A&M Pre-Proposal Conference Transcript 11_18_2019.pdf

(202) 234-4433 Washington DC www.nealrgross.com Neal R. Gross and Co., Inc.

U.S. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

OFFICE OF FLEET MANAGEMENT

FLEET AUCTION & MARSHALLING

PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE

SOLICITATION 47QMCA19R0001

WEBINAR

MONDAY

NOVEMBER 18, 2019

The webinar convened at 1:00 p.m., Jeffrey Meyers, Contracting Officer, presiding.

PRESENT

JEFFREY MEYERS, Contracting Officer LINDA BETLOCK, Transportation Operation Specialist CHARLES FOREMAN, Program Analyst

CONTENTS

Introductions of Presenters &

General Rules

Discussion of Solicitation Terms and

Conditions and Attachments

Qualtrics Overview

Answering Existing, Already Received

Questions

Address Any Specific Additional

Questions

Close Meeting

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

2 1:00 p.m.

3 MR. MEYERS: So it's officially 1:00, 4 so let's get started. Okay, hopefully everybody

5 is able to see my screen, and if you cannot, you

6 know, please do something to let Linda know. Can

7 everyone see my screen? It should say pre-

8 proposal meeting, solicitation 47QMCA19R0001.

9 MR. FOREMAN: Yes, Jeff.

10 MR. MEYERS: Okay, good. All right, 11 first of all, thank you very much for spending

12 your afternoon with us. We really appreciate

13 this. We're very excited to have you here.

14 We want to go over the solicitation in

15 some detail, most importantly, what you need to

16 do to submit an offer and how you need to submit

17 the offer. It looks a little bit different than

18 what we did last time.

19 We're trying something to streamline

20 it, to make it easier for everybody to submit an

21 offer, and to make it as foolproof as we can so

22 that when people come in with offers, there's not

1 small little mistakes that could have a huge

2 negative reaction, so that's kind of why we're

3 here today is to go over this.

4 So, to begin with, on the agenda, 5 which is page two -- as I go through each one of

6 the slides, I'm going to go with what page I'm

7 on, and the reason I'm going to do that is

8 because we're having transcription services, and

9 when we do the transcription, I want everybody

10 who isn't here to be able to follow along.

11 So the agenda today is introduction of

12 presenters and the general rules now, at 1:15, 13 discussion of the solicitation terms and

14 conditions and attachments.

15 At 1:45 is the Qualtrics overview.

16 2:30 is answering existing, already received

17 questions. 3:00 is address any specific

18 additional questions, and 3:30 is to close the

19 meeting.

20 These times are just estimates. We

21 might be done in an hour and a half. We might be

22 done in three hours. It depends on the questions

1 and the amount of time that it takes to go

2 through this.

3 So the introductions, my name is

4 Jeffrey Meyers. I'm the Contracting Officer here

5 at GSA and the team lead for the GSA Fleet

6 Acquisition Supports Team.

7 We also have as a host Linda Betlock, 8 who is the Transportation Operation Specialist

9 with GSA Fleets, who is the person in charge in

10 Guru of the auction and marketing program. She's

11 been doing this longer than I have, and I've been

12 doing this program since about 2000, 2001.

13 So, Linda is very, very knowledgeable, 14 and she's very, very familiar with the program, 15 and anything that she or I cannot answer, we will

16 be able to get you an answer back before the

17 solicitation ends or before it closes.

18 So, I'm going to be talking about the

19 overview and the proposal submission, and Charles

20 Foreman, or Chad, our Program Analyst, is going

21 to be going over Qualtrics, what it is and how to

22 submit your Qualtrics. So this is, again, page

1 two of the introductions. Oh, they're all saying

2 page two. That's fine.

3 Okay, so general rules and

4 information, the tab that says general rules and

5 information, the general rules, first, all

6 attendees will be muted. There is a way for you

7 to submit questions in the Q&A Pod, which you

8 should be able to see.

9 Only GSA can view the questions, and

10 the questions will either be addressed either at

11 the end of the presentation or via posting at

12 beta.SAM.gov on the already existing

13 solicitation. So we'll show an update and it

14 will say what the date of the update is.

15 I know we're already going to be doing

16 an amendment, and I'll be talking about that in a

17 minute, but the amendment is going to also

18 include the questions, the answers, a couple of

19 minor changes we're going to make to the

20 solicitation that we're going to go over today, 21 and we're also going to include the transcript

22 and presentation slides on beta.SAM.gov.

1 The solicitation number that you see

2 here, 47QMCA19R0001, when you go into beta.SAM

3 and they ask for a keyword search, if you type in

4 that solicitation number, it should pop up for

5 you right away.

6 Okay, for the slides, it says RFP

7 Overview and Proposal Submission. We're going to

8 be going over today the solicitation package

9 review, the Qualtrics, the site survey, 10 submission and evaluation, award, contract

11 administration, and then competition for task

12 orders, so there is a lot of information here. A

13 lot of it is good information, and I'm sure some

14 things that you're going to have questions on.

15 So continuing to the next thing is the

16 solicitation package. Okay, in the solicitation, 17 you will have the RFP, which is 47QMCA19R0001.

18 You will also have several attachments, 19 Attachment A through Attachment J.

20 The first thing I would recommend to

21 anybody as soon as they download this -- this is

22 downloadable off of beta.SAM.gov, when you type

1 in the RFP number for the key elements, and all

2 of these documents are available for download.

3 When you download them, the first

4 thing you should do is read all of them, okay, 5 and the reason I want you to read all of them is

6 not because we tried to bury you with paperwork, 7 but these are important things for you to have.

