170525_ACVETEO_TAP_Re-compete_Industry_Day_Briefing.pdf

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

HERITAGE REPORTING CORPORATION

Official Reporters

1220 L Street, N.W., Suite 206 Washington, D.C. 20005-4018

(202) 628-4888 contracts@hrccourtreporters.com

IN THE MATTER OF: )

TRANSITION ASSISTANCE )

PROGRAM (TAP) RE-COMPETE )

INDUSTRY DAY BRIEFING )

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

HERITAGE REPORTING CORPORATION

Official Reporters

1220 L Street, N.W., Suite 206 Washington, D.C. 20005-4018

(202) 628-4888 contracts@hrccourtreporters.com

Pages: 1 through 49

Place: Washington, D.C.

Date: May 25, 2017

Heritage Reporting Corporation

BEFORE THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, ACVETEO

IN THE MATTER OF: )

TRANSITION ASSISTANCE )

PROGRAM (TAP) RE-COMPETE )

INDUSTRY DAY BRIEFING )

Auditorium

U.S. Department of Labor

200 Constitution Avenue, N.W.

Washington, D.C.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

The parties met, pursuant to the notice, at

10:09 a.m.

BEFORE: TIM WINTER

Transition Assistance Program Lead

PARTICIPANTS:

Panel Members:

CECILIA HILL, Contracting Officer Representation

ANTOINETTE INGRAM, OPS Division Chief, Division II

KEVIN ALEXANDER, Contracting Officer

Also Present:

LINDA SPILLMAN, Transition Assistance Program

Team Member

GLADYS BAILEY, Director of the Office of Small and

Disadvantaged Business Utilization

SAM SHELLENBERGER, Deputy Assistant Secretary for

Veterans' Employment and Training Service for

Operations and Management

P R O C E E D I N G S 1

(10:09 a.m.) 2

MR. WINTER: All right. Good morning, 3 everyone, and welcome to the Department of Labor 4

Veterans' Employment and Training Service TAP Re-5 compete Industry Day. My name is Tim Winter. I am 6 the Transition Assistance Program Lead here at DOL at 7

VETS, and so we'll go ahead and get started. I would 8 like to start out with some words of wisdom from a 9 couple people here at DOL, and we'll start out with 10

Ms. Gladys Bailey. She is the Director for DOL's 11

Office of Disabled and -- I'm sorry. 12

MS. BAILEY: Small and Disadvantaged. 13

MR. WINTER: Small and Disadvantaged 14

Business Utilization. Thank you. 15

MS. BAILEY: Good morning, and welcome. 16

Thank you for coming out to the Industry Day event. 17

I'm Gladys Bailey, like you say, the Director of the 18

Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business 19

Utilization, and I would like to mention that we're in 20 our third quarter of the fiscal year. DOL still has 21 requirements to re-compete and contracts to award by 1 the end of the fiscal year, so if you haven't had a 2 chance yet, could you please go out and take a look at 3 our procurement forecast on the dol.gov website when 4 you get a chance, and if you have any questions or 5 concerns about those requirements, there's a POC 6 listed there. You can contact them via telephone or 7 email. 8

Also, I would like to mention our next 9

Vendor Outreach Session is July 19 here at the 10

Department of Labor in the Great Hall from 9 to 12:00, 11 and it's free to all. If you haven't visited or come 12 to one, please go online and register. Registration 13 opens 30 days before the event. The event is July 19, 14 so registration will open around June 18, and if you 15 have any questions or concern about the Vendor 16

Outreach Session, you can also contact my office. 17

When you come to the Vendor Outreach 18

Session, you'll be able to engage with the DOL program 19 agency reps, and you can find out if your company's 20 capabilities matches DOL's requirements. I brought 21 some cards with me today, and if you have any 1 questions or concerns about the procurement forecast 2 or the Vendor Outreach Sessions or how DOL do 3 business, please contact me or contact my office. 4

Thank you. I'll leave them up here, my cards. 5

MR. WINTER: Okay. And I would like to 6 introduce Mr. Sam Shellenberger. He is our Deputy 7

Assistant Secretary for Veterans' Employment and 8

Training and Operations and Management. So, Sam? 9

MR. SHELLENBERGER: Thanks, Tim. You set a 10 high bar by saying wisdom. I don't know that I have 11 any wisdom for you today, but I do have some 12 information and some thanks. You know, again, I 13 thanked many of you as you came into the room. We are 14 glad that you're interested in this. This is a very 15 important thing for us, and we're glad that you see it 16 as important too. 17

It's important because it undergirds the 18 country's national security strategy. How? By 19 ensuring that an all volunteer force can continue to 20 work, that individuals who make a choice to go into 21 military service, a free will choice to go into that 1 service, on the back end, that they're afforded 2 certain benefits and privileges or at least 3 expectations, and one of those expectations is the 4 ability to transition out of military service into 5 civilian service, into a job where they're not going 6 to be worried about making money. 7

So DOL VETS funds a number of programs. We 8 fund a Homeless Veterans Program for those who fall on 9 particularly hard times and need to reintegrate into 10 society. We fund through states a program that 11 provides grants for, specifically for veterans with 12 barriers to employment, barriers to employment that 13 may have come up over a lifetime, maybe something 14 based on their military service, but ones who have a 15 great challenge. 16

But the TAP program is that first program 17 that all service members are intended to go through. 18

