P16PS01405_Amendment_02_Questions_and_Answers.pdf

SOLICITATION P16PS01405, AMENDMENT 02

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

MINUTEMAN MISSLE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE

SOUTH DAKOTA

1) How long does Minuteman Missile NHS anticipate each oral history interview to take? 2 hours?

This is important for determining transcription time and length, editing, correction, and final prep costs.

Answer: Some interviews will be long, others will be short. The contractor will work with the COR and park staff to develop a list of topics and/or questions to ask the interviewees. The interviewer has some control over how long interviews last and whether or not the responses are valuable. This will dictate interview quality and length.

2) Page 5 of the Scope of Work states that “Payment will be made upon receipt and acceptance by NPS of final interview transcripts and signed interview release forms up to 80% of contract award total.” As written, this requirement ties vendor payments to when interviewees actually finish reviewing and correcting their transcriptions and then signing the release forms, followed by transmittal to Minuteman Missile NHS. Since the Contractor has no ultimate control over an interviewee’s timely return of corrected transcriptions, can an alternative method of vendor payment be arranged?

Answer: Payment for travel after it occurs will cover a substantial amount of contractor costs.

The computer-adept interviewees can utilize electronic mail to edit transcripts, speeding up the process. Contractor should impose a strict deadline for responses and interviewees can be invited to sign release forms at the time of interviews, if they so choose, instead of waiting for the final corrections to be made. As interviews are completed and submitted intermittently, payments will be made (Vendor may invoice up to once per month). The contractor should not wait until all interviews are completed to submit the interviews in one submission. In this way, a number of payments will be made.

3) Regarding payments, can travel expenses be a part of the total number of interviews, meaning if we are a total of 18 onsite interviews can the total travel be divided between the 18 interviews?

I understand that 80% of total contract award can be paid periodically, for example if travel totals $500 can 1/18 of that total be paid after each interview, or can we be paid for travel up front?

Answer: Invoices may be submitted up to once per month for work that has been completed.

This includes travel expenses that have occurred.

4) Paragraph IV.A.3 states that transcriptions shall be typed on archival paper, but Paragraph II.B states they shall be printed on archival paper. Which is correct?

Answer: A typewriter is not required. Final interview transcriptions are to be on archival paper.

5) Some narrators scheduled to be telephone interviews appear to be in close proximity to others scheduled to be in-person interviews. In my experience, in-person interviews are superior in content to telephone interviews. If it does not increase the cost of the project, is it acceptable to interview in person, if convenient, those narrators scheduled to interview by telephone?

Answer: Yes

6) Qualifications for PI: Would a Bachelors in History, a Masters in Heritage Preservation, and significant experience in producing oral histories according to NPS requirements qualify as the equivalent of a Masters in American History?

Answer: Yes

7) I am interested in bidding in the project. I have extensive relevant expertise, but my Ph.D. is not in US history, so while I can be project manager and consultant, I cannot be project PI according to your solicitation rules.

So I am looking to partner up with an oral historian who would serve as PI that matches your criteria.

The question is: Does this historian also need to be a small business? Or could s/he be a university-affiliated professor and work on this project as a consultant hired by my business?

Answer: You may hire consultants for the project.

8) If a digital photograph of each interviewee is required, how can the contractor provide a photograph of those interviewees that are interviewed by telephone?

Answer: Only digital photographs of in-person interviewees are required. None is required for telephone interviewees.