Industry Day Meeting Minutes.pdf

MEMORANDUM FOR THE FILE

SUBJECT: Meeting Minutes – Hotel and Ancillary Services Industry Day Solicitation Walk Through

An Industry Day Conference in support of subject requirement was held on December 3, 2020 via WEBEX (Online) at 2PM ET.

The following summarizes discussions held during the Industry Day Conference. (Note: The following information is paraphrased in terms of the discussions that took place between the Government and Contractor attendees.)

Ms. Michelle Greene, Contracting Specialist began by covering housekeeping items, to include, question and response protocols, attendees placing themselves on mute to mitigate feedback noise, attendees accessing via telecom only should follow along with emailed slide presentation, etc. She reiterated that any questions received during the conference would be answered, however, when responding to the solicitation offerors must comply with the requirements of the Request for Proposal (RFP) once it is released. The RFP will constitute the Government’s official response and requirements for proposal submissions.

Ms. Seraphina Hanan, Branch Chief verified all invitees were present and there was no need to take an official “roll call.” The conference was then turned over to Ms. Greene and she began the slide presentation by reminding attendees that if they were unable to access WebEx, to please follow along with the email version of today’s presentation. Discussions specific to the slide presentation follow:

Slides 1-2: Ms. Greene provided an overview regarding the purpose for this Industry Day Conference and also introduced the Government team members.

Slides 2-8: Ms. Greene then turned the presentation over to Ms. Michelle Cochrane (Team Lead, Department of Treasury Event & Culinary Operations Branch) and she provided an overview of their program. Ms. Greene advised that the historical estimates provided on Slide 8 were not to be confused to be the Government’s current requirement and were provided for informational purposes only. Offerors’ shall track their responses based on the RFP requirements.

Slides 9 – 30: Ms. Greene provided the Contracting Strategy Overview. The following highlights are provided resulting from her presentation of the information:

Slides 13-14: Ms. Greene emphasized the importance of offerors to fully provide a technical response that details how they plan to follow the process and not restate it or that they will comply with it only. The Government is looking for their technical approach to perform this function.

Slide 14: Mr. Rob Coffman, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Treasury Operations, Treasury Operations emphasized also that the IDIQ Hotel Holders should consider providing more than one point-of-contact, which is a critical component in their communications at the franchise level in order to field communications at the Ordering level.

Slide 15 – Ms. Greene emphasized #11 requesting that the individual needs to be available and have the authority to bind the Hotel into a contract action with the Government.

Slide 17 – Ms. Greene highlighted the first bullet to this slide is new. She also emphasized the importance of ensuring offerors’ proposals are complete. The Government can’t make assumptions based on what they know about a company or via google search or other means. The evaluation will be based on only what is presented in their written offer resulting from the RFP solicitation.

Slide 19 – Ms. Greene again foot stomped the need for offerors to demonstrate how they plan to successfully execute the contract. Mr. Coffman added that he was not telling offerors how to respond to their technical or management submissions but suggested the use of a flow chart or diagram as an option. However, Ms. Greene did remind them there are page limits and charts can take a lot of space.

Slide 23 – Ms. Greene reminded offerors that the Past Performance questionnaire should not be submitted with their proposal, but rather should be emailed direct from their source to both the CO and CS. However, offerors still are responsible for ensuring those sources have submitted them for evaluation of their Past Performance.

Slide 24 – Ms. Greene highlighted what it means to receive a “Neutral” rating.

Slide 28 – Ms. Greene encouraged offerors to check their SAM registrations to ensure they are active. She also emphasized the need for their franchise hotels to also be active in SAM because the Government will not be able to award an Task Order to a hotel that is not registered in SAM.

Offeror question - In reference to locations, as an example – Is a hotel in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia that is within 10 miles from the Washington DC city center be considered, or does the hotel have to be in Washington DC? Ms. Cochrane advised that hotels in Arlington, VA would be considered because it is still within 10 miles of Washington DC city center.

Offeror question - Is the Government looking whether a Hotel is franchised, owned or managed? Mr. Coffman responded and said the Government is not concerned with that information and have not asked for it.

Offeror question - Can Past Performance be based on Government contracts or are other venues acceptable? Ms. Greene responded that she thinks it should be Government specific in order to be responsive to relevancy, however, they do have the option to submit other references.

Offeror question – On Slide 28, did you mean both the Hotel and its franchise Hotels must be registered in SAM or just the Hotel? Ms. Greene confirmed both have to be register in order to receive an award. Ms. Greene then clarified that at this time for this specific IDIQ contract only the corporate entity providing the proposal would have to be registered in SAM. In the future, for individual task orders, the individual hotel would have to be registered in SAM to be able to receive an award. An offeror then asked if this would be part of their technical response on how they would manage the SAM registration process? Ms. Greene responded in saying that although it is not a requirement to show that your franchises are registered in SAM or provide a process to get your franchises registered in SAM, it could be included and would be considered above and beyond the requirement in the technical evaluation.

Offeror question – On Slide 18, question was asked about the unacceptable rating for number of hotels and what if they did not have enough. Ms. Greene responded by confirming if they had 6 properties or fewer that met the Factor 1 requirements their proposal would be deemed unacceptable and would not be considered for award.

Offeror question – Would the pricing scale change based on larger meetings held as opposed to smaller venues or would they be the same as on the current contract? Ms.

Greene advised once this contract is awarded, pricing would be based on the awarded pricing.

Offeror Question after the meeting – We have multiple hotels in a city on your list and they all meet your parameters, we can include all of them?

Government Answer – Yes, include all hotels that meet the qualifications in Factor 1.

Offeror Question after the meeting – Our hotel has one national BPA but a lot of individual hotel experience with government organizations. Would these experiences be considered? I would only include past experiences at hotels that would be included in your program.

Government Answer – Yes, individual hotel past performance can be included.