AB-133F-14-RQ-0090_Responses_to_Questions_Received.docx

Native Hawaiian Cultural Landscape Analysis Guide and Case Studies Solicitation #: AB-133C-14-RQ-0090 Responses to Questions Received

1. Is there an incumbent contractor, or is this a new requirement for the Government?

a. This is a new requirement, there is no incumbent contractor.

2. For the Cultural Resources Working Group to be most effective at guiding the Workshops and assisting in preparing the Analysis Guide Document, it needs to be fairly small. Would a strategy limiting membership to two representatives per main Hawaiian Island (excluding Ni`ihau and Kaho`olawe, and only one representative from the islands of Moloka`i and Lāna`i) meet NOAA expectations?

a. Yes, a relatively small size could work...hence the flexibility in the language "all of the main Hawaiian Islands...including island districts and/or counties." The group size will be discussed and determined in collaboration with the contractor.

3. Section 4.4 of the Performance Work Statement indicates that, “The Analysis Guide document and summary of the workshop progress will serve as the Workshop Summary Report submitted by the contractor to ONMS.” Section 4.5, however, seems to indicate that the Workshop Summary Report is a separate and more detailed document. Are we correct in assuming that the RFP is requiring two separate reports at the conclusion of the Base Year – Workshop Summary Report and Analysis Guide Document?

a. Yes, the analysis guidance doc at the end of the base year (prior to the revised final guidance doc following the option year) is a standalone draft. The Workshop Summary report lays out the process and success/lessons learned from the workshops themselves.

4. The breadth and scope of the Base year project is impressive, but realistically may require more time than the allotted 12 months. Would NOAA be amenable to extending the time deadlines for the various tasks?

a. Workshops must be concluded in the base period. Please note that the Base Period will be limited to 12 months, and there is no guarantee that the Option Period will be exercised.

5. In the Performance Requirements Summary of the Solicitation (Item 5D) the quality assurance level suggests that the Cultural Resources Workshops are for “selected participants.” Can we assume from this statement that the Cultural Resources Workshops are not open to the general public but are envisioned as more directed meetings?

a. The directed workshops will bring together participating federal, state, and Native Hawaiian partners in order to develop a methodology of best practices and identify general resource types of significance to Native Hawaiian communities that could be impacted from offshore siting. The goal is to solicit input from as many Native Hawaiian Organizations as possible in order to develop consistent terminology to better identify indigenous cultural landscapes. This is not the same thing as making the meetings open to the general public.

6. The Performance Requirements Summary of the Performance Work Statement indicates that Cultural Landscape Case Study documents including “defined milestones for each study area” will be provided to ONMS four months following the initiation of the second year option. Could the components of these documents be further clarified?

a. It is not possible to narrowly define the milestones prior to the selection of the case study areas, which is done in collaboration with vendor and the ONMS Maritime Heritage Program/ONMS representative. The selection of priority content (ie historic records, ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources, oral traditions and histories, and summary of prior archaeological analysis) and priority method (ie archival research, field investigations and visits to select type-sites, community outreach to identify local kupuna and other cultural practitioners who are familiar with the study area, the incorporation of existing oral histories, and/or the selection of oral history candidates) is place-dependent.

Please note that both the Cultural Landscape Case Studies and the Case Study Final Report would both be completed within Option Year 1. This solicitation includes only a base year and one option year – no second option year will be awarded.