8 We have some very, very good questions

9 that came in that we're going to be addressing, 10 but a lot of things should make sense if you've

11 read all of the documents, and if something

12 doesn't, that's why we have the opportunity for

13 you to ask questions.

14 So, going through them quickly, we

15 have Attachment A which is the proposal

16 checklist, Attachment B which is the Standard

17 Form 1449 that you need to fill out and sign.

18 It's very, very important, and if you authorize a

19 negotiator, sign that document, because if you

20 don't sign it, legally we don't have an offer, so

21 I need to make sure that that document is

22 completed and signed.

1 Attachment C is the vendor response

2 documents. I'll explain that in a bit, but

3 basically what we did, instead of you having to

4 weed through all of the pages of the solicitation

5 to figure out where you need to check a box, 6 Attachment C is everything where you need to

7 check a box, or fill something out, or have

8 anything that needs to be certified, or things

9 along that line. All of those are in Attachment

10 C, so we did that to make life easy for you.

11 Attachment D is the Small Business

12 Subcontracting Plan. If you are a large

13 business, and for definition of a large business, 14 if you have 500 or more employees, you are

15 required to submit a Small Business

16 Subcontracting Plan with the solicitation. So, 17 if you are a small business, you don't need to.

18 If you are a large business, you do.

19 Attachment E is our Statement of Work.

20 Our Statement of Work addresses everything that

21 is required for you to do, either as an auction

22 house, internet sales, or marshalling facility.

1 So, you know, it's several pages long.

2 I strongly, strongly encourage, if you

3 read nothing else, read the Statement of Work

4 because when we get to the Qualtrics survey that

5 you have to fill out, if you don't read the

6 Statement of Work and you answer the questions, 7 and you answer them incorrectly, it could

8 negatively affect your evaluation, but also we

9 want to make sure that you understand what is

10 required in the Statement of Work.

11 So if you read the Statement of Work

12 before you start working on Qualtrics, some of

13 the questions might make more sense and you'll be

14 able to answer them better.

15 Okay, Attachment F is the 2020 Site

16 Survey Checklist. You don't need to do anything

17 with that. We're just letting you know what the

18 checklist is because every site that we are

19 given, so if we have a firm that has multiple

20 sites as an example, every one of those sites is

21 going to be checked to make sure that they meet

22 the requirements of the solicitation.

1 So if we have one firm that only has

2 one location, there will only be one place that

3 we go at with the site survey checklist, but if

4 you have five, or 10, or seven, or 23, or

5 whatever, every one of those locations where we

6 could be doing business will be having their own

7 separate site review.

8 If the site does not pass the review

9 and it is determined not to meet the requirements

10 of the Statement of Work, that particular site

11 will not be eligible for award. Everything has

12 to -- you know, so the day that they do the site

13 visit, if it does not meet the requirement at

14 that point in time, it is no longer eligible.

15 We have a DOL Wage Determination Link

16 in Attachment G. That's important because you

17 have DOL wage rates dependent upon the county

18 that you are in or that your sites are in, and

19 there are minimum wages that are required to be

20 paid in accordance with the Service Contract Act.

21 So that link is there to help you

22 figure out what the minimum wages are where

1 you're located. They also have other things such

2 as, in addition to the wages, the benefits and

3 the perks, so you have to add that. Either

4 provide them those benefits and perks or add

5 additional money in so that they can get those

6 benefits and perks themselves.

7 Attachment H is Clauses Incorporated

8 by Reference. Attachment I is Provisions

9 Incorporated by Reference. The difference

10 between a clause and a provision, a provision

11 applies to the solicitation. A clause applies to

12 any contract.

13 And then Attachment J is a

14 Deliverables Schedule that looks very

15 intimidating. It's not. A lot of the stuff is

16 very, very common sense, but the Deliverables

17 Schedule is available on the, as Attachment J.

18 Please do look that over so that you know what is

19 needed and when it is needed once you receive

20 task orders.

21 Okay, at this point in time, we're

22 going to go through the Qualtrics information and

1 the Qualtrics demonstration, so Chad, if you're

2 ready, I'm going to let you take over.

3 MR. FOREMAN: Okay, all right, let me

4 get the screen here.

5 MS. BETLOCK: Chad, can you wait one

6 moment? We're going to need to pause for just a

7 moment.

8 MR. FOREMAN: Certainly.

9 MS. BETLOCK: I'm sorry for the delay.

10 We're going to pause for just another minute.

11 We've got an audio issue going on. Okay, Chad, 12 why don't you go ahead?

13 MR. FOREMAN: Okay, let me get my

14 screen up again. Everyone can see that and hear

15 me okay?

16 MR. MEYERS: We can see it.

17 MR. FOREMAN: Okay, all right, well, 18 hello, and thank you again, everyone, for joining

19 us for the 2020 Auction and Marshalling Pre-

20 Proposal Conference. My name is Chad Foreman, 21 and I'm here today to provide you information and

22 a demonstration of Qualtrics.

1 Qualtrics is a survey software

2 platform that you'll be using to complete a

3 portion of your offer for solicitation

4 47QMCA19R0001.

5 Before we provide a demo on how to use

6 Qualtrics, please remember that the Qualtrics

7 form submission is only a portion of your offer.

8 You must submit the additional required documents

9 or else your offer will be incomplete, and an

10 incomplete offer cannot be evaluated or

11 considered for award.

12 The Qualtrics submission form contains

13 sections for entering information which will

14 allow the government to evaluate your technical

15 capability and management approach, past

16 performance, and pricing.

17 To a great extent, the Qualtrics

18 portion follows the Statement of Work. Please

19 review the full Statement of Work before filling

20 out the Qualtrics portion.

