8213001EQ004_PWS.pdf

SBAHQ-18-Q-0015

NATIONAL WOMEN’S BUSINESS COUNCIL

Performance Work Statement for the Content, Design, Production, and Printing of the NWBC’s Annual Report

Location of Work: To be completed by the contractor off-site (not at SBA headquarters)

Time to Complete the Work:

Base – 9/01/2018 – 06/30/2019 Option Period One – if option period is exercised, 07/01/2019 – 06/30/2020 Option Period Two – if option period is exercised, 07/01/2020 – 06/30/2021 Option Period Three – if option period is exercised, 07/01/2021 – 06/30/2022 Option Period Four– if option period is exercised, 07/01/2022 – 06/30/2023

Clearance Required: None

1.0 BACKGROUND

The National Women’s Business Council (NWBC) is a nonpartisan federal advisory council created to serve as an independent source of advice and counsel to the President, Congress, and the U.S. Small Business Administration on economic issues of impact and importance to women business owners and entrepreneurs. The NWBC was established via the Women’s Business Ownership Act of 1988 (H.R. 5050), a landmark piece of legislation that is known for its historical significance of eliminating individual state laws that required women to have a male relative cosign a business loan.

The NWBC has brought together women business owners and leaders, policymakers, bankers and investors, representatives of women’s business organizations and other stakeholders to identify the unique challenges facing women in business and to formulate potential solutions. It is the Council’s purpose to equip the nation’s decision makers, public and private, with policy recommendations that will impact and improve the business climate for women in our country.

Previous annual reports are available for your review here:

https://www.nwbc.gov/category/annual-reports/

The NWBC has a statutory requirement to deliver an annual report to the President, Congress and the U.S. Small Business Administration, no later than 90 days after the end of the fiscal year, September 30, 2018. The Annual Report has multiple sections and has previously included: a message from the Chair; an executive summary; a table of contents; summaries of the most recent research results and brief summaries of completed and ongoing research projects;

completed work products, such as infographics, profiles, and charts; highlights of Council engagement and outreach efforts; presentation of the current year’s recommendations and progress made on them: organized by the four pillars – access to capital, access to markets, data collection, and with a particular emphasis on job creation and growth; outline of future goals and the following year’s priorities; bios and pictures of the staff and Council Members; and a general description about the Council and history.

https://www.nwbc.gov/category/annual-reports/

Through this Performance Work Statement, the NWBC seeks to obtain a firm to write, design, produce, and print an annual report for FY2018 that will be distributed to the President, Congress the U.S. Small Business Administration, and other key stakeholders.

NWBC’s annual report is a tool and resource used to celebrate the growing economic influence of women entrepreneurs, feature Council research data and findings, propose solutions, and policy recommendations and highlight the outreach activities of the Council.

2.0 SCOPE OF WORK

The NWBC seeks to contract for a high‐quality and compelling 20-30 page annual report.

Creation of the annual report includes the following: significant copy-writing of the deliverable;

design of the report layout; creation of supporting graphics and visuals; organization and copy editing of NWBC-created content; printing of deliverable, and shipping the deliverable to the NWBC office by set deadline.

The NWBC will work closely with the vendor throughout the project, providing the necessary content, guidance on the organization of the content, and feedback on design, copywriting and printing copyediting. Please review previous annual reports for possible layouts. Some sections may be:

Introductory Pages

• Message from the Chair (Tentative)

• Introducing the Council (Mission and Statutory Authority) and the Council’s

Structure

• Table of Contents

Sections in Report (not necessarily in this order)

• Major Stakeholder Accomplishments (Congress, White House, U.S. Small Business Administration); Ex: 2015 Annual Report, pgs. 26-28

• NWBC Research and Policy Recommendations

• NWBC Engagement (Public Meetings, Calendar, Events)

• Council and Staff Bios

• Acknowledgements

In addition, a web‐friendly 1‐2 page executive summary version of the report distilling the key information and charts should be developed by the contractor.

The NWBC reserves the right to tailor or amend the content, without major change to the scope.

