Notice of Intent Logistic and Confrence Support.pdf

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NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD

A SOLE SOURCE CONTRACT

TO

Guardians of Honor (GOH)

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of OHS requires a Contractor to cover a broad range of services including support of events such as: National Center Quarterly meetings in

Washington DC; (Multiple) OHS virtual grantee and stakeholder meetings, collaboration meetings in Washington, DC; Tribal Consultation meetings in multiple states, Expert

Workgroups; as well as other training and meeting sessions; technical and content support for online learning initiatives; transcribing; writing and editing support;

curriculum and materials development; graphic design support; conference and meeting planning and management; data collection and analysis; and evaluation. The Contractor shall have the capability to satisfy the requirements identified in the SOW.

The anticipatory procurement will be conducted in accordance with FAR 8.405-

6(a)(1)(i)(A), An urgent and compelling need exists, and following the procedures of

FAR Part 8.405-2 or 8.405-3 would result in unacceptable delays, the new work is a logical follow-on to an original under the NIH Conference, Administrative, and Travel

Services (NIHCATS) III indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract. The anticipatory Bridge contract with Guardians of Honor (GOH), will not exceed 12-months.

Guardians of Honor has the specialized expertise and capability to continue to support this requirement without interruption or schedule impact. The proposed bridge task order would ensure continuation of essential services. Guardians of Honor is the only source capable of fulfilling this urgent need in providing these highly specialized services while a competitive procurement to issue a new task order.

Guardians of Honor as the incumbent currently provides the required logistics and conference support services to OHS. The risk for conflict, delay and error as a result of duplication of effort that will negatively impact services required to host key events such as the National Center Quarterly meetings; OHS virtual grantee and stakeholder

Meetings, Collaboration meetings; Tribal Consultation meetings, and other key events for OHS stakeholders. Award to another contractor at this time is high risk to the

Government requiring ramp up, to include learning the distinctive characteristics of this requirement. By injecting additional vendors, it introduces the unneeded and costly complexity by adding multiple layers of review and governance. There is no time remaining in the acquisition timeline to complete this vital transition.

The Government is currently developing its requirement for a long-term contract to be in place next fiscal year, however, there is a crucial need for services to continue while that requirement is being developed. Additionally, on-boarding new contractor personnel

P a g e | 2 requires time and any break or reduction in services would be detrimental to the

Government’s needs.

With Guardians of Honor, there is no required startup time or extra costs outside of normal performance costs. Only Guardians of Honor is uniquely positioned to continue delivering effective, high-quality logistics and conference support services to OHS. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the government to sole source this requirement to Guardians of

Honor.

Responses to this notice must demonstrate clear and convincing evidence that 1.

competition would be advantageous to the Government, 2. would not be cost or time prohibitive, 3. would not pose unreasonable risk to the Government, and 4. would not hinder the mission objectives of the Agency which are very time sensitive. This response would carefully be evaluated against all known information to ascertain if the

Government’s current decision should be changed. Further, the response should clearly spell out in detail how it can provide services which satisfy the following:

The contractor shall provide logistical and event management support services to include personnel, materials, services, facilities, and otherwise do all things necessary or incidental to support the Office of Head Start. The tasks include:

1. TASK 1 –MANAGEMENT AND REPORTING

The Contractor shall provide a part-time program manager and conference management director under this task order. The project manager shall serve as the principal liaison with the Government. The project manager shall be responsible for production and oversight of all activities; ensures all reports and plans are efficient and effectively on time; direct supervision and coordination of project staff and consultants; monitoring the progress of the task order and provision of deliverables and maintain cost control. The conference management director shall provide oversight on all conference projects. The conference management director coordinates manpower and resources for conference projects; ensures all conference projects are completed effectively, on time and within budget. The Contractor shall ensure that all tasks meet federal guidelines and requirements and that any conference or meeting falling under the Efficient Spending Policy are pre-approved by the cognizant federal authority prior to expending any funds.

2. TASK 2 – LOGISTICS AND EVENT MANAGEMENT

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The Contractor shall handle logistical arrangements for meetings, conferences, and other events as assigned. Examples of meetings include virtual meetings with up to 2,000 participants and smaller Tribal

Consultation Meetings of less than 100 attendees (refer to Table 1).

The Contractor shall have a level of familiarity and experience with preparing ACF conference request forms/documents in accordance with the guidelines of the HHS/ACF Efficient Spending Policies prior to the logistical planning for meetings, conferences, and other events, when required. The Contractor is responsible for the production of events from conception through completion including but not limited to working with OHS staff to identify and negotiate hotel contracts, prepare agendas, minutes, signage, registration, and all other materials and activities that are required to produce a successful event. Events include but are not limited to conferences, meetings, Tribal Consultations, trainings, professional development opportunities, webinars, and other virtual events as needed. The Government determines the number of event planning committee members needed to support each meeting. This is usually comprised of one federal staff person and a limited number of planning members which is driven by audience size and event type. The contractor shall arrange for and participate in any necessary subsequent planning meeting(s) with the principal meeting organizer(s).

3. TASK 3 - COMMUNICATIONS AND CONTENT EXPERTISE

The Contractor shall have a level of Head Start and Early Head Start

(HS/EHS) expertise such that the task order can support agenda building for various meetings and support the development of materials on behalf of the OHS. The Contractor shall also have a level of expertise regarding the OHS and early childhood education field such that the Contractor can appropriately represent the OHS at professional meetings and events and develop and update databases and contact lists at the request of the COR. The Contractor shall have a level of HS expertise to ensure systems are in compliance with organizational requirements and develop recommendations for the organizational process changes to include new technology.

4. TASK 4: TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT

The Contractor shall provide logistical support for technical delivery via a range of non-conference activities including audio or audio-visual conference call/series, virtual participation in HHS sponsored and non-

HHS sponsored conferences, consultation with experts/peers, roundtable meetings, small planning meetings, training

P a g e | 4 sessions/institutes, and special conference track or pre-conference meetings. The Contractor shall explore new emerging, cost-effective information technology modes and shall provide IT modes that best meet the needs of the audience and IT modes that are compatible with their IT capacity.

5. TRANSITION OUT

6. OPTIONAL TASKS

In addition to the services outlined above, OHS may elect to exercise any or all of the options outlined below at any time during the period of performance.

• Optional/Tasks 1-45: Convene OHS Events, Tribal Consultation

Meetings (severable services)

• Site Selection

• Coordinate Meeting Attendance

• Meeting Materials

• On-site Services

• Meeting Notes and Summary

• Post-Meeting Activities

The determination not to compete this proposed contract action is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered for the purposes of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. The

Government has already determined that the work cannot be subdivided or otherwise broken down into smaller tasks or deliverables. Any response shall be a “turn-key” response. The Government will not be responsible for any costs incurred by responding to this notice. This is NOT a request for quotes or Respondent’s submissions.

Questions or comments to this Notice of Intent should be directed to the Contract

Specialist, Lance Hubbard, at Lance.Hubbard@acf.hhs.gov No phone calls will be accepted.

mailto:Lance.Hubbard@acf.hhs.gov