We do it in partnership with the VA and with DOD and 19 with the Small Business Administration, and through 20 that partnership, we provide the best start we can for 21 all individuals as they leave. As you know, the needs 1 of an Army infantryman after three to four years may 2 be significantly different than that of a general 3 officer after 26 years. Yet TAP provides that common 4 touchpoint of what is necessary to begin transition. 5

So it's important to us. I'm glad it's 6 important to you. We look forward to having a fair 7 and open competition that results in the best services 8 being delivered in a challenging place. You know, 9 that challenging place is across the world, you know, 10 on all our Armed Forces bases here and overseas. 11

There is a high level of expectation on what service 12 in those environments means. So, again, thank you for 13 your presence. Thank you for considering this. 14

MR. WINTER: All right. Thank you, Sam. 15

And, again, I would like to welcome you all 16 to the Industry Day today. Again, my name is Tim 17

Winter. I'm the TAP Lead here. I've been at DOL VETS 18 for over 10 years now, within this program, and this 19 is my second or third re-compete of this facilitation 20 contract here. What I thought I would do this morning 21 is I know that quite a few of you already have 1 experience within the TAP space, but then again, I'm 2 not going to assume that everyone does or that if you 3 have had experience that you get an understanding of 4 the whole program as it's laid out in law and as it's 5 practiced. So I thought what I would do is kind of go 6 through a TAP 101 with you at the very high level and 7 then start to drill down into what DOL's 8 responsibilities are within TAP and, you know, some 9 program-specific information, how we run the program 10 here at VETS. So next slide. 11

All right. So TAP was established in law in 12

1991 and really kicked off in FY92. So it is a well-13 established program. It's been around quite a while. 14

It is codified in law in Title 10. For us, it's 15 primarily Section 1144. And then also in Title 38 16

Section 4113. It is a partnership, as Sam mentioned. 17

It's a partnership between a number of departments: 18

Department of Defense and the Military Services, 19

Department of Labor, Veterans Affairs, Department of 20

Homeland Security for the Coast Guard. Then we've 21 also added in recently the Department of Education, 1

Small Business Administration, OPM, and to kind of 2 have a better, a broader depth of experience and 3 agencies coming into the program there. 4

And it is all, kind of, the overarching, 5

I'll say document that drives the program is the TAP 6

MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding, between all 7 those agencies, and that lays out all the, you know, 8 in detail what the responsibilities of each of the 9 departments and agencies are, and the most recent one, 10 the current one was signed in December, December 16 of 11 this last year, and so that does provide a good 12 detailed outline of what each of the agencies, what 13 each of the departments are responsible for within the 14 program. 15

The most major piece of legislation that 16 came out to affect the program was the VOW Act of 17

2011. For us here at DOL, there were two parts of 18 that that were very important. The first one is that 19 it made the Employment Workshop mandatory or made 20 attendance at the workshop mandatory for all 21 transitioning service members. Prior to that, it 1 actually made all parts of TAP mandatory, but for us, 2 that obviously is the most important part. 3

Prior to that, the Employment Workshop, the 4

VA benefits briefings, those were optional events that 5 the service members could go through. The only 6 mandatory part at that point was pre-separation 7 counseling, which they did with their services. So it 8 made attendance mandatory except for there are some 9 exemptions that have been detailed by the Secretary of 10

Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security, and 11 real briefly, those are, there are just a handful of 12 them, primarily if a person's retiring or if they 13 already have employment lined up, and by that they 14 mean, here's my offer letter for a job when I'm 15 getting out, and then some other ones with the Wounded 16

Warriors and then also with reservists as they come 17 out as well. So a handful of exemptions for the 18

Employment Workshop on that. 19

The other important part of that was that it 20 amended Title 38 and directed the Secretary of Labor 21 to use contract or to award contracts for the delivery 1 of the services that we provide under TAP. So, prior 2 to that, we had -- as I notice, this has been going 3 on since the early '90s, so prior to that, we usually 4 had a mix of state workforce agency people 5 facilitating the workshops and contractors. Prior to 6 the VOW Act, it was about 45 percent contractors and 7

55 percent state workforce agency people. So, but 8 with the VOW Act, it required us to go to all contract 9 facilitators, and we've been doing that since January 10 of 2013. 11

So those were the two big changes due to the 12

VOW Act. Next slide. Right at about the same time 13 the VOW Act was signed, the White House convened the 14

Veterans' Employment Initiative Task Force, and really 15 the outcome of that was a complete review and really 16 redesign of TAP as a program, and that took place in 17

FY11 and FY12 and we're still -- so the last part's 18 that the military life cycle, what they call, is 19 still, you know, being rolled out, but it's pretty 20 much been accomplished. 21

Probably the big upshot of that was we went 1 and looked at some -- by "we," it was all the partner 2 agencies involved in this, and looking at the program 3 and kind of taking it apart, deciding what was 4 necessary, what we really needed to have in there, and 5 also to answer, you know, some questions from Congress 6 about, you'll see in a second here, about different 7 tracks, the individualized tracks that the service 8 members can go through. 9

And so what we came out of that with was 10 kind of a standardized Core Curriculum, some of those 11 optional tracks, and then some events that take place 12 within the program, and to ensure that the service 13 members were getting the same kind of information 14 whether they were, you know, separating from Stuttgart 15 or from Camp Pendleton, so that they would get the 16 same kind of high-quality information, high-quality 17 facilitating and so on, regardless of where they came 18 out. 19

It also created an actual governance 20 structure for the program. Prior to that, it had been 21 kind of hit or miss and had probably not had a lot of, 1