NWBC retains the rights to this project upon completion. The selected contractor shall complete the production of the report on behalf of the NWBC and cannot share or distribute the report in any way without the expressed written permission of NWBC. The NWBC shall list the contractor as a client, but the contractor’s name and logo shall not appear on the cover.

3.0 OBJECTIVES

The NWBC seeks to develop an annual report that is:

• Informative, Engaging and Compelling: There is a substantive amount of information to share within this annual report, and the report should strike the balance of being informative as well as compelling to various audiences. The report should be designed and written with the key audiences (listed below) in mind.

o Primary Audience ‐ (in no particular order) U.S. Congressional Members and staff The President and White House staff The Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and staff o Secondary Audiences ‐ (in no particular order)

Individual Small Businesses and Women Business Owners Women’s Business Organizations and Women’s Entrepreneurial

Development and Support Organizations Equity investors, women’s business loan managers Supplier diversity program managers and supplier diversity corporations Community development banks Business Trade Associations and Organizations Other SBA components and regional and district offices Other federal agencies Other local and state government officials and agencies Researchers Media Entrepreneurs, business owners and leaders

• Relevant and Accessible: Recognizing that today’s information consumption habits have drastically changed, a critical objective of the report is to create a platform that allows the reader to quickly identify relevant content and easily access succinct information that they can understand and contextualize.

o Based on this, the report should be intuitively structured, well‐organized, compelling, accessible, clean, and sophisticated.

o In order to capture the attention of the reader, key data points and human stories should be emphasized.

o Copy and information should be presented in a concise and visually engaging manner with graphs, pictures, quotes, sidebars, charts, summary tables, etc.

(where relevant).

o Opportunities to create synopses and executive summaries that can be utilized in other formats (e.g., social media, websites, etc.).

The NWBC seeks a contractor who:

1. Can write the annual report content with a unified voice. Necessary content and materials will be provided by NWBC staff. The NWBC seeks a contractor that can take large amounts of information and full research reports and synthesize said information. The contractor will be responsible for developing annual report content from NWBC research reports.

2. Has expertise in writing, editing, and quality control.

3. Can summarize and develop compelling infographics and visuals from various sources provided by the NWBC, keeping the mission and strategic goals of the Council in mind.

4. Can create a layout for the report that results in a straightforward, engaging, and interesting reader experience, including layout consideration for web and other digital/mobile platforms.

5. Can create visually appealing and useful charts, graphs, sidebars, maps, etc., from materials and raw data provided by the NWBC to ensure the report is not text heavy and visually balanced.

6. Can support the creation of synopses and the executive summaries that can be used in other formats (e.g., social media, websites, etc.).

7. Can thoughtfully incorporate web links and existing digital assets to help link the report to other communications tools.

8. Can strike an appropriate balance between a visually appealing report and the cost of production based on design options and choices that emphasize value to the reader.

9. Can provide a final product that is grammatically correct, error‐free, and ready for reproduction, and can also review a print-proof and comment on the quality and accuracy of the reproduction with the design.

10. Can create an annual report that meets 508 Requirements and Responsibilities (see link).

11. The contractor shall produce a 508-compliant PDF four weeks prior to end of contract.

12. The contractor shall manage the printing process for 1000 copies of the final annual report document. These hard copies shall be delivered to the NWBC office no later than three weeks prior to end of contract. Please provide a printed annual report proof prior to printing the 1000 copies.

4.0 Deliverable Schedule

The contractor may need to spend substantial time working on the report until it is finalized and approved by the NWBC staff and Council Members. The outline does not align with a projected payment schedule, but is a timeline for the project manager to use when working with the NWBC. Given NWBC’s statutory requirement to produce a report within three months of the close of the previous fiscal year, this contract does not permit for an extension of the timeline and the contractor must adhere to the following deliverables:

Deliverable Format Due Date Regular progress reports Telephone/e-mail conversations; these may include outlines and draft versions of the report (especially for later progress reports)

Periodic updates on a schedule agreed to between the contractor and the contracting officer’s representative (COR)

Kick-Off Meeting; discussion of theme, format recommendations, key staff, timeline, and logistics.

