So every now and I see a new acronym Pop up and that was like, I'm like that one.

I'm not sure of.

I will look it up.

No.

It's possible that's possible.

I'll put it this way.

We can umm, there's there's nothing that says we can't add it to the sheet right now.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:10:27 Umm, I know the the it's not.

It's Alaskan Alaskan owned Alaskan Native American like.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:10:36 I can't remember the acronym if.

If your firm has that socioeconomic category, let me know and we'll we'll add it to the sheet.

If we have to, I'm not.

I'm not opposed to it.

Like I said, it's it's a column on the spreadsheet and one on our Excel sheet.

We can.

We can correct that.

In fact, I may do it.

I may do it anyway.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:11:08 How's that sound?

I'll I'll pull up the official SBA categories and I'll I'll revise our attachment a that'll that won't take long.

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Alves, Steven - FS, KY 1:11:24 I won't put you on the spot.

I'll put me on…