I think, high level of leadership attention that it 2 really deserved and required. So, as of now, the 3 whole program is overseen by the TAP Executive 4

Council. Under that is what's called the TAP Senior 5

Steering Group, and under the Senior Steering Group, 6 you have, you can see here, the five different working 7 groups that are part of that. 8

You have the Interagency Working Group, 9 which was kind of all the operational folks in 10 carrying out the program, the Data Sharing and IT 11

Working Group, the Strat Comm Working Group, and 12

Performance Management Working Group, and the 13

Curriculum Working Group. And so all the workings of 14 the program are carried out through those five working 15 groups, and if decisions there need to be made, it's 16 brought to the Senior Steering Group level and then 17 finally signed off on the Executive Council level. 18

So, at each level, the groups are co-chaired 19 by the three main departments that are part of the 20 program, so it's co-chaired by DOD, DOL, and VA on 21 those, but each of the agencies and each of the 1 military service branches has representatives on all 2 those groups. And the lead chair position on those 3 rotates through those three main chairs annually, and 4 so not one particular department gets to completely 5 dominate and drive the agenda of the program, and it 6 really does, I think, go a long way towards 7 maintaining I think the excellent working relationship 8 that we've had at the federal agency level for this 9 program. 10

I think this program is probably one of the 11 best examples of collaboration between federal 12 agencies and federal departments that is out there, 13 and I think always has been, and I think it's a 14 testament to the mission of the program and everyone's 15 commitment to that. 16

So next slide, please. So, as I said, you 17 know, what came out of that, the Veterans' Employment 18

Initiative Task Force was this kind of standardized 19 curriculum or standardized approach to the program. 20

So you still have the pre-separation 21 counseling, which is conducted by DOD, conducted by 1 the military services. You have the Core Curriculum 2 and this is what -- so we came up with the term 3

Transition GPS for Transition Goals, Plans, Success, 4 and so there is a Core Curriculum to that and that's 5 what, you know, you see that up there as the Core 6

Curriculum, and then you have the specialized tracks. 7

So the Core Curriculum, if you took it all 8 at once, is a five-day evolution, and that's pretty 9 much how most of the services schedule them there at 10 the installations, but it doesn't have to be done like 11 that, but that's just how they generally schedule 12 them. So it consists of Resilient Transitions and an 13 overview of transition which DOD conducts. DOD also 14 does the Military Occupational Code Crosswalk with the 15 service members, and they're also responsible for 16 completing the Financial Planning Module, and so out 17 of that module, they have to develop their 12-month 18 transition budget, which is one of their career 19 readiness standards that they're required to have. 20

Of course, you have the Employment Workshop, 21 which, you know, of those five days, is the bulk of 1

it. It's three days, and so that's run by DOL. And 2 then, of course, you have the VA's Benefits Briefings, 3

I and II, as part of that as well. So that's the Core 4

Curriculum and that's required of all service members 5 except those who have exemptions for the Employment 6

Workshop, but other than that, they all go through 7 that. 8

To answer the question or the desire to 9 have, you know, something that's not one-size-fits-all 10 or maybe provides a little bit more information to the 11 service members on a particular track or particular 12 direction they plan to go, the Task Force came up with 13 these specialized tracks or these -- they're optional 14 tracks. DOD calls them additional tracks. Either 15 way, they're not mandatory, but the service members 16 are highly encouraged to take part in them. 17

So they have the Accessing Higher Education, 18 which is done by DOD, and that's for those service 19 members who plan on going to college or, you know, 20 using their GI Bill for that kind of education once 21 they leave the service. You have the Career Technical 1

Training Track, which we now conduct as of April of 2 this year, we've started doing that. VA had done that 3 prior to that, and that's for those who are looking at 4 information on credentialing, licensing, training, and 5 getting into, I won't say the trades, but into 6 something that may not require an actual four-year 7 degree or something like that. And then you have the 8

Entrepreneurship Track, which is conducted by the 9

Small Business Administration. Each of those tracks 10 is two days long, and, again, those are optional, 11 additional tracks that the service members could take. 12

So they wrap up their TAP experience or 13 their transition with what's called a Capstone event, 14 and that's also run by DOD, and at that point, which 15 is preferably to be conducted 90 days prior to them 16 actually separating, that's where the service will or 17 the commanding officer or through their representative 18 will check off with the service member that they have 19 met the career readiness standards and they've met all 20 the, they have hit all the wickets they need to do to 21 go through transition. 1

And that fills out what they -- it's now a 2 single form. It used to be the 2648 Pre-Sep Form, and 3 then the 2958, which was the Transition Plan Checklist 4 when they left the service. Now it's one single 5 electronic form, and so it covers that whole evolution 6 of their transition. 7

Okay, next one. So now we get into DOL's 8 actual responsibilities within the program. DOL has a 9 number of responsibilities within the program. Ones 10 that are the most -- that really drive everything and 11 are actually the basis of this re-compete are the 12 workshops that we conduct at installations worldwide. 13

So we, as of now, we do the Department of Labor 14

Employment Workshop. It is a three-day workshop 15 conducted primarily brick and mortar, because that's 16 our preference is to conduct these brick and mortar 17 and instructor-led training. 18

It is, right now, we focus on four main 19 competencies and you can see what those are. It's 20 developing and executing a job search plan, planning 21 for success in the civilian work environment, creating 1 resumes, cover letters, self-marketing material, and 2 then engaging in interviews, networking opportunities, 3 that type of thing. One thing that's a -- we, in FY11 4 and '12, we did a redesign of the Employment Workshop, 5 about the same time that the Veterans' Employment 6