In-person meeting. If in-person meeting is not possible, then meeting will have to take place via video conference/teleconference. .

September 4, 2018 https://www.section508.gov/

Contractor delivers concept design to NWBC

E-mailed electronic versions September14, 2018

Review design concept In-person meeting or via web conference

September 21, 2018

Contractor delivers first round of NWBC content copy (copy only)

E-mailed electronic versions of the draft; these may include track changes and other comments between the contractor and the COR (format to be mutually agreed upon by program office and contractor)

September 28, 2018

DRAFT 1: Contractor delivers first full draft to NWBC

E-mailed electronic versions October 12, 2018

DRAFT 2: Contractor delivers second draft of report to NWBC with NWBC edits incorporated

E-mailed electronic versions October 26, 2018

DRAFT 3: Contractor gives NWBC third draft of the report with NWBC edits incorporated

E-mailed electronic versions November 9, 2018

FINAL DRAFT: NWBC

receives final draft of report

E-mailed electronic version of the final report; see #7 for specific requirements of any draft or final version of the report

November 16, 2018

Contractor incorporates final edits into the final draft of the report

E-mailed electronic version of the final report; see #7 for specific requirements of any draft or final version of the report

November 26, 2018

NWBC receives final 508 compliant PDF

E-mailed electronic version of the final report; see #7 for specific requirements of any draft or final version of the report

December 3, 2018

NWBC receives 1-2 page summary of annual report in 508 compliant PDF

E-mailed electronic version of the final report; see #7 for specific requirements of any draft or final version of the report

December 3, 2018

NWBC receives printed copies 1000 printed hard copies of the annual report delivered to the NWBC office

December 7, 2018.

The annual report shall be made available in draft form (both hard copy and electronic formats) to the NWBC staff and Council Members for comments and suggested changes. The contractor must, as required, rewrite, edit, and make changes in the draft layout and graphics to the specification of the reviewers. Text, graphics, and layout are subject to final approval by the NWBC staff and Council Members.

The contractor will be required to provide the final annual report document in a print and camera ready PDF format using currently accepted industry and Government Printing Office standards, and 1,000 8.5 X 11 hard copies.

In addition, the contractor will provide synopses and executive summary examples that can be utilized for social media, web, and other formats to improve accessibility of relevant information.

Document distribution will be handled exclusively by the NWBC.

Inspection and Acceptance Criteria Inspection and acceptance of deliverables shall be performed by the NWBC Project Manager/COR.

All interim deliverables must meet a 95 percent completion rate and AQL standards below.

Incomplete documents will receive an automatic 6 percentage point reduction causing automatic rejection. All interim and final deliverables must be copy edited and are subject to the minimum acceptable quality level (AQL) of “excellent.” Items subject for review are: spelling, grammar, organization, and content. Additional quality level will be determined based on response and incorporation of feedback, innovation, and deadlines/timeliness. Final products must meet “excellent” criteria of little to no error.

All deliverables, such as PDF files, video footage, CD-ROMs that contain HTML, PDF or word processor, should be 508 compliant. More information may be found at http://www.section508.gov/.

The contractor is expected to work with the NWBC on line and draft edits as deemed necessary by the NWBC. All deliverables that do not fully incorporate NWBC edits and feedback are subject to rejection. Deliverables that do not meet the AQL of “excellent” are subject to rejection and must be revised and resubmitted to the NWBC within two business weeks. As discussed, excellent will refer to deliverables that are 95 percent compete with proper grammar, formatting, presentation of information, and incorporation of the COR feedback. Rejection could result in delays of the deliverable timeline or additional costs which is the sole responsibility of the contractor to rectify within the firm-fixed price cost and contractual timeline. The NWBC is not responsible for additional costs accrued due to timeline delays or products that do not meet AQL standards. If additional drafts and edits are required due to not meeting AQL standards by offeror and therefore exceed the original draft or edits agreed upon, the government shall not be charged more for an excess number of edits and or drafts.

