DDE_Questions_2nd_Year.docx

Questions applicable to both RFQs

1. Please identify more explicitly DDE’s desired qualifications for candidates, and the weighting given to each qualification in determining their fair-trade-off-value as embedded in Factor 1. Implied qualities seem to be: Joint Qualified Officer or JPMEII, academic credit hours beyond a master’s degree or PhD, and longevity in teaching senior service college topics.

Response: Paragraph 4.2.’x’ provide indicators where you find ques such as “plus”, “highly qualified”, or “Highest qualified” depending on the year group.

2. How do DDE bid evaluators use existing USAWC COR and CPARS reports to determine continuing suitability of existing contractors as part of the determination for Past Performance?

Contracting- In the case of knowledge-based services, past performance is determined off of CPARS & COR reports on the vendor, not the key personnel (unless they are one and the same). Unsatisfactory reports are noted, and can be used to determine the vendor Not Responsible and therefore, ineligible for award.

3. To ensure the quality and diversity of scholarship among faculty instructor candidates, should DDE consider expanding its desirable qualities for this bidding cycle to include: experience and longevity in teaching via distance education, other military services and interagency experience, specialty schools (e.g., SAMS and SAAS), and research and publishing on topics relevant to DDE’s curriculum?

Response: Follow the RFQ. See paragraph 4.2.’x’.

4. The new on-going requirement for matrix games has proven to add significant time to the preparation for resident courses, especially if scenarios will be swapped regularly. Such preparation includes the instructor learning the new scenario, additional work with students (e.g., notifications to students, additional explanations to questions, rehearsals) in organizing them and preparing for the course, and an additional, rather complex evaluation during SRC. Although an excellent learning and evaluation tool for the students, this extensive requirement is not mentioned explicitly in the 1st Year and 2nd Year RFQ. What is the full extent of the time and effort requirements that DDE expects of its contract FIs?

Response: Level of effort was adjusted internally.

5. What is DDE’s procedure for handling academic integrity issues, and what is the role and level of effort expected of the contract FI? Under what CLIN are contract instructors compensated for this process?

Response: Follow the RFQ. See paragraph 5.2.’x’ and 5.3.’x’.

6. Currently contract faculty working remotely from Carlisle, as allowed in the contract, are shutout of important elements needed to teach including documents on Share Point, the G: drive, Fair Use and Events Manager databases, and other items behind the Carlisle Barracks’ firewall. Under Para 3.0 Government Responsibilities, will DDE change access to the VPN to allow access, or issue VPN capable computers to contractors? If not, what will the government do to enable contract faculty to perform these required tasks?

Response: A Fair Use PDF is sent to the course director as needed. Follow the RFQ.

7. The new and rather time-consuming additional requirement to evaluate students based on the Course Evaluation Report (CER) and then incorporate that data into the Army Evaluation Report (AER) is not covered in either RFQ. What are the additional time and effort requirements expected of contract faculty in order to complete these tasks?

Response: Level of effort was adjusted internally.

8. The 2nd Year RFQ, paragraph 4, Contractor Qualifications

a. This paragraph states that, “If two Faculty Instructors are submitted, the evaluation of the submission will be based on the lowest qualified of the two ….” No such requirement is shown in the 1st Year RFQ. Does this same standard apply to 1st Year?

Response: Follow the RFQ.

b. A team of two instructors bring greater diversity of experience, have more time and attention available for students, and have built in flexibility and back-up to ensure “an adequate workforce for the uninterrupted performance of all tasks” as required by RFQ paragraph 1.6.4. Will DDE give weighting in its desired qualities to the importance of two-person teams for providing more capability, by removing the current requirement of awarding a lower evaluation if team members have different capabilities? Would DDE consider giving partial credit if one team member is a JQO, for instance, and the other is not?

Response: Follow the RFQ. See paragraph 4.

9. The 2nd Year RFQ, paragraph 5.1.1.3 includes a parenthetical statement about the completion of an external online training course. What is the nature of this training course? Are all contractors, even those with prior USAWC distance education teaching experience expected to complete an external training course? By when must the contractor complete it? Will a similar requirement be included in the 1st Year RFQ? Will this requirement be compensated under the CLIN for faculty training?

Response: The parenthetical example requirement is applicable to the student of the faculty member.

10. Both RFQs, paragraphs 5.12 and 5.13, respectively address contractor manpower reporting. These entries should be consistent across both RFQs, to include their descriptive paragraphs, since they are an enterprise-wide mandate. The ECMRA process is inadequately explained in the text of the RFQ. In order to avoid confusion and meet expectations, what exactly are the requirements to complete the ECMRA requirement? For example, how many reports must be submitted over the course of the entire contract? Our calculations reflect six for 1st Year and seven for 2nd Year, are these accurate? What specific data is required for the report?

Response: ECMRA is required for each fiscal year contract activity occurs regardless of the number of option years. You will invoice up to 5 times for ECMRA regardless of the number of time you access/input to the system during the 5 year period. Reporting requirements are determined by contractor activity.

11. 2nd Year Addendum, page 6 includes a detailed explanation of how two quotes will be awarded five-year contracts, two others will be awarded four-year contracts, and the fifth award will be for one year. No such statement appears in the addendum for 1st Year. Is this an oversight or intentional?

Contracting- This is not an oversight. 1004 is running all 6 positions as Base+4 (five year). Please note that the numbers for 1005 are: two (2) 5-year contracts, two (2) 4-year contracts, and one (1) 3-year contract. All contracts awarded from 1005 will have a two-month extension at the end. The government’s intention is to break up the contracts so that they do not all expire at the same time.