Initiative Task Force was taking place, and we at that 7 point did a, I think a fairly major reworking of the 8 program from the 20 previous years that we had had it 9 with just some minor changes to it. 10

And then so, as part of the TAP governance 11 structure, part of the overall program, we take part 12 in the curriculum working groups review cycle of all 13 the curricula within the Transition GPS, and so that 14 career -- that, I'm sorry, that review cycle is a two-15 year review cycle. One year is a technical review of 16 the curriculum, and that's just to make sure that, you 17 know, any URLs that are in there are still active and 18 still correct, if there's any information that needs 19 to be updated, you know, different statistics, that 20 type of thing. If there has been legislative directed 21 information that needs to be included into the 1 workshops, that's where we'll insert that there, but 2 it's a fairly -- it's not a real deep dive review of 3 the curriculum. It's just a matter to make sure 4 stuff's up to date and that it's still correct in what 5 we do. 6

Then the next year is what's called an in-7 depth review, and that's where we actually go through 8 and you do a real detailed review of the curriculum 9 and the information and how you're delivering it and 10 is there a better way to do that or things that we've 11 missed completely. And so we had redesigned it in 12

2012 and then, in 2015, it was part of the review 13 cycle and we started getting into it. We did, I 14 think, a fairly major revision again of it because the 15 feedback that we had gotten then was that it's way too 16 much information within that three-day time period, it 17 needs to be more focused, and it needs to be kind of 18 focused on these four areas. And so that's how we 19 came up with that. 20

So that was in 2015. That curriculum has 21 been in use since April of last year, April 2016. So 1 we've had a little bit over a year under that. We've 2 had very good feedback, good survey results from the 3 participants on that, and so I think we're quite happy 4 with it, but again, you know, you never want to stand 5 still with these things. You want to make sure that 6 everything is current and as good as can be. 7

So leading into then the Career Technical 8

Training Track, right now we are using the VA's 9 curriculum for that because of the interagency 10 agreement that we came up with. We'll be using that 11 basically through this calendar year, and then, so 12 this year we're in this, in the in-depth review of the 13 curriculum, and so we're doing an in-depth review of 14 both the Employment Workshop and now especially the 15

Career Technical Training Track, so I think we're 16 going to be, we're really doing this in-house at this 17 point, and I think we are, with the Career Technical 18

Training, it's still going to be two days. It'll 19 still be, you know, in that time frame. 20

The thrust is still providing information on 21 licensing, credentialing, finding the training and 1 using your GI Bill to fund some of that, so that would 2 still be the thrust of it, but right now, if you 3 looked at it, it's very VA-centric, and not that 4 there's anything wrong with that, but, again, DOL's 5 going to be doing it, and I think DOL has a lot to 6 bring to the table when it comes to apprenticeships, 7 career training, and those type of things, and I think 8 we can provide an excellent curriculum with that. 9

So that, again, we're right in the middle of 10 that review, and I don't see a lot of changes for the 11

Employment Workshop. I think what we'll end up doing 12 is tying them more together in both of those two 13 tracks so that we can try -- what I really want to do 14 is be able to increase the uptake of the Career 15

Technical Training Track because I think it's an 16 excellent opportunity for our service members to gain 17 more knowledge to gain a better handle of what it is 18 they want to do when they get out. So that will, you 19 know, hopefully really tie those together and increase 20 the attendance that is taking place at the Career 21

Technical Training. 1

So the current curriculum is, again, it's a 2 two-day workshop and you'll see it walks the service 3 members through making those choices and pursuing 4 technical training. They'll go through and they'll do 5 some, I think, pretty detailed exercises on finding 6 out what credentials they would need for a particular 7 career, you know, find out training programs for 8 those, for those credentialing programs, and then how 9 to fund that using their, either the GI Bill or 10 training that is paid for through DOL or any number of 11 state workforce agencies, state workforce development 12 agencies out there as well. 13

All right. Okay. So now I'll get a little 14 bit more down in the weeds of our actual program here. 15

And on the Request For Information that came back, 16 there were a number of questions about volume, about 17 that type of thing, numbers that go through. So this 18 is the last three fiscal years. You can see the 19 volume that we had. Hopefully, you all can see that. 20

So, in FY14, we almost had 7,000 workshops that we 21 delivered to our over 200,000 participants, and in '15 1 and '16, it dropped, but I think if you look at the 2 separation of the data from DOD, that from 2012 to 3 now, you know, 2012, that's when they were really 4 reducing the size of the force, so it peaked in 2014, 5 so you had a ramp-up from them reducing the size of 6 the force to making all parts of TAP mandatory, and so 7 you had this big increase through 2014, which was the 8 peak, and then it dropped down again, and now it's 9 leveling off. 10

So FY16 was a little bit less in terms of 11 workshops but, you know, higher in terms of 12 participants, but, you know, right around the same 13 amount. Currently, in FY17, we're on par with FY16 as 14 far as number of workshops, number of participants as 15 well. So going forward, I see that being kind of the 16 level of effort or level of people coming out that DOD 17 is projecting. Now, of course, any number of world 18 events could change that, and so, but I think that 19 it'll hold steady going forward for that. 20

So the average class size for the domestic 21 workshops or the CONUS workshops is, I believe, 30 1 individuals. That's the average class size. The 2 average class size for the overseas is 23, I believe. 3

And, of course, you know, that can be highly 4 dependent upon the installation and their facilities, 5 what they have available, but gone are the bad old 6 days of 200 Marines in the Base Theater at Camp 7

