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Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor
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Rod R. Blagojevich, Governor |
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RFP Technical Questions |
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Regional Technology Center Request for Proposal Technical Questions
Q. What is the difference between the applicant and the project liaison? What exactly is the project liaison? Under applicant please provide the name and address of the organization that will serve as the Fiscal Agent. Under project liaison, please list the name and requested information for the individual who will service as our primary contact for this grant. Q. How do we cover the request? Please provide a response for each technical specification describing how it will be in the short 2 page narrative which includes a timeline and outlines of offices. Q. How much detail do you need? The responses to the technical questions should be a separate section than the narrative. Only the narrative section has a two page limit. The four sections to the response include:
Q. Is the timeline for one year or two? Do you prefer exact dates or general dates - ex. July 1, 2000 or July/2000? The timeline should cover the two year grant period. General dates are acceptable. Q. What does the $11,250 cover for the users group? Is that for meals/copies/meeting room rental/etc.? The $11,250 is an estimate used for budget purposes. These funds will be granted based on the proposed User Group activities. These funds could be used for any legal expense associated with achieving the goals of the User Group and provided that the User Group activities benefit all constituents within the Region. Q. What do you expect to see covered by the administrative costs? Can we have a part-time person to coordinate the users group and its meetings? Should that person's salary come from the administrative costs? The administrative costs should be direct expenses to the Fiscal Agent for accepting, tracking, and dispersing the grant funds. User Group activity expenses should be addressed under #4 of the Fiscal Agent Costs and should include an explanation. Q. Is single space OK? Do we have to have certain margins? Single space is acceptable and there are no margin restrictions. Please keep in mind that we are only looking for a brief overview in the narrative section. Q. Will you accept faxed letters of support from the collaborating organizations? Yes, provided they are legible. Please have the faxes directed to the Fiscal Agent and submitted as part of the proposal. Q. I notice that neither of the two technical positions require a valid IL drivers license yet we are expected to provide travel monies in our budget for them. Does it seem reasonable to require a license to operate a motor vehicle for these two slots? Yes. Before these individuals are hired, we will work with the Fiscal Agent to determine specific personnel hiring practices we need to follow. This would include specific employment applications, providing copies of a valid IL drivers license, proof of insurance, etc. Q. We have concerns regarding the employee, employer relationship as described in the RFP for the Illinois Century Network proposal. The staff people, to be hired with grant funds, do not seem to be Fiscal Agent employees. Staff hired by the Fiscal Agent are Fiscal Agent employees. The ICN acknowledges that the employer, employee arrangement for the RTC staff is unique and may dissuade some organizations from serving as the Fiscal Agent. However, the RTC staff will be solely dedicated to ICN tasks and must be available during the ICN hours of operation. Staff salaries, days off, evaluations, and designated hours of work are governed by ICN and not covered by the Fiscal Agent's employee guidelines. Therefore, they would not fall under our agreement for insurance and retirement benefits. Q. What retirement program would be appropriate? Is ICN going to pay for that? Would they be Social Security employees or SURS (State University Retirement System)? They probably would not fall under our group health care policy. What is the limit as to what ICN will pay for Health Care? Are we to seek a separate policy for these three people since they may not fall into our group policy for classified staff? The RFP has no mention at all of vacation allowances for the three people. What guidelines are to be followed? We view vacation, sick time and personnel time as a benefit, the same as retirement and health insurance that will follow the normal benefit package offered by the Fiscal Agent to its employees. The ICN RTC grant will pay for these benefits. If the Fiscal Agent offers different benefit packages depending upon the employee's job classification, it is the Fiscal Agent's responsibility to determine which package is appropriate for the RTC staff. We are not familiar with insurance agreements and restrictive covenants for institutions wishing to serve as the Fiscal Agent, however, amendments to the existing policy may be required based on your comments. If a potential Fiscal Agent is unable to hire staff according to the conditions presented in the RFP with associated benefits it may be appropriate for the respondents to the RFP to select an alternative Fiscal Agent. While not necessarily preferred, language in the RFP allows for the formation of a not-for-profit corporation to receive the grant and serve as a Fiscal Agent independent of existing institutions. Q. We would like a concrete answer regarding pay increases. We have a written agreement that includes a 4.75% increase on 7/1/01. That will have a significant impact on the budget. We have anticipated a 5 percent salary increase in year two, however, that is not guaranteed and is subject to developing a final budget based on the Fiscal Agent expenses.