12. The new requirement for FlipGrid oral presentation evaluations is addressed in a cursory fashion in the RFQ. What are the additional time requirements and the tasks expected to support this new requirement?

Response: Level of effort was adjusted internally.

13. Please confirm that any Contractor travel costs associated with travel to Antietam and Sharpsburg, VA and Gettysburg, PA for the Battlefield Staff Rides shall be included in the Battlefield Staff Ride CLIN pricing.

Contracting- The only event that will provide a separate travel allowance is the trip to Washington DC, which the amount is Not To Exceed $75. All other travel expenses shall be included in the appropriate CLIN.

14. Addendum TO 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Items, Paragraph C, Quote Preparation Instructions, Page 2. This paragraph states that quoters are to submit a completed solicitation as part of proposal submission. Please see the below as it relates to this request:

Questions applicable to Amendment 1 of both solicitations:

17. Both state, “Please note that the these contracts are for Base +2 option years, and the requirement is for Base +4” What does this note mean? Are we bidding on contracts with two-option or four-option years?

Contracting- In the note, a ‘requirement’ is just that, a requirement for services. A ‘contract’ is a requirement that has been awarded a contract. The old contracts are base+2 (with 2nd year also having the 2-month extension), while the new will be dependent on which solicitation you are working from. 1004 has all six positions as base+4. 1005 has varying lengths (see 11). Any information gained from those previous contracts for this year’s requirements would need to be adjusted for the difference.

Questions applicable to DDE Instructors 2nd Year, W91QF0-19-Q-1005

19. Please describe the expected time and effort requirements needed to properly obtain Fair Use authorization for electives.

Response: This varies based on the course author and course material.

20. The new requirement for an additional case study exercise in DE2308 is not addressed in the RFQ. What are the new time requirements and the tasks involved to support this exercise?

Response: Level of effort was adjusted internally.

21. The frequency of changing carrier exercises and case studies in SYS should also be specified in the RFQ. If, as anticipated, these learning vehicles will be rotated annually, significantly more preparation time will be required for preparation than if the same one is used for several years. FIs understand why they need to change but need to know through the RFQ how often that will happen in order to ensure time expectations match reality. How often during the contract’s five-year period does DDE expect to change the carrier exercise and case studies? How much additional time does DDE expect for preparation and execution of these, based on the changing scenarios?

Response: Expect the same preparation each year.

22. How does DDE determine the desirability of proposed elective and graduate seminar topics? Which topics are a priority for DDE’s curriculum? Would DDE consider making the presentation of one of these topics a desired teaching quality, which helps determine the best bids?

Response: Flexibility is desired for the changing COE.

23. How important is the online teaching experience of the instructor for online electives? Would DDE consider making this a desired quality, which helps determine the best bids?

Response: Follow the RFQ.

24. Paragraph 4.2.4 states that items “in paragraph 4.2.2 (a) through (j)” are acceptable fields of study. However, paragraph 4.2.2 only lists items through (i) and is missing (j). Will 2nd Year restore Regional Studies as item (j) as it has listed in past bids, and as 1st Year currently lists it?

Contracting- Corrected to (i)

25. Paragraph 4.2.4 has no subfactor evaluation in the Addendum, although the 1st Year RFQ has a subfactor for the same criteria in its Addendum. Will DDE add a sixth subfactor, and if so, what will it state?

Contracting- There is no 6th factor, and will NOT be added.

26. Paragraph 5.1.1.2 states that contractors shall “attend and participate in” faculty training sessions. Does this preclude monitoring live faculty training sessions remotely? If not available for the live sessions, does this preclude watching the video afterwards? What are the intended requirements for participation under this paragraph?

Response: Follow the RFQ.

27. Paragraph 5.6.5 and 5.7.5

a. These two paragraphs each state, “to allow for proper invoice submission, the contract will allow for three CLINS for the Graduate Seminar [or online elective] and one CLIN for development.” In paragraph 7.0, items 6 and 8 state, “Development and execution of one Graduate Seminar [or online elective] in year required.” The numbers don’t add up as there are five contract years and thus the opportunity to teach both course five times, not three. How does DDE intend to correct this error?

Response: Change: “three CLINS for Graduate Seminar...” to read: “three to five CLINS for Graduate Seminar…”

b. Those same references suggest that the development of both courses be covered by a separate CLIN for each. No such development CLIN appears in the tables starting on page 24 of 89. There should be two additional, optional CLINs for each contract year: CLIN x013, Course Development (Graduate Seminar) and CLIN x014, Course Development (Elective). How does DDE intend to correct this deficiency?

Response: Development CLIN will not occur in the same year as the Update/execute CLIN.

28. CLIN data, page 27 states that the faculty training quantity during the base year is 6 but paragraph 5.11 and the 1st Year RFQ both state the quantity is 4. Which is correct?

Response: All documents state four for base year and two for each option year.

29. CLIN data, page 56 lists SRC and the graduate seminar as 4106 and 4107. Might, for consistency, these CLINs be renumbered 4104 and 4105, respectively as SRC and the graduate seminar in other years are under CLIN x004 and x005, respectively?

Contracting- You are correct, these will be changed to 4104 and 4105.

30. Addendum page 6, paragraph C states that there are six technical subfactors but elsewhere only five are listed. Is a sixth subfactor needed to cover the criteria in paragraph 4.2.4?

Contracting- This was an oversight, and will be removed.