Lejeune and one facilitator giving a death by 8

PowerPoint and not really getting much out of it. 9

So they try to be -- that was also part of 10 the task force working, is to really make, you know, 11 to provide a better learning environment, a better 12 instruction environment for the service members when 13 they go through these workshops. 14

So here's CTTT again. We just started it in 15

April, so I don't have, you know, a lot of historical 16 data for that. The data I got from the VA basically 17 looked at about close to 900 workshops a year, and I 18 think 10,000 or more, around 10- to 12,000 service 19 members going through it in any year. 20

So that's kind of what we based originally, 21 but like I said, I think we can have a lot better 1 attendance and a lot better uptake in that, so I would 2 really like to push it up to 1,000 or 1200 at least 3 workshops a year as we go forward with that. So 4 that's the brick and mortar that we do, and, again, as 5 it says in the first one, we do that at approximately 6

240 installations worldwide, and I believe, yes, and I 7 think on the PWS that we had there is a list of the 8 countries overseas that we are presently delivering 9 those workshops at as well. 10

And my feelings and I know the feelings of 11 leadership is that we lean towards supporting the 12 services, supporting and getting this important 13 information to the service members wherever we can get 14

it. So, you know, we make great strides in going 15 where the service members are, and so we provide it at 16

Gitmo, we do it in -- well, we were doing it at 17

Incirlik, but, you know, issues, security issues there 18 have kind of curtailed that for now, but Souda Bay, 19

Greece -- that's where I want to go -- but, Bahrain. 20

We tried Diego Garcia, but that nut was a little too 21 hard to crack and so the Navy decided, well, we'll 1 have our people go elsewhere for that. 2

But anyway, so we lean towards supporting 3 the services, and so there's a wide range of countries 4 that we deliver these to. You look at the numbers, 5 and I think this is a question in one of the RFI 6 responses, that yes, that does come out to over 100 7 workshops a week, average, okay, and that's using 52 8 weeks that it's over 100 workshops, probably closer to 9

120. If you figure in the number of weeks during the 10 year you're going to have little or no workshops, you 11 know, that pushes what you usually have up probably 12 closer to 150 workshops a week, and so you can get an 13 idea of what the volume is. And that's, again, that's 14 spread across the world. 15

A number of large installations conduct 16 multiple workshops every week, so Norfolk, Camp 17

Lejeune, Bragg, Camp Pendleton and so on -- of course, 18

Lejeune and Camp Pendleton, you can see my -- I'm a 19

Marine veteran, so you know where my interests are, 20 but anyway, so they run, you know, three, four, five 21 workshops a week there. And so they put through a lot 1 of individuals through those. But, again, it's, 2 they're looking at the same, they need the same 3 quality of facilitation that, if they're getting it 4 there or if they're getting it at a place that only 5 does it once a quarter, and some places will do it 6 maybe semi-annually. Again, it's depending on the 7 size of the installation and just their needs. 8

We also deliver a virtual version, and what 9

I mean by virtual, I mean real-time virtual where 10 they're in a virtual classroom and it's being 11 conducted in real time and it's done through the 12

Army's, their, it used to be ACAP, but their Soldier 13 for Life virtual Center platform, and, again, it can 14 be done anywhere they have a laptop or a computer 15 station, and so we do about four or five of those a 16 month, and that's one of the -- I forget the base 17 overseas, but that's one of the ways they -- that's 18 kind of the primary way we deliver that as well. 19

Again, when we first discussed it, I was 20 kind of skeptical about who's going to sit in front of 21 their laptop or their computer, you know, for three 1 days doing this stuff, but I was very impressed with 2 how interactive that venue was, how interactive that 3 was. So, and only, it appears that only Army or only 4 soldiers are able to do that. They have tried over 5 the years to try and be able to have the other 6 services get involved as well, but for some reason it 7 doesn't quite work out the way it's supposed to, so 8 right now it's really, I think, only Army is doing 9 that. 10

So that's the, what's called the synchronous 11 online version. Then we also have the asynchronous or 12 kind of the distance learning version that is 13 available on JKO, and all the modules of Transition 14

GPS are available there on JKO. You can also access 15 it through our website, through DOL VETS website, and 16 it'll have the same curriculum, the same modules, but 17 it'll be outside of JKO's firewall. The only thing 18 you don't get, the service member wouldn't get out of 19 that is they wouldn't get the certificate saying they 20 had completed it. So, in order to get that, they have 21 to go through, have to complete it on JKO. 1

But, so it's available for the public and we 2 did that because we really wanted to make sure that 3 all veterans had a chance to see that, to experience 4 it, and to make sure that the service members, once 5 they got out, they could still access and kind of 6 refresh and reinforce what they learned in the 7 classroom. As I said before, our preference is the 8 brick and mortar and it's always been brick and 9 mortar. 10

The purpose of the online on JKO, again, is 11 to, again, it's, if that's the only way that service 12 member can get that information before they get out, 13 then that's what they go through. And, again, but it 14 is, I think, a good source of being able for them to 15 reinforce and refresh what they learned in the 16 classroom, and so they can go back to that and make 17 sure that they're up on what they had learned before. 18

Along those lines, we -- sorry. I'll cover 19 that at the bottom here. We also conduct a modified 20 employment workshop for Wounded Warrior population. 21

Right now, the Army is the only place where we're 1 conducting it. It's not because we can't do it 2 anywhere else. We are more than capable of delivering 3 that wherever the services would want us to do it. 4

