Date: / 11/07/2013
Subject: / Training and Exercise Curriculum
Solicitation Number: / 610006834
Opening Date/Time: / 11/19/2013
Addendum Number: / 2
To All Suppliers:
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania defines a solicitation “Addendum”” as an addition to or amendment of the original terms, conditions, specifications, or instructions of a procurement solicitation (e.g., Invitation for Bids or Request for Proposals).
List any and all changes:
The RFQ states, “This RFQ 6100026834 is a restricted solicitation. Only those contractors qualified in the designated categories under Contract #4400007410, known as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Consulting Services ITQ, may submit a proposal in response to this RFQ.” Does this contractor qualification apply to subconsultants as well?
A: Whoever is submitting the proposal, must be listed on the appropriate ITQ under the appropriate Category.
On page 11 of the Statement of Work, Item 6 states, “If the vendor partners with another vendor, all parties involved must be able to meet the same requirements set forth in this statement of work.” Please confirm that this statement is referring to the requirement that a subconsultant be able to perform aspects of the scope of work and not a requirement that each subconsultant submit all materials required for this response to qualifications.
A. They should have a COOP plan and be able to meet the requirements.
Of the materials required for this response to qualifications, are there specific items from subconsultants that should be included in a prime’s submittal?
A. They should provide samples of applicable work....like a project flysheet and staff resumes.
What is the period of performance for this contract? There are indications that the schedule requires tasks to be completed “within 6 months of Notice to Proceed (NTP) (page 9) and “within 24 weeks of NTP” (SOW page 10); however, there are statements that indicate the vendor is responsible for positive increases in metrics on a “year-by-year basis” (SOW page 7). Please clarify.
a. The Period of Performance is 6 months. No you will not be responsible for positive metrics on a year by year basis. We as in PEMA are hoping by having more to offer current and future CERT participants that we will experience positive increases.
Attachment A, Statement of Work, Page 2, Project Goals, item A. states the vendor shall, “Conduct a thorough review of all participating CERT entities strategic plans which identifies long and short term organizational goals.” Please identify by number and location “all participating CERT entities” and any Citizen Corps programs.
a. Related to question above, does PEMA know how many strategic plans exist, in total? Please provide the total, if known. CERT organizations receiving grant funding from the Commonwealth are required to have one.
b. If a total is unknown, please provide information related to the known entities. There are approximately 20 very short plans about 2-10 pages each.
c. Does the Commonwealth have a strategic plan? The Bureau of Strategic Planning has an Education and Outreach Strategic plan, which involves CERT.
Attachment A, Statement of Work, Page 2, Project Goals, item C. states, ”Provide necessary training in order to meet the core capabilities of THIRA and be able to have volunteers assist PEMA or their respective county during an emergency event.” In which specific Core Capabilities is the Commonwealth attempting to train CERT volunteers? There is a DHS document that relates Citizen Corps and CERT to the core capabilities. Some core capabilities related to CERT are planning, public information and warning, operational coordination/communication, community resilience, environmental response/health and safety, mass search and rescue operations, public health and medical services, and situational assessment.
http://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/31350?fromSearch=fromsearch&id=7121
Attachment A, Statement of Work, Page 2, Project Goals, item C. How many training courses does PEMA envision having the need to be developed? There currently is not a concrete number of how many courses we would like developed. There may be courses already developed by FEMA and other CERTs in different states that would require minor tweaking in order to be used by the Commonwealth. We do not want to completely reinvent the wheel if we do not have to. We need to be cost effective with this initiative.
