Question.doc

Question & Answers Question:

I am writing with a question in regards to HSCG23-10-R-DBR013. There is a requirement that we be certified and approved for 3100CG TRANSAS ECDIS Training. We are not currently approved, but have the personnel and equipment in place to offer this course. We could be approved to offer this course within 30 days of submittal for approval.

Are we able to bid on this solicitation?

Answer:

National Maritime Center (NMC) must certify your company as an approved educational institution within the closing date.

Question:

Under section 5.7 of the PWS it says the ratio of students to simulators shall not exceed 3:1. Our concern is that statement would allow require a contractor to only have 6 3100CG licensed ECDIS stations in their computer lab as an ECDIS station in a classroom is technically consider a simulator. When in fact if you are sending 12 to 16 attendees, each should be working at their own independent station in the computer lab and then when moving to the part-task ship simulator where the ratio of 3:1 would then apply. This is what was done here in the past and we now are unsure of what is intended. We can price to only have 6 computer lab stations have the 3100CG and according to the PWS being technically correct but we don’t believe that this is the intention and would like to confirm that each computer lab station will require a 1:1 with a 3100CG license.

Answer:

Our intention was to have a 1:1 student to desktop in the classroom and no more than 3:1 in the all weather simulator.

Question:

2.

Under sections 1.6.2 and 5.3 of the PWS, the number of course sessions per year vary (9 to 12), amount of attendees vary for the year (80 to 144), and finally “each session comprised of twelve to sixteen (12-16)” is very unclear as to what the minimums that we have to plan for to recover our per session cost.

a.

I use 80 attendees per year to price this, but we offer 12 sessions that have approximately 7 attendees per session and not 12; therefore my pricing would be based on 12 session with 7 students per session.

b.

Again using 80 per year, but 9 sessions minimum that is approximately 9 attendees per session; this method of calculation would result in a different pricing.

c.

Now if I use “each course shall be comprised of twelve to sixteen” as my method of pricing and using the minimum of 12 students per session, the per student cost per session lowers dramatically and then it is only 7 session and that contradicts the first part of section 5.3

Answer:

A minimum of one hundred eight (108) and a maximum of one hundred and forty-four (144) students per year are expected for this training.

Question:

3.

Under section 5.8 of the PWS we are fine with everything except the grade sheets. Two areas of concern are here one is The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 and the fact that this is a USCG Approved Course.

a.

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 allows the student’s control over the disclosure of information from the records. We must have student’s consent prior to the disclosure of education records. There is no place mention in the PWS that provides us that authority by means of the USCG sending them to a contractor’s facility b.

As a USCG Approved course, we must have a certain level of exam security and we have a chain of custody that must be followed. Releasing the grade sheet is not provided for in this chain of custody.

If 3a can be accomplished we can provide a print out of the final grade for each attendee and not provide the grade sheet.

Answer:

The final grade sheet is all we need. We really only need a pass or fail