The Army has been the one that's been the most -- the 5

Army kind of helped us develop it and they helped us 6 pilot it, and that's where we've been conducting them 7 at this point, and right now we're doing them at 8

Belvoir, Fort Bragg, and then Fort Riley in Kansas, 9 and it's not a different curriculum. It's essentially 10 the same curriculum. What we've done is we've broken 11 it up into smaller blocks, and you space it out over a 12 number of days or weeks, so that allows a service 13 member who can't, because of whatever condition or 14 they can't sit through three days of class, or they've 15 got medical appointments they need to get to, that 16 type of thing, it allows them to take a lot more time 17 to digest and to work the, get the information. 18

And it seems to be working well, so we, like 19

I said, we are capable of doing it and I continually 20 pitch it to the services to say this is available, and 21 so we'll see if some of the other services want to 1 pick up on it as well. 2

As far as feedback on the instructors on the 3 workshop and so on, the program as a whole has an 4 online or web-based survey tool that the Defense 5

Manpower Data Center manages and has created, and it 6 is the Transition GPS Participant Survey, and it is a 7 big survey, but there are portions of it for each of 8 the modules that they go through, so they go through 9

Resilient Transitions, they go through the MOC 10

Crosswalk, they are encouraged to go on and complete 11 the survey for that, and so they have one for the 12

Employment Workshop and they have it for the Career 13

Technical Training as well. 14

We have, as I said, we've had very good 15 results from that. I mean, it's always been high, but 16 it inched up even further when we made the changes to 17 the curriculum last year, and so we receive that 18 information on a quarterly basis and then I share that 19 information with the contractor and with the vendor so 20 they can -- it takes some drilling down into just to 21 try and get an idea of who the facilitator was or 1 things like that, but I think it's a fairly, you know, 2 good, robust survey tool, and, you know, we're now 3 regularly getting the results from that as well. 4

We also here at VETS -- so VETS, how VETS is 5 laid out, we have field staff, federal field staff out 6 in all the states. So we have at least one staff 7 member out in the states, and, you know, they're there 8 to oversee VETS programs, and so one of VETS's 9 programs in the states is TAP, and so they'll interact 10 with the installations. So this is on the domestic 11 side. They'll interact with installations, and one of 12 their requirements is to make site visits to those 13 installations and evaluate the facilitators primarily. 14

They're not there to necessarily evaluate the 15 facility, though they can comment on it, but some of 16 that stuff is outside of our control, but they are 17 there really to evaluate the facilitators and making 18 sure they're doing a good job. 19

And so kind of the feedback loop for that, 20 as I said, with the survey data, we get that from 21

DMDC. We share it with the contractors. We look 1 through the comments on there. If there's issues that 2 need to be addressed, those are provided to the vendor 3 for resolution, and then we also use it over time just 4 to kind of track how the participants are reacting to 5 what's in the workshop. And then, for the site 6 evaluations, those are done, we load them into a 7 system that we have within VETS and on a quarterly 8 basis, again, pull that out, and that gets a little 9 more specific to a particular facilitator on that, and 10 so we provide that to the vendor as well so they can 11 see how their people are doing and then make any 12 corrections or, you know, give any attaboys that are 13 forthcoming from that. 14

Then kind of have the informal, the formal/ 15 informal feedback that I get through the services, so 16 if there's a particular issue at an installation and 17 that installation's transition services manager brings 18 it to their chain of command, who then comes over to 19 me, and then we, if there's an issue that needs to be 20 resolved, we do that. That's also how we address if 21 there are some just egregious installation or facility 1 problems within a particular installation. That's 2 where we can address that with the service and at 3 least try to give our input on the particular learning 4 environment and so on. 5

The services for their part within their 6 capabilities are generally very responsive to the 7 issues. So they try also very hard because you have 8 to understand, and I know many of you know this, that 9 the transition services people at the installation 10 level are as committed to a smooth transition for 11 those service members as we are here at Department of 12

Labor, and I think that's one of the great things of 13 the program, is that there are so many people that are 14 committed to the mission, committed to providing the 15 best service they can for those service members, and 16 so it's across the board. It's not just here at DOL, 17 but it's across the board in all the partner agencies 18 as well. 19

So, you know, we try to keep good lines of 20 communication going with the services, with the Office 21 of Secretary of Defense, the VA, so on and so forth, 1 so we can make sure that any issues that come up, we 2 address them quickly and get resolution on them 3 quickly. 4

Last but not least, the actual material used 5 in the workshops. The participant guides for the 6

Employment Workshop and the CTTT, we print it -- by 7

"we," DOL prints it through GPO and warehouses it, and 8 then we ship it to the installations so that it's 9 there for them when they set up for the workshops. 10

So we have in the last six months, we have 11 converted the Employment Workshop Participant Guide to 12 an e-book form, and it is available on Amazon Kindle 13 for free, and if you went in and searched for 2017 14

U.S. Department of Labor Employment Workshop, it'll 15 come up and you'll see it. The cover should say the 16

April -- I'm sorry, the January 2017 edition of that, 17 so we have that available. We are going to, with the 18 services, we're going to try piloting or to increase 19 the downloading of it because I don't think we're -- 20 we aren't as an agency kind of promoting it as much as 21 we would like to. 1

So, if I can get to the point in time where 2 we could have nothing but electronic material, I'd be 3 on it, but I think we'll always have a requirement for 4 hard copies, but this, at the same time, makes it 5 available to, not just the service members going to a 6 class but to those who aren't there, who lost it, or 7 for anybody, anybody who's -- because I think it's 8 good material and I think it's worthwhile having. 9