21 The Qualtrics portion, in addition to

22 the site survey, consists of the major evaluation

1 factors for award, but the other information

2 needed for Volume 1 and Volume 2 also must be

3 provided in order for the government to determine

4 other necessary technical and responsibility

5 matters.

6 We'll now move onto the Qualtrics

7 demonstration. To begin the Qualtrics portion, 8 you'll first need to request a personalized link.

9 To get one, use the registration link listed in

10 the solicitation.

11 This will take you to the Qualtrics

12 registration form. Be sure to double check the

13 email you enter in the registration form because

14 that will be the one the personalized Qualtrics

15 RFP will be sent to.

16 Once you complete the registration

17 form, check your email inbox for the address you

18 provided in the registration form. You should

19 have received an email with the subject line of

20 "GSA Auction Marshalling RFP form link for," your

21 company's name.

22 Please remember to keep this email.

1 It contains the unique personalized link to

2 access the form and will be used to pick up where

3 you left off in the event that you need to exit

4 prior to completing and submitting the form.

5 Let's take a look at the email you

6 will receive. Look for either the access to form

7 or copy and paste the URL below into your

8 internet browser to open your personalized RFP

9 submission form in Qualtrics.

10 Once you access the form via one of

11 the two methods, you'll be taken to the welcome

12 screen with important instructions.

13 MR. FOREMAN: I would like to draw

14 your attention in particular to the forward arrow

15 button. This arrow isn't just for advancing to

16 the next screen; it's also used for the system to

17 automatically save the information that's already

18 been completed when you click it. This is useful

19 if you can't complete the survey in one sitting.

20 Let's click the next arrow button to

21 begin filling out the Qualtrics RFP form.

22 At this point I'll now show you a

1 sample Qualtrics submission.

2 On the first screen you'll enter some

3 basic offer information. For most screens you

4 won't be able to advance to the next screen until

5 you've entered information for each relevant

6 field. If you try to go to the next screen

7 without completing any of the prior fields, that

8 is leaving them blank, it will display the

9 "Please answer this question" error.

10 Now, let's go ahead and enter some

11 sample data.

12 Qualtrics also checks to ensure your

13 data is formatted properly. For example, if you

14 don't enter your information, your email address

15 correctly, it'll display the "Please enter a

16 valid email address" error. Additionally, if the

17 DUNS is not in a good format where email

18 addresses don't match, the system will produce an

19 error message and you won't be able to go to the

20 next screen. Once you correct all issues, you

21 can then move onto the next question.

22 Since this is the first Qualtrics

1 submission, we'll click yes.

2 For this scenario there will be one

3 performance that we can offer. Each Qualtrics

4 RFP submission form can accommodate up to ten

5 locations; if you're offering more than ten, 6 you'll need to complete multiple Qualtrics forms.

7 Let's use the drop-down to select the

8 number of locations to offer.

9 On this next screen you'll enter the

10 contact information specific to the place of

11 performance.

12 If you're offering Tier 1 option

13 support services, click yes on this screen. This

14 means you must offer Tier II static Internet

15 sales, Tier III marshalling support services, and

16 Tier IV general support services 2. If you're

17 not offering Tier 1, just like in this demo, 18 click no.

19 If you're not offering Tier 1 option

20 support services but offering Tier II static

21 Internet sales, click yes here. You must also

22 offer Tier III and Tier IV.

1 For purposes of this demonstration

2 let's choose no for Tier II as well. That's

3 because we're only going to review how to offer

4 only Tier III marshalling support services and

5 Tier IV general support services.

6 Note, Qualtrics works like a decision

7 tree, so your previous answers to questions will

8 determine what you see in future screens. You

9 won't see certain questions because they do not

10 apply to what you're offering. For example, if

11 you say no to the question asking you if you're

12 offering Tier I, you won't see any technical or

13 pricing questions specifically related to Tier 1.

14 In this demonstration you won't see Tier I or

15 Tier II specific questions, only Tier III and

16 Tier IV questions will appear as a result of

17 choosing no for both Tier I and Tier II.

18 At this point the system will list

19 which contract line item, or CLINs for short, 20 you're required to offer. You will also identify

21 which CLINs you can choose but are not required

22 to offer, which also might be a benefit to the

1 government. Below the bulleted list is a

2 selection of optional services that can be

3 offered. The services checked off here will

4 determine which additional questions may be

5 required to the answers later in the form. If an

6 offer decides it's not offering any additional

7 services, you'll still need to check the last box

8 to go to the next question.

9 Now for this scenario let's offer CLIN

10 0005 Telematics Installation and CLIN 0010

11 Electronic Inventory Management System.

12 On this next screen you'll answer this

13 question about delivery hours following this

14 example located above the answer box.

15 Next, there'll be questions about

16 pricing for Tier III CLINs.

17 Please remember to follow the format

18 shown in the highlighted instruction.

19 For this demo I will be showing all

20 price fields at length. However, remember when

21 you're filling out the form for real, the system

22 will not let you continue without entering a

1 valid number that is the correct format. Note

2 that you can also enter zero. GSA will then

3 interpret that as you offering that service for

4 free or at no cost.

5 On this next screen the system asks

6 for pricing for CLIN 0005 Telematics

7 Installation. As CLIN 0005 is selected you'll

8 see the pricing information here. If you have

9 not checked the box for it previously, you

10 wouldn't have seen this screen at all.

11 CLIN 0006 Fueling follows after CLIN

12 0005 Telematics Installation. After entering the

13 Tier III pricing information, the system prompts

14 you to enter which eIMS location uses with the

15 box for this optional service of your screen that

16 was checked.