Attachment A, Statement of Work, Page 2, Project Goals, item E. states the vendor shall, “Develop an all-hazards preparedness program including a curriculum to educate our children today and interest them in volunteering in public service tomorrow.” There are TEEN CERT and COLLEGE CERT curriculums regarding CERT. This is a low priority. If there is funding leftover we will tackle this initiative. We are most likely looking for something online that teachers could choose to do….possible during National Preparedness Month to introduce them to TEEN CERT and COLLEGE CERT.
a. What is the purpose of this project goal, i.e. what are the parameters around the development of a program for “children”.
b. What age ranges/grades?
c. Is the vendor to develop multiple programs for school age children at various age levels?
d. Where will “children’s” programs be delivered, LMS, in schools, at community group meetings?
e. Who are the appropriate stakeholders related to this goal?
f. Please provide guidance on the expectation related to this project goal as there is no further mention of it in the SOW Tasks.
How many stakeholder meetings does PEMA anticipate? 3-5
Will stakeholder meetings be held only at PEMA HQ or will there be meetings in multiple locations in the state? They can be held outside of PEMA HQ. If at multiple locations, will these be grouped by PEMA region? Yes.
Addendum 1, question 5 is related to Attachment A Statement of Work, Page 4, Task 6. Please clarify the answer from the Commonwealth. Are vendors to use LMS or not? Yes. Do you want multiple methods of tracking training course completion or just one? We need something that will allow both County CERT Leaders, the State, and participants track their course completions and allow for reporting of information so we know what courses have been completed and by whom.
SOW page 3-4, Task 3 states, “Stakeholders include the Commonwealth, PEMA, County and Local Governments, Citizens, and Vendor. Such engagement methods to be utilized are interviews with County CERT Coordinators, meetings with the PEMA, Citizen Corps/CERT Workgroup and active CERT members, and questionnaires sent to citizen’s home to gather input on CERT marketing improvement.”
a. How many of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania are participating or expected to participate in this program as stakeholders? 20-30
b. How many local governments are participating or expected to participate in this program as stakeholders? TBD. Participating CERT counties can forward meeting notices to their municipal participants.
c. “and questionnaires sent to citizen’s home to gather input on CERT marketing improvement”. What is the intent of this statement? Is the vendor expected to send questionnaires to a random sampling of households within the Commonwealth or only to members of existing Citizens Corps/CERT Teams? How many questionnaires are expected to be required? It will be a sample.
SOW page 4, Task 4 – CERT Train-the-Trainer, is the desire to develop train-the-trainer (TtT) above and beyond TtT courses already offered by FEMA? The intent would be for some of the more advanced CERT offerings to have a T-t-T component so other instructors can be trained to teach it.
SOW page 5, Task 5 states, “The Vendor shall be responsible for presenting all curriculum materials…” Does this mean “providing” instead of “presenting”? In other words, is the vendor expected to actually deliver a pilot training program as a class to the stakeholder group or just provide the materials of the class for review? You will be presenting the materials to them and providing examples for them to review….or posting the materials online where they can be reviewed and provide them with a means for how they can submit comments.
SOW page 5, Task 6 – Are all courses to be developed and placed on LMS? Will some courses NOT be placed on LMS? Some won’t be and some will be. The vendor will just get the ones that are going to be to a suitable form so that they can be uploaded up to LMS.
SOW page 5, Task 6 –PEMA references LMS several times throughout the SOW but appears to not require utilization of LMS to track an individual’s training record. Is it the intent of PEMA to not require the use LMS for tracking CERT training course? Again, it could be done it LMS but it needs to be able ensure the following: allow both County CERT Leaders, the State, and participants track their course completions and allow for reporting of information so we know what courses have been completed and by whom.
SOW page 5, Task 7 – appears to be in conflict with Task 6 and the question asked above. Is the intent of PEMA to use the LMS, the PEMA Collaboration Portal, or a different method of tracking an individual’s training record? SharePoint is also mentioned. Does PEMA currently maintain a SharePoint site or is this a theoretical option? There are options. Will the vendor be required to work with PEMA to manage the SharePoint/LMS/PEMA Portal option? No.
SOW page 6, Task 10 – Relates to question 1 above and item A of SOW Program Goals. How many “CERT entities” have policy, procedure, and SOG documents that require review? Is the intention of Task 10 to develop a unified, common set of documents that all CERT entities must use or is the vendor to work with all existing CERT entities to review and individually address their documents? Task 10 intent is to offer them a guidance template that will provide them with a tool for developing a SOG that works for their respective CERT organization.