Q. I thought I heard at the Bidders conference that your Web Site would show anticipated travel expense per staff member. I have not seen that. Are there guidelines to use in anticipating how much travel will be involved? There is a sample budget with estimates posted on the web site that includes anticipated travel expenses. Q. Does ICN require "secured" office space -- under separate lock & key -- or can the space coexist in an existing office or data center (with office space exclusively dedicated to ICN personnel)? We prefer a secured office space, but would consider alternate proposals as long as it provided ICN staff with an office environment conducive to their tasks. Q. If our internal procedures have a different (higher) reimbursement rate for mileage and per diem and if three of the employees for the ICN Region would be our employees, which reimbursement rate should we follow when preparing the budget proposal for ICN, IBHE or ours? The reimbursement rates referenced in the RFP are the minimum rates that must be extended to ICN funded staff. While the Fiscal Agent may choose to reimburse at a higher rate according to their internal policies, the ICN grant will only provide funding at the rates we have established. Q. Does the two-page limit pertain only to the project narrative? Or, must the timeline be included in the two-page project narrative limit? The timeline can be on an additional page. Q. Are there any restrictions on who can be the fiscal agent? A consortium or organization that does not have fiscal authority (in other words, an organization that requires an external fiscal agent) may not serve as the fiscal agent in response to the Regional Technology Center RFP. A not-for-profit corporation may serve as fiscal agent if, in the evaluation process, the review team and the Board of Higher Education considers that institution to be qualified as a fiscal agent. Previous audits may be requested. Q. Can a consortia or organization sign proposals on behalf of its members? The RFP requires signatures from collaborating organizations in the proposal response; however, consortia or organizations may legally represent their membership if indeed the member institutions have given the consortia or federation that authority. Proposals in response to the RFP must list participating institutions by name. We strongly caution, however, that should the collaborative proposal receive the award, all institutions listed in the proposal will be required to sign the contract agreement accepting fiduciary responsibility for the fiscal agent and the actions of the Regional Technology Center. If it turns out that listed institutions somehow knew nothing of their inclusion in the proposal it may be cause for disqualification for award. Q. How are we to define a community? Communities are largely defined by wire centers (area codes) although we are interested in working with municipalities. We are working to bring a clearer definition to what we intend here but as an overview, we anticipate development of a survey instrument that will serve to provide necessary data for long term planning and funding models. Q. Are there any funds to help with setting up the network from the community colleges to other sites such as high schools or do the community colleges cover that expense? The community colleges are not expected to cover the costs to extend the network beyond the community college. If other institutions connect through the community colleges or other end points, those costs must be met by the institution connecting. The ICN backbone will position itself wherever possible to reduce costs for all institutions connecting. Also, some funds are available via our sponsoring organizations to cover access -- in particular, for libraries, museums, public colleges and universities. Q. Can proposals include letters of participation from collaborating entities as opposed to gathering signatures on a pages provided in the RFP? Yes. We will accept letters that include the information requested on the forms within the RFP. Q. In the grant introduction, K-12 school systems are invited to submit proposals. Additionally, the text of the document seems to point to grades beyond the eighth. Are K-8 school systems invited to participate? Yes, any public school that serves K-12 students is encouraged to participate that includes elementary, middle, junior high, and senior high schools. Q. Will the grantee need to provide office space for the on-site supervisor also? Yes, the supervisor will be located in the same space as the Network Specialist, Network Technician, and the Administrative Assistant. The Proposal Format under "Contract Specifications" asks us to provide a response for each technical specification describing how it will be met. This is rather vague on how we should respond to informative statements such as 3.c. and others. Many of the specifications appear to be details on how the Centers will be run by the ICN. Q. Do we need to simply agree to these statements? Yes. Any specifications, which are informative statements, can be address with an affirmative response that the bidder has read and agrees to support the statement. However, those specifications that will require action on behalf of the bidder should provide a simple explanation for how the bidder will meet the specification. Q. Will the network specialist be the on-site supervisor in charge of hiring, etc. or will there be a fourth staff member paid by the ICN rather than the grant budget? (Fifth staff member in the case of Region VIII) There will be a total of two technical staff (except for in Region VIII where there will be three technical staff) and one support staff employed by the fiscal agent within each region. The on-site supervisor will be an additional staff person, hired by the ICN. The job descriptions within the RFP are for the fiscal agent employed staff only. Q. Who pays for the following supervisor expenses, the grant or the ICN: mileage, office lease, training/travel, phone installation, long distance charges from the office, cell phone, pager, computer, printer, software, general office supplies?
Q. If we do decide that there is a need for at least a part time person to coordinate user group meetings, user group information, etc., will that reflect poorly on the proposal in any way? That is a decision of the evaluation team, however, it will not automatically disqualify or disadvantage a proposal. Q. We do not feel that it is the on-site Supervisors duty to organize the meetings or recruit members. Is it? Correct. The on-site technical manager will serve as a resource but will not organize user group meetings. Q. We also do not feel that the current ROE staff can take time off from their other duties to coordinate user group activities. That is your judgment and an internal issue for the collaborative group to determine. It is not intended that the institution that serves as the fiscal agent should carry the entire burden of the user group. If current ROE staff cannot take this on then it needs to be answered through other means per your first point or through other institutions in the collaboration. Q. Our region has a very large geographical area. Would one user group suffice or should we look at user groups in