17 For those of you not offering this

18 service, you won't see this question because you

19 wouldn't have checked the box.

20 On this next screen you'll simply need

21 to click where the wash and vacuum service occurs

22 at this performance location. Depending on which

1 optional CLINs you select in previous screens, 2 you may have additional services listed other

3 than wash and vacuum here. But for this scenario

4 there's only one line.

5 On the next few screens you'll answer

6 pricing questions for Tier IV general support

7 services. For this demonstration we're just

8 showing the screen for CLIN 0008 shuttle

9 services.

10 After the Tier IV pricing question, 11 the form will arrive at the facilities

12 requirement screen. These are all yes/no.

13 Please note that if you answer no to any of the

14 yes/no questions, the system does not kick you

15 out or prevent you from continuing. You will

16 also have the opportunity to clarify anything at

17 the end of the form in the exceptions section.

18 Once you've read and answered all the

19 questions, you can proceed to the next screen.

20 At this point all of the performance

21 location specific questions have been completed.

22 If an offeror is offering more than one location, 1 the system will move back to the performance

2 location contact information screen again, so you

3 can enter the technical pricing info for the

4 second, third, or however many locations being

5 offered. But in this example only one location

6 is being offered, so the system allows you to

7 move to the next section.

8 The next section contains additional

9 information and confirmation. It contains yes/no

10 questions for any and all locations offering the

11 listed CLIN in accordance with the Statement of

12 Work. Individuals completing the Qualtrics form

13 will need to read the instructions on each of the

14 following screens to know which set of locations

15 and CLINs the question relates to.

16 For this demo you will not see all of

17 the possible screens for this section in the

18 slides.

19 Next, the system will prompt you with

20 a few yes/no questions about management

21 capability.

22 Then the system asks information on

1 past performance history. If you click yes, the

2 system will then allow you to provide up to two

3 instances of past performance.

4 For demonstration purposes let's

5 select one.

6 You will then need to enter the

7 project and contract information on this screen.

8 Finally, the system brings you to the

9 screen about exceptions. This is the opportunity

10 to clarify or take any exceptions to the

11 government's technical requirements and/or terms

12 and conditions of the solicitation.

13 For this scenario there are no

14 exceptions, so let's click no.

15 The final two screens will alert you

16 that you've reached the end of the form. At this

17 point you can choose to go back using the back

18 arrow button to review your responses.

19 Unfortunately, due to the way the system loops, 20 the only way to go back to the beginning is by

21 using the back arrow button.

22 After reviewing your responses you can

1 return to the warning screen.

2 Caution, once you hit the forward

3 arrow button on the warning screen, the Qualtrics

4 RFP submission form will be sent to GSA.

5 Let's press the next arrow button now, 6 and submit it to GSA. And to be on the lookout

7 for an automatic confirmation email in the inbox

8 of the email address you provided.

9 The automatic email will look similar

10 to this. Retain this auto confirmation email as

11 proof of submission and for credit as Volume 2.

12 At a later date GSA will also follow up with

13 another email containing a PDF copy of the

14 Qualtrics submission for your records.

15 The Qualtrics portion of your

16 submission is now complete.

17 Remember, this is only a portion of

18 what's required, so you'll still need to timely

19 submit all other documents.

20 To conclude, here are some final point

21 and reminders for the Qualtrics portion.

22 Offerors must request the Qualtrics screen from

1 GSA at the URL listed in the solicitation no

2 later than December 16th, 2019 at 4:00 p.m.

3 Eastern Time. It may take one business day after

4 submission of your requests for you to receive

5 your unique link. If the offeror is unable to

6 access the Qualtrics system, please email

7 remarketing.contracting@gsa.gov with contact

8 information including name, phone number and

9 email address and someone will contact you within

10 one business day. Qualtrics information must be

11 received no later than December 19th, 2019 at

12 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Failure to timely

13 complete the Qualtrics information and click the

14 forward arrow button in the form to submit will

15 result in your offer being rejected.

16 Exiting and returning to the Qualtrics

17 form. You may not be able to complete the form in

18 one sitting, so the system allows you to leave

19 the form at any time and return to where you left

20 off.

21 The Qualtrics form autosaves input

22 once the forward arrow button is pressed.

1 After pressing that button, you'll

2 only need to close the browser task window to

3 exit the Qualtrics session.

4 To return, simply click the link

5 provided in the original email to pick up where

6 you left off. So be sure to keep the original

7 email with your personalized link handy. Also, 8 please note that the personalized link will

9 expire within one month of inactivity after last

10 accessing the form. Every time you re-access the

11 form and exit out, the clock resets and will push

12 that expiration date back by one month until you

13 finally submit the form.

14 If you've already received and opened

15 your personalized link, but haven't completed the

16 form yet, simply reopen and close the form to

17 reset the clock.

18 If offering more than ten performance

19 locations -- the Qualtrics link provided can only

20 accommodate ten locations. If an offeror is

21 proposing more than ten performance locations, 22 they must repeat the RFP registration process

1 again to receive additional unique links in order

2 to complete additional sets of Qualtrics

3 information for additional sites.

4 To receive additional links to the RFP

5 submission form by email, please fill out

6 additional registration forms. The registration

7 link is available in the RFP attachment of the

8 beta.SAM.gov posted. If the offeror's contact

9 information remains unchanged for the first

10 submission, please enter the same information for

11 each registration. For example, if the offeror's

12 offering 25 places of performance, they will need

13 to fill out the registration form three times to

14 receive three links to the RFP submission form by

15 email.