Incentive/Disincentive: After deliverables are reviewed by COR, if deliverables do not meet AQL standards, 0.1% will be deducted from invoice of the amount of the active period of award http://www.section508.gov/

(i.e. base or option period) but is not to exceed $2,000.00. Deduction shall occur each time the deliverable or product submitted is determined to be less than 99% quality by the COR and also each day the deliverable is late (i.e. if late and unacceptable 0.1% + 0.1% =0.2%). The deductions will occur as follows: 2% off for grammar, punctuation, and syntax, 1% off formatting, 2% for inaccurate representation of Council’s mission and/or priorities, 1% ineffective incorporation and feedback.

5.0 PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The Contractor shall provide a Point of Contact (POC) to facilitate Government‐Contractor communications. The POC shall be the primary technical and managerial interface between the Contractor and Contracting Officer (CO) and the Contracting Officer’s Technical Representative

(COTR).

The name of this person shall be designated in writing to the CO. The POC will have full authority to act for the contractor on all contract matters relating to daily operations. The Contractor’s POC shall meet with the CO/COTR as necessary to maintain satisfactory performance and to resolve other issues pertaining to Government/Contractor procedures. At these meetings, a mutual effort will be made to resolve any and all problems identified.

6.0 INVOICING INSTRUCTIONS

When submitting invoice(s), the following information is required on every invoice:

-Business Name and Address -Business DUNS -Invoice Date -Invoice Number -Contract/Purchase Order Number

- Requisition Number -Amount Billed for Specified Work Accomplished

- Total Contract Value

- Cumulative Billed

- Narrative of Performance Sufficient to Justify the Invoice

FAILURE TO CITE THIS INFORMATION WILL RESULT IN NON-PAYMENT OF

INVOICE.

Partial Payments are permitted and invoices shall not be submitted more than monthly.

Payments on invoices shall be based on deliverables provided in accordance with the attached Statement of Work (SOW).

The final invoice for this contract/order (base and any options), shall be distinctly marked on its face as “FINAL INVOICE” and signed by the contractor. This final signed invoice will serve as a Release of Claims. An extra signature field for the signature of the Contractor Officer will also be required.

7.0 ADDITIONAL

• Disclosure of Information: Information made available to the contractor by the Government for the performance or administration of this effort shall be used for those purposes and shall not be used in any other way without the written agreement of the Contracting Officer. The contractor agrees to assume responsibility for protecting the confidentiality of Government records, which are not public information. Each contractor or employee of the contractor to whom information may be made available or disclosed shall be notified in writing by the contractor that such information may be disclosed only for a purpose and to the extent authorized herein.

• Limited Use of Data: Performance of this effort may require the contractor to access and use data and information proprietary to a Government agency or Government contractor which is of such a nature that its dissemination or use other than in performance of this effort would be adverse to the interests of the Government and/or others. Contractor and/or contractor personnel shall not divulge or release data or information developed or obtained in performance of this effort, until made public by the Government, except to authorized Government personnel or upon written approval of the Contracting Officer.

The contractor shall not use, disclose, or reproduce proprietary data that bears a restrictive legend, other than as required in the performance of this effort. Nothing herein shall preclude the use of any data independently acquired by the contractor without such limitations or prohibit an agreement at no cost to the Government between the contractor and the data owner which provides for greater rights to the contractor.

• Payment for Unauthorized Work: No payments will be made for any unauthorized supplies and/or services or for any unauthorized changes to the work specified herein.

This includes any services performed by the Contractor of their own volition or at the request of an individual other than a duly appointed Contracting Officer. Only a duly appointed Contracting Officer is authorized to change the specifications, terms, and conditions under this effort.

• Contractor Personnel: The Contractor shall be responsible for managing and overseeing the activities of all Contractor personnel, as well as subcontractor efforts used in performance of this effort. The Contractor’s management responsibilities shall include all activities necessary to ensure the accomplishment of timely and effective support performed in accordance with the requirements contained in this statement of work.

Resumes submitted for employees assigned to perform under this statement of work shall contain documented experience directly applicable to the functions to be performed.

Further, these prior work experiences shall be specific and of sufficient variety and duration that the employee is able to effectively and efficiently perform the functions assigned.

• Period of Performance: Base: 9/01/2018 through 06/30/2019