So the PDF version is also available on 10

VETS's website if a person prefers a PDF version of 11 that. So I think -- okay. All right. I'm getting 12 the high sign that I should let you all have a five- 13 to 10-minute break before we go into the question and 14 answer period of this. Again, I appreciate everyone's 15 attention to my droning on, and I thank you for that, 16 and so we'll come back in here at around 11, 11 17 straight up? Okay. Eleven o'clock, we'll come back 18 in here or we'll reconvene. Thanks. 19

(Whereupon, a brief recess was taken.) 20

MS. SPILLMAN: Good morning, everyone. 21

ALL: Good morning. 1

MS. SPILLMAN: My name is Linda Spillman. I 2 am the Small Business Specialist for VETS. We are 3 about to do our question and answers portion. The 4 first thing I want to do is I want to introduce you to 5 our procurement team. 6

The young lady at the end with the nice 7 smile, that is our Division Chief for Division II, 8 which VETS gets all of our procurement actions done 9 through. Her name is Ms. Antoinette Ingram. And the 10 gentleman to her right is our new Contracting Officer 11 and his name is Mr. Kevin Alexander. They will be 12 answering any of your procurement questions, and we're 13 going to start this off really slow, really easy. You 14 all are spread out pretty good, so we're thinking that 15 we're going to be able to maneuver to you when you ask 16 a question. We just ask that you stand up and afford 17 us the opportunity from each side to come and bring 18 you the mic. Okay? Wonderful. 19

Who has the first question? 20

MR. LIEBER: Hello, my name is Andy Lieber 21 and I'm with Management Concepts. Tim, when you did 1 your presentation, you mentioned in terms of the 2 curriculum that different entities have different 3 parts, you know, DOD, VA, SBA. The question is, when 4 you designated those responsibilities, so do they have 5 the lead in developing the curriculum that is taught 6 in the Employment Workshop? That's number one, and I 7 assume that the contract facilitators delivers all 8 that content. Is that correct? 9

MR. WINTER: Yes, the -- so, when the slide 10 that had the core curriculum and the additional tracks 11 on that, so each of those, so Resilient Transition is 12 a module, MOC Crosswalk is a module, Financial 13

Planning is a module, the Employment Workshop is a 14 module within the core curriculum, and the VA Benefits 15

Briefings are a module as well. So the agency that's 16 responsible for that module is the one who owns the 17 curriculum for it, so DOD owns the curriculum for the 18

Resilient Transition, the MOC Crosswalk. 19

Likewise, the VA benefits, VA, you know, 20 owns the curriculum for their Benefits Briefings. We 21 own the curriculum for the Employment Workshop. And 1

SBA owns it for the Boots to Business or for the 2

Entrepreneurship Track. So, yeah, so we're the ones 3 who develop the curriculum and we own it. I mentioned 4 the curriculum review cycle. At that point, we, you 5 know, we get, we like to get as much input from other 6 stakeholders as we possibly can on our curriculum 7 because we know there's a lot of expertise out there, 8 but then we're the ones who are responsible for, you 9 know, revising it, so on and so forth. And then that 10 curriculum is what's given to the contract 11 facilitators as they deliver this curriculum. So 12 that's how it's done. At least that's how we do it. 13

MR. LIEBER: Thank you. 14

MR. WINTER: Yup. 15

MS. WINDSOR: Hi there. Diedre Windsor with 16

Windsor Group LLC. Is there a coaching aspect to this 17 program, individual coaching aspect? 18

MR. WINTER: No, not individual one-on-one. 19

The facilitators, they are there, while they're there 20 for the workshop, you know, they do work with the 21 individuals within the classrooms, so, you know, they 1 go around and they provide feedback on resume work or 2 whatever activity they're conducting. They're also 3 there for about 30 minutes before and after to provide 4 some follow-up information on that, but they don't set 5 up individual appointment times to meet with the 6 participants. 7

MS. WINDSOR: I ask the question because 8 recently I've come in contact with a lot of military 9 spouses who don't understand a lot of stuff about the 10 military spouse program and the importance of becoming 11 a part of that before their spouse actually leaves the 12 military. 13

MR. WINTER: Right. I know in the past, 14 they always, many years ago tried to increase spouse 15 participation in TAP in general. It usually runs 16 about 1 to 2 percent of, at least of our participants, 17 are spouses. I know the services try to bend over 18 backwards or try to work ways to get the spouses 19 involved in that because back when retention was a 20 key, it was found that if the spouse was involved in 21 the transition process, the service member was more 1 likely to re-enlist, because the spouse, I think, 2 brings a good, I want to say, a good honest broker 3 position to the whole experience. So, but, yeah, 4 thank you. 5

MR. MIDDLETON: Good morning, Tim. Norris 6

Middleton, Management Support Technology, 7

Incorporated. The numbers for the special Wounded 8

Warrior workshops, are they included in your overall 9 numbers, or are there separate numbers for Belvoir, 10

Bragg, and Riley? 11

MR. WINTER: I'm trying to think here. I 12 believe those are included in there. I'd have to dig 13 into it. I could separate them. You know, I'd be 14 able to do that, I believe, so -- 15

MR. ROGERS: Dennis Rogers, also from 16

Management Support Technologies. To follow up on the 17 modified workshops for the Wounded Warriors, Bragg, 18