16 The offeror will then input the first

17 ten locations using the first RFP submission form

18 link, the next ten using a second link, and

19 finally the remaining five using a third link.

20 Finally, if you're having any

21 technical issues or have any technical questions

22 with the Qualtrics portion of the solicitation, 1 please send them to

2 remarketing.contracting@gsa.gov.

3 In addition, if you're having issues

4 with a particular question, please also include a

5 screenshot of the question screen so we can

6 better assist you. For non-Qualtrics questions

7 about solicitation please contact

8 ontheroad@gsa.gov and CC jeffrey.meyers@gsa.gov.

9 This concludes the Qualtrics portion

10 of our presentation.

11 I will now pass it onto Linda Betlock

12 who will be discussing the site survey.

13 MS. BETLOCK: Hello, everyone. We're

14 going to have a little bit of a change in the

15 agenda. We had issues that we did not realize, 16 we had an issue with the meeting space, it

17 wouldn't let people into the listen only mode.

18 So what we're going to do, we're going to start

19 back at the beginning so Jeff can go over his

20 bits of the presentation. We are going to then

21 skip to where I'm going to take off with the site

22 surveys, go through the rest of our presentation.

1 For anybody who missed the Qualtrics piece, we're

2 going to offer that at the end. So please be

3 patient and don't hang up because we really want

4 to get this information out. But for those of

5 you who did hear it who may not want to hear it

6 again, you'll have to sit through it again.

7 So Jeff is going to recap the

8 beginning and come back to me for the site

9 surveys, okay?

10 Jeff?

11 MR. MEYERS: Okay.

12 MS. BETLOCK: Sorry, everyone.

13 MR. MEYERS: So I'm going to skip the

14 agenda and I'm going to skip the introductions

15 just simply because you've already seen that and

16 you know who we are.

17 So going over the general rules and

18 information again; all attendees will be needed, 19 submit your questions in the Q&A Pod. Only GSA

20 can view the questions, and the questions will

21 either be addressed either at the end of the

22 presentation prior to doing the Qualtrics a

1 second time or via posting at beta.SAM.gov. And

2 a transcript of the presentation slides will be

3 posted in beta.SAM.gov under the solicitation.

4 Okay, so we're going to go over the

5 solicitation packet reviews to make sure that

6 you've received or downloaded all the documents.

7 We'll do Qualtrics again at the very end. Site

8 survey submission and evaluation, award, contract

9 administration and competition for task orders.

10 So again, for those that did not hear

11 this the first time; you should have and be able

12 to download from beta.SAM.gov the RFP and

13 Attachments A through J. In order to access

14 this, if you go to beta.SAM.gov and you look for

15 the business opportunities, it will ask you for

16 the keywords, and you type in the solicitation

17 number which is 47QMCA19R0001. That's to take

18 you immediately to the solicitation and all of

19 the attachments on the solicitation. You should

20 be able to download all of these attachments.

21 The first item is the RFP itself.

22 Attachment A is for proposal

1 checklist.

2 Attachment B is the Standard Form

3 1449.

4 Attachment C is the veteran response

5 documents which I'll go over in a bit.

6 Attachment D is the Small Business

7 Subcontracting Plan; it only applies for large

8 businesses. If you have 500 or more people

9 working at your business, this also includes any

10 affiliates, parent companies, sister companies, 11 et cetera. So if you have more than 500

12 employees, then you are required to submit a

13 Small Business Subcontracting Plan.

14 Attachment E is the Statement of Work;

15 the Statement of Work is all of the things that

16 we need you to do under the solicitation. So if

17 you have under Attachment A the Statement of

18 Work, anything that we need done for auction, 19 Internet sales or marshalling, it's covered in

20 that document.

21 I strongly recommend you read this

22 before doing Qualtrics.

1 Attachment F is a 2020 site survey

2 checklist which Linda will be going over.

3 Attachment G is the DOL wage

4 determination link; the attachment important

5 because this is a service contract, the DOL wage

6 rates vary by location, by county, and you need

7 to be able to make sure that you are paying

8 people at least the amount established in the DOL

9 wage rates, plus the fringe benefits.

10 Attachment H is the Clauses

11 Incorporated by Reference, and Attachment I is

12 the Provisions Incorporated by Reference. The

13 difference between a clause and a provision, 14 provisions apply for the solicitation, clauses

15 apply for any contract awarded.

16 Attachment J is the deliverable

17 schedule; the deliverable schedule is we took

18 everything that was required in the Statement of

19 Work and said what deliverables were due when

20 based upon the Statement of Work.

21 So it looks very intimidating, it's

22 really not; it just shows you and us what's due

1 and when it's due.

2 So we are now going to go to the site

3 surveys and I am going to let Linda address that.

4 MS. BETLOCK: Okay. Thank you, Jeff.

5 As part of the technical, Chad was kind of going

6 through the Qualtrics earlier which going to

7 capture your technical capability and management

8 approach, your past performance and your pricing.

9 Another sub-set of that technical capability is

10 the actual site survey; GSA will perform a site

11 survey for each performance location.

12 Is the screen not sharing with the

13 slide?

14 MR. MEYERS: It is not sharing.

15 MS. BETLOCK: Do you want to pull it

16 back up, Jeff?

17 MR. MEYERS: Okay. Sorry, hold on.

18 MS. BETLOCK: All right, cool. Thank

19 you, Jeff.

20 Again, this is Linda. We will be

21 doing site surveys for each performance location

22 under each offer. A copy of the site survey can

1 be found on Attachment F in the solicitation.

