Information for the Commodity meetings at the ESCs

Hi!

MRPC and the CN Specialists will be hosting the annual “Commodity” meetings at each Region ESC (10, 11, 12, & 15) and at Jacksonville ISD for districts in Region 7. A schedule of dates and times is provided below. Each member is invited and encouraged to attend if you will be participating in processed USDA foods (processed commodities) and/or regular USDA foods (brown box). I will be sending out an Agenda next week, however, the meetings will be split into a morning session and an afternoon session. The morning session will be spent talking about the received commodity bids and which processors were awarded, pricing and what that looks like for SY17 and how far your entitlement will stretch, DOD programs, the “best bang for your buck,” the best fit for your district needs, and much more! Yes, you will be ready for lunch! 

We will break for lunch and those who want one-on-one assistance with TX-UNPS and/or ProcessorLink are welcome back for the afternoon session. If you are planning to attend your local ESC’s meeting you will need to register for that meeting through their website.

Need to attend the meeting “remotely?”

If you need to attend your region’s meeting via remote connection, please let me know so I can ensure all technology is available and set up. We will use the Zoom software for this and will send you a link that will allow you to connect to the meeting. It is very easy. For those of you remote, you will want to attend the morning session and then we will set up an individual appointment with you for one-on-one assistance over the phone if desired.

Here is what the next several weeks look like:

Jan. 14th:Commodity Bid is officially opened.

Jan. 19-21:Commodity Bid Evaluation Committee sessions to determine which processors and products to award. I will be sending out an email to all members to participate in this process electronically if you are not attending the meeting in person. Stay tuned for how that will work, and I promise it will be easy.

Jan. 26th: Hopefully…if I have “peddled” fast enough, and ProcessorLink will be ready for those of you wanting to start making your entries for processed commodities. If you are unfamiliar with this software or need a refresher, please wait until you have attended one of the Commodity Meetings. You will be given plenty of time to get this done before the deadline.

“Commodities for SY17” Meetings:

February 2, 2016 (Tuesday): Jacksonville ISD, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, for Region 7 districts.

February 3, 2016 (Wednesday): Region 12 ESC, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm.

February 4, 2016 (Thursday): Region 10 ESC, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm.

February 10, 2016 (Wednesday): Region 11 ESC, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm.

February 11, 2016 (Thursday) : Region 15 ESC, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm.

Video Trainings:

I will be making several video trainings in the next few weeks that will be placed on the MRPC website. These will cover several topics such as submitting your contract packet in TX-UNPS and entering SY17 processed commodity selections into ProcessorLink, plus more. I will send out an email as soon as these become available.

Deadlines:

February 5, 2016: Say “YES” to DOD programs and submit your packet if participating in DOD. This is a tentative date since TDA has yet to open the SY17 school year in TX-UNPS.

February 9-10, 2016: Tentative date for DOD funds to be allocated.

February 29, 2016: Must have all selections entered into ProcessorLink for your processed commodities.

April/TBD: Annual Surveys will close, all brown box requests must be entered into TX-UNPS.

Whew! You are done reading! Have a great weekend!

Thanks,

Keri Warnick

Purchasing Specialist, Multi-Region Purchasing Cooperative

972.348.1448

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