Riley, and Belvoir, is the intent to use those as a 19 pilot or to spread out to other locations, i.e., JBL 20 up at Fort Lewis-McChord or at other locations? Is 21 that an intent, to do Wounded Warrior or modified 1

Wounded Warrior workshops at other locations? 2

MR. WINTER: All right. We actually, we 3 could do it anywhere at this point because the Army 4 actually helped us pilot it, this was back in I want 5 to say FY13, FY14 is when we piloted it, and then for 6 the last couple years we've been delivering it at 7 those Army installations, so we, like I said, in the 8

Interagency Working Group and whatnot, I have briefed 9 the other services many times that this option is 10 available and have encouraged them to use it if they 11 want, but, so once in a while I'll get a little bit of 12 interest and then it doesn't necessarily come to 13 fruition, but we'd be able to anywhere the services 14 would like to do it and they have the population there 15 for it, we could certainly do it. 16

MR. ROGERS: One follow-up. 17

MR. WINTER: Yup. 18

MR. ROGERS: So I hear you telling us to be 19 prepared to execute Wounded Warrior modified workshops 20 at other locations. 21

MR. WINTER: Yes. Yeah. Now I wouldn't 1 say, you know, you wouldn't be looking at doing it at 2

240 installations because not all of them have, you 3 know, necessarily warrior transition units, that type 4 of thing, but -- and, you know, some of the 5 installations run -- have their, I guess it's SFAC or 6

I think the Army calls it -- and they'll -- some 7 places just run them through the regular workshops, 8 that type of thing as well. But like I said, we can 9 do it wherever they want to, because it's a mature 10 product at this point that we can deliver it. 11

MS. COOK: Hi. Kelly Cook with Evoke 12

Research and Consulting. Is there any expectation 13 that the contractor would be involved in kind of the 14 curriculum revisions or any of the working groups, or 15 is this just purely facilitation of the workshops? 16

MR. WINTER: One task is actual curriculum 17 review and revision, so that would be, I think the 18 draft PWS, the one with the RFI, had the task in there 19 for that. So it would be the, you know, kind of doing 20 the, I want to say the grunt work of developing and 21 reviewing the curriculum. So, as far as taking part 1 in the working groups, no, the contractor wouldn't be 2 taking part in that. So that would come through 3 myself or whoever else is the rep on the working 4 groups. So they would really be doing the work of 5 fine-tuning or developing the curriculum and then 6 completing the final products for that. 7

MS. COOK: Thank you. 8

MR. HIDY: George Hidy, Pathfinder 9

Consultants. Is there going to be small business set-10 aside requirements if this goes large, and what 11 percentage, and will it be for all economic 12 disadvantaged businesses, if you have already decided? 13

MR. ALEXANDER: Well, let me categorically 14 answer that. So let's start with the first part. Is 15 there going to be a small biz set-aside? Well, 16 actually, right now, this is why we are using this day 17 to formulate an acquisition strategy. So right now, 18 we don't know, but if this is a total small biz set-19 aside, if we decide to go that route, then by 20 regulation, we are not required to include a 21 subcontracting plan. Small businesses are not 1 required to do that, but I assume that given, you 2 know, what's taken place today that there will be a 3 lot of teaming, so whoever is -- if a small biz 4 happens to be the awardee, then you are more than 5 welcome to implement a subcontract plan at your 6 leisure. And what was the other part of the question? 7

MR. HIDY: If this goes large, have they 8 already decided there will a requirement for small 9 business, what percentages, and will that be for all 10 economic disadvantaged businesses? 11

MR. ALEXANDER: As of this point, we have 12 not determined the percentages, but if we go 13 unrestricted, given the dollar amount magnitude of 14 this acquisition, then a subcontracting plan will be 15 required. 16

MR. HIDY: But you haven't decided about the 17 percentage yet? 18

MR. ALEXANDER: We haven't decided on the 19 percentages as of yet. 20

MS. HAYES: Thank you. Hi. Ginger Hayes, 21

Zeiders Enterprises. I just wanted to follow up with 1 the question previously about the working groups. You 2 said that you would not anticipate that the contractor 3 would be attending the working group meetings. Does 4 that mean that the information for the curriculum for 5 that task that you laid out for curriculum development 6 and revision, that information from the working groups 7 would then be coming straight through to the 8 contractor for them to implement and put all that 9 together, so they would not need to plan on any kind 10 of attendance from a staffing perspective? 11

MR. WINTER: Correct. That's correct. 12

That's correct. 13

MS. HAYES: Okay. Thank you. 14

MR. YOUNG: So I'm Ronald Young with 15

Pathways to Solutions and I'm brand new to the 16 contracting field, so if this is a stupid question, 17 you know, just bear with me. I think this contract is 18 up currently in September of this year and the RFI you 19 sent out talks about 90-day transition periods. Do 20 you intend to put out a Request For Proposals here to 21 take effect then in September of this year with the 1 start date? 2

MS. INGRAM: Yes, we do anticipate a 3

September start date, and we're hoping to have 4 proposals, Requests For Proposals -- 5

MR. YOUNG: I'm sorry? 6

MS. INGRAM: We do anticipate a start date 7 in September, and we also anticipate a Request For 8

Proposals being sent out very soon. 9

MR. YOUNG: Okay. And so are we talking 10 about the transition period starting in September, the 11

90-day transition period, or the actual start date 12 from then on? 13

MS. INGRAM: No, that would be the 14 transition. 15

MR. YOUNG: Thank you. 16

(Pause.) 17

MS. SPILLMAN: That was easy. 18

M…