2 Offerors do not need to fill out or provide this

3 information; this is something that GSA will do, 4 we will send somebody out to each performance

5 location you've offered and perform a site

6 survey. Every site must meet the minimum

7 requirements of that site survey at the time the

8 site survey is completed.

9 And basically the site survey is, if

10 you look at Attachment F, we're just going

11 through the facility requirements to make sure

12 you meet the facility requirements. The site

13 surveys, we're going to schedule those as soon as

14 possible after we receive the offers, and any

15 site that doesn't meet the minimum requirements

16 of the Statement of Work is not going to be

17 eligible for an award.

18 And Jeff, I'm going to take it back to

19 you.

20 MR. MEYERS: Okay, for submission, and

21 this is all on Pages 66 to 68 of the

22 solicitation. I've got several tabs that have to

1 be included in Volume 1. Volume 1 is the

2 administrative requirements, so these are things

3 that we need in order to establish the

4 responsibility issues and things of that nature, 5 as well as have to make sure that we have a legal

6 offer. So for Tab A is the completed and signed

7 Standard Form 1449. Again, stressing signed, it

8 must be signed by an authorized negotiator. If

9 it is not signed, I do not have a legal offer and

10 I cannot accept your offer.

11 Okay. Tab B is the vendor response

12 documents, and I have that right here.

13 So hopefully everyone can see this.

14 This is Attachment C from the

15 solicitation, and every one of these clauses or

16 provisions that I have here have something where

17 you have to fill something in. So in this

18 particular case, hazardous material

19 identification and material safety data. As in

20 the example, if you have any cleaning products

21 that you are using that may be considered

22 hazardous, that has to be inserted. You have to

1 provide that. If there are none, don't leave it

2 blank, state none. Don't put non-applicable

3 because what you think is applicable or not may

4 be different than what is true. So as in the

5 example, if you think this particular substance

6 or a particular thing that you're using to clean

7 with is not a hazardous material, and you put

8 non-applicable instead of putting down what it

9 is, that could be problematic later. So if there

10 are none, put none; if there might be something

11 that you're not sure, put it down.

12 Okay. The contract for contract

13 administration, we usually have two different

14 things; we have the authorized negotiator which

15 is usually the person that is legally allowed to

16 bind the company, and then we also have a contact

17 for contract administration. Now, that could be

18 the same person or it might not be. So if it's

19 not the same person and it's a different person, 20 that's great. But even if it is the authorized

21 negotiator, I still want this filled out.

22 Okay. Your remittance address; your

1 remittance address may differ than your physical

2 address. So if the payment address is a

3 different address and you don't provide me that

4 information, then there may be issues later, so

5 please provide that.

6 Okay. The authorized negotiators; you

7 could have more than one authorized negotiator;

8 in fact, I recommend you have more than one if

9 possible. And the reason I recommend that is if

10 somebody is out sick or they leave the company, 11 or something like that, it's good to have another

12 person that can sign. So I would recommend that

13 you have at least two authorized negotiators, but

14 that is your call as an individual firm.

15 Certificate of Independent Price

16 Determination; this is where you insert the name

17 of the persons, the organization responsible for

18 determining the prices offered in this proposal, 19 title and position of the organization; they're

20 the one that is certifying that it's independent, 21 there was no collusion, things along that line.

22 Ownership or control of the offeror;

1 this is if there's a parent company or something

2 like that. If there's the -- if the immediate

3 owners under control, answer yes or no, et

4 cetera. We don't really use CAGE code numbers, 5 so we don't have to worry about that.

6 The predecessor of offeror -- again, 7 I'm just going through these very quickly -- just

8 read it and fill it out.

9 Information regarding responsibility

10 matters; you know, if you do or do not have a

11 current active federal contract valued more than

12 $10 million, that's the certification on that.

13 Certification regarding tax matters;

14 again, a lot of these refs and certs, this

15 particular ref and cert on here is in SAM. If

16 your refs and certs are up to date in SAM, you

17 don't need to respond to this one. And it's

18 about 20 pages long. So if you have completed

19 your SAM registration, our refs and certs are

20 included and all of these are already in there, 21 and I can pull it from there so you don't need to

22 give it to me twice.

1 And I think that's the last ref and

2 cert, actually.

3 No, a couple more. Place of

4 performance; this is where in addition to

5 Qualtrics, you can state whether you intend or do

6 not intend to use multiple locations. If there

7 are multiple locations and you need more room

8 than this give it to me as an attachment.

9 These are new. We have a new law, 10 Section 889(a)(1)(A) of the John S. McCain

11 National Defense Authorization Act. This is new, 12 current contractors are getting mods on this

13 right now if you do make refs and certs, but

14 there are several companies in China that this

15 law now prohibits us from procuring or obtaining

16 the equipment. So if you have this equipment or

17 you're going to use this equipment from these

18 prohibited sources, I need to know that if you

19 have a ref and cert. And what I then would have

20 to do, if the answer is will, if you put "will"

21 here, I then need to go to another office to see

22 whether or not I can accept the offer.

1 Having said that, if the answer is

2 "will", don't put "will not" because that would

3 be more problematic. So be honest on your

4 answer, and depending on what restrictions you

5 have, we would look at those. And this is, 6 again, more things regarding the John S. McCain

7 National Defense Authorization Act and the names

8 of the firms are in here.

9 And this is the disclosures that we

10 will need if you are offering those.