4. Program Assessment/Measurables
As the purpose of this project is to increase awareness, activity, and participation of the CERT program in Pennsylvania as well as provide additional training to augment current CERT providers, the vendor shall realize positive outcomes as such:
A. Increase the awareness of the CERT program throughout the Commonwealth by documenting contact hours with County, State, and local level participants in the program. This is a goal for us.
B. Increasing, on a year-by-year basis, the number of trainings, training hours, and number of participants in the training program. This is a goal for us.
C. Increase membership in current CERT programs in addition to forming new CERT programs throughout the Commonwealth. This is a goal for us.
D. Researching and implementing best practice educational methodology to assure a quality training program. We would like you to do this.
E. Successful implementation of training into the Learning Management System. This is on us, but we ask deliverables created for LMS are of proper quality.
F. Inclusion of training survey attached to each module. In addition, increase the number of positive reaction/comments to training modules each year. This would be created with the class….again class/training could be created from scratch or could be tweaked from FEMA or other CERT program. The 3 Year Curriculum can include FEMA courses as is…..we just want something that maps out and provides training and etc. to keep them engaged and develop their skills.
G. Assure training program is relevant to local CERT programs by increased cooperation with stakeholders. By engaging the stakeholders you will help us ensure the training program is relevant to local CERT programs.
H. Communicate regularly with PEMA BOSP and/or PEMA executive staff to update aforementioned measurables. Update us some that the process/project can feed. Provide suggestions if some of the meaureables aren’t good or need to be modified.
Page 6, 4. Program Assessment/Measurables [sic] – this section seems to be more applicable to Citizen Corps and CERT Program managers than to a vendor. How does PEMA plan to measure the success of local/county activities of local/county CERT program managers?
Addendum 1, related to page 6, 4. Program Assessment/Measurables, provides an answer to question 7 that, “The intent was to increase the number of participants completing these classes and also keep participants active.” Is the vendor expected to advertise and deliver these classes?
Page 6, 4. Program Assessment/Measurables, A “Increase the awareness of the CERT program throughout the Commonwealth by documenting contact hours with County, State, and local level participants in the program. “
a. What contact hours is the vendor to document related to increasing awareness of the CERT program? The hours that the vendor has with municipal, county, and state officials? Please clarify.
b. Is the vendor expected to deliver awareness programs throughout the Commonwealth or somehow document the hours that PEMA, County, and municipal emergency management staff and other organizations undertake to increase this awareness?
Page 6, 4. Program Assessment/Measurables, B – is the vendor expected to deliver individual training programs/modules? Otherwise, how can the vendor be held accountable for whether or not the “the number of trainings, training hours, and number of participants in the training program” increases on a “year-by-year basis”?
Page 6, 4. Program Assessment/Measurables, F, “Inclusion of training survey attached to each module. In addition, increase the number of positive reaction/comments to training modules each year.”
a. Is module defined as an individual course or a part of an individual course?
b. Is the vendor expected to make modifications to training modules over the course of 3 years to increase the positive comments or will modification to individual courses and modules be affected by PEMA staff?
If the period of performance for this contract is 6 months (see earlier question), how does the Commonwealth propose the vendor to accomplish item H on SOW page 7, “Communicate regularly with PEMA BOSP and/or PEMA executive staff to update aforementioned measurables [sic]”?
SOW Page 12, Submittals, since the submittal of the response is required through the PA EMarketplace portal, are any of the requirements of this section different than stated in the SOW section? Everything else remains the same etc. for the submittal of paper copies.
SOW Page 12, Submittals, Samples of Work – Is the Commonwealth requesting samples of work for all 5 references? Many clients have statements related to their work product like the one included on SOW Page 8, Item 2.h. – “All materials, procedures, plans, templates, and other related materials will be construed as property of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in any form including print and electronic format acceptable to the Commonwealth.”