11 So what I did, and the reason I have

12 this here, was this way Attachment C, if you

13 provide me a completed Attachment C, you don't

14 have to go through the entire solicitation and

15 saying, "Gosh, did I miss a certification?" All

16 of the certifications, everything that you have

17 to fill something out on is right there, with the

18 exception of the 1449, and with the exception of

19 any amendments. Now, amendments which are SF-

20 30's, there will be at least one amendment

21 because we're going to be doing an amendment to

22 the solicitation after this meeting. You need to

1 complete and sign those and return those as well

2 saying that you've acknowledged and agreed to the

3 changes that we made to the solicitation.

4 So Tab A is the 1449.

5 Tab B is Attachment C.

6 Tab C is financial information, I need

7 balance sheets and income statements, et cetera

8 for 2016 through 2018. We need that in

9 accordance with Part 9 of the FAR; so Part 9 of

10 the FAR says and I'm paraphrasing, that we need

11 to determine that you are financially viable

12 before we can do business with you. I'm sure

13 that this is very common in the public or private

14 sector, but something we're required to do before

15 we can award a contract.

16 Tab D is SAM information; I want a

17 copy of the complete registration and the DUNS

18 number. SAM is www.SAM.gov, that is where you

19 can go, and if you are not already registered in

20 SAM, you need to be registered in SAM before the

21 closing of the solicitation. If your SAM is

22 going to be expiring very soon, make sure that

1 you update the SAM before you submit your offer.

2 Tab E is the VETS-4212 reports. I

3 also have a hyperlink here, if it'll work.

4 Okay, this is everything that you ever

5 could know or want to know about the VETS-4212

6 federal contract and reporting information. So

7 if you see here, the current reporting threshold

8 is $150,000, okay. So if you have $150,000 or

9 more in federal government business or any

10 contract that was at $150,000 or more, you are

11 required to submit an annual VETS-4212, okay.

12 The reason I have the hyperlink in the slides is

13 to make it easier for you to find it. I've had

14 some people say, "Well, Jeff, I haven't had a

15 federal contract in a few years. Can I give you

16 the most recent information since I've had a

17 contract?" Yes, you can, but when you do that

18 let me know why you aren't giving me the most

19 recent.

20 Now, you will see here in my slide

21 2018, and I crossed that out, I then made it

22 2019; the reason I did that is because the data

1 gets updated September 30th. When I had a

2 solicitation first put together, I thought I was

3 going to issue it before September 30th and it

4 wound up getting issued after that.

5 So one of the changes that I'm going

6 to make to the amendment is for you to provide me

7 the 2019 information. If you have not updated

8 your VETS-4212 yet, it was due September 30th, 9 but if you update it now, it will still show and

10 reflect your 2019 information.

11 Okay. Tab F, subcontracting plan;

12 that only applies to large businesses.

13 Tab G, any price assumptions that you

14 may have. So you need to tell me what your price

15 assumptions are, if any. If you have any

16 specific provisions or things along that line, I

17 need to evaluate those. So if you do not give me

18 any price assumptions, then I presume that there

19 are none. And I would ask under Tab G for price

20 assumptions if there are none, say Tab G price

21 assumptions none. If you're a small business for

22 Tab F for sub-contracting plan, say not

1 applicable, we are a small business. Again, the

2 size standard is 500 employees. So if you have

3 500 or more employees between you, your parents, 4 your affiliates, et cetera, you are considered a

5 large business. And as a large business I'm

6 required to get a sub-contracting plan.

7 Volume 2, submission continued.

8 Volume 2, Qualtrics and supporting

9 certifications. You will receive a confirmation

10 email from Qualtrics which shows the date and

11 time of submission. Once you receive that, print

12 it out, save it, save it as a PDF and have that

13 as part of your Volume 2. If you don't have that

14 and you never received it, chances are you didn't

15 press that last button for submission. And if

16 you didn't push your last button for submission, 17 we don't have the Qualtrics. So I'm asking, I'm

18 requiring you to send that to me as proof that

19 it's been submitted as a check for you as well as

20 a check for me. Because if you have an email

21 that says this has been submitted and our system

22 can't find it, then we know that you submitted

1 something and we'll be able to backtrack and find

2 it. But if you don't have something and we can't

3 initially find it -- you say, "Well, I submitted

4 it," but you don't have any proof, then we have a

5 problem. So it's very, very important that you

6 include your email saying that the Qualtrics has

7 been submitted.

8 Four, those people offering auction

9 and Internet sale services or static Internet

10 sale services; I need a copy of your current PCI

11 certification. I don't want an expired one, I

12 need one that's current. And this is referencing

13 the Statement of Work, camera security

14 requirements section on Page 5 of the Statement

15 of Work, Attachment E, okay. If I don't have

16 this, this is very problematic, so it's very

17 important that you include that. In addition to

18 that, optionally, you can provide us any other

19 certifications or certifications of audit that

20 you may have. But these are optional, okay.

21 So the PCI certification is mandatory, 22 but only for those people offering auction

1 support services and/or Tier 2 static Internet

2 sales. I do not need the current PCI certificate

3 for somebody only offering marshalling and the

4 Tier 4 services. If anything required in Volume

5 1 or Volume 2 is missing, your offer might be

6 rejected without further evaluation. So it's

7 very, very important that if you look at the

8 submission requirements for Volume 1 and the

9 submission requirements for Volume 2, that you

10 provide me everything there. You also see on the

11 first submission requirements Tab H, that has

12 been crossed off, the amendment will reflect that

13 Tab H is being removed. The reason I don't need

14 this is because in Qualtrics you are already

15 identifying any exceptions that you may have. So

16 since we already have it from Qualtrics, I don't

17 need a separate document for it.

18 Again, that's going to be covered via

19 an amendment, so you should have everything that

20 you need on that.

21 Okay. The due dates; Volume 1 or

22 Volume 2 as shown above need to be sent to

1 ontheroad@GSA.gov with a copy to

2 Jeffrey.Meyers@GSA.gov. Received by December

3 20th, 2019 at 2 o'clock p.m. Eastern Time.

4 The Qualtrics package, there's two

5 different dates that are very important; first, 6 is you must request the link no later than

7 December 16th, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

8 Usually it's not an immediate, you get it 30

9 seconds later, which is part of the reason that

10 we need to by, you need to ask for it by December

11 16th.

12 Don't wait until December 16th to ask

13 for it. If you haven't already asked for it, 14 please ask for it now.

15 Qualtrics must be received by December

16 19th, 2019 at 1 o'clock p.m. Eastern Time; that's

17 when you got to have hit your submit button for

18 the final submission, and it has to be received

19 by GSA by 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Again, please

20 do not wait until the last minute to submit this.

21 The reason the Qualtrics package needs to be done

22 prior to the Volume 1 and Volume 2 being

1 submitted is because part of Volume 2 is the

2 proof that you have submitted Qualtrics under the

3 Qualtrics package. You can't get that or you

4 can't provide that to me unless you've already

5 submitted it. So the submission for Qualtrics is

6 one day and one hour prior to the submission of

7 Volume 1 and Volume 2. If I do not have both

8 Volume 1 and Volume 2, as well as the Qualtrics

9 package, then your offer will be considered

10 deficient and I will be unable to evaluate it.

11 So I can't stress this enough; please, please, 12 please make sure it is received by the government

13 by the date shown on this screen. If it is even

14 one minute late, my hands are tied, there's very, 15 very little I can do, and it's very likely your

16 offer will be considered late. I don't want to

17 have that happen. I have seen this happen

18 multiple times in the past where somebody was one

19 or two minutes late and they could not

20 participate, so I don't want to have that happen.

21 Please send it early, send it two, three, four, 22 five days early if you can. Earlier is better

1 than last minute.

2 So, okay. Okay, make sure everything

3 that is required is included in your offer. So

4 as an example, there will be an amendment SF-30, 5 make sure that that is signed and completed.

6 Make sure that the SF-1449 is signed and

7 completed. Make sure everything is here timely.

8 Now, for the evaluation; GSA will

9 evaluate the offers based upon what we say in

10 Section G of the solicitation; that's on Pages 70

11 to 76. For your technical capability and

12 management approach, as well as your past

13 performance, all of that is through Qualtrics, so

14 we ask you for information in Qualtrics, and if

15 you provide us that information, we are able to

16 evaluate the offers much more quickly, much more

17 efficiently. If we have questions, we can reach

18 out to you. Don't answer Qualtrics in a vacuum, 19 read the Statement of Work, read Attachment E of

20 the Statement of Work so that you know that when

21 you're answering your questions in Qualtrics, 22 that you're providing good, right and correct

1 answers.

2 Regarding past performance; we can use

3 what information you've provided us via Qualtrics

4 and we could also use other sources such as the

5 Past Performance Information Retrieval System, or

6 PPIRS, where we have past performance from

7 contractors over the years.

8 The pricing being offered, you provide

9 in Qualtrics, we evaluate -- we pull the pricing

10 out of Qualtrics, that's not part of the

11 technical evaluation from -- well, it's part of

12 the evaluation, but it's not part of the

13 technical capability management approach for past

14 performance. We have formulas as established in

15 the solicitation as to volumes -- I can show

16 those to you, I have those pulled up as well.

18 So we'll go -- let me find that real quick.

19 Okay, I cannot stress this enough, but

20 we are not guaranteeing anybody the specific

21 volumes here. So if you see all the CLINs and

22 the sub-CLINs, CLINs are Contract Line Item

1 Number -- so for the CLINs and sub-CLINs stated

2 here and the quantities that you see here, those

3 are the quantities we are using for price

4 analysis only. It's not a guarantee of any

5 business volume; it's just for our price

6 analysis.

7 For future years I believe it says

8 that we will do a price escalation of 2 percent, 9 except for everything which is -- except for

10 transportation, which I think we're going to do

11 as a 4 percent price increase per year just for

12 us to have an idea of what future pricing is

13 going to be. So there's formulas that I have to

14 use in the evaluation of the prices; that's not

15 the only thing that I'm going to use, and this is

16 one of the things that we're going to be using

17 for quantities so that I can do a price analysis.

18 So when you see this, don't say, "Oh, well I'm

19 guaranteed to get at least 1,000 vehicles or 500

20 vehicles or anything like that." This is only

21 for price analysis purposes.

22 The other thing is any exceptions that

1 you take, whether it's on pricing, under the

2 technical, under the terms and conditions of the

3 solicitation or the clauses, any exceptions that

4 you take may result in no award. Now, it also

5 depends upon what that exception is. If it's a

6 relatively minor exception, it might be something

7 that we'll look at and say this might be

8 acceptable. An example of that -- and I'm not

9 telling everyone to do this -- an example of that

10 is we say that we need vehicles being picked up

11 five calendar days from the date the pick-up

12 order is received by you. That means it would

13 have to be picked up and either delivered or

14 brought to you or whatever the pick-up order

15 states. And you might take an exception on that

16 and you might say I can't do five calendar days, 17 I want to do five business days, because five

18 calendar days might be on a Saturday or Sunday

19 and we're closed on a Saturday or Sunday. So you

20 took an exception, you explained why there was an

21 exception, and that's something we can evaluate

22 and say, "Yes, we accept that," or, "No, we

1 don't." And that's a "minor" exception, if you

2 will. If on the other hand you say, "Gee" on

3 your pick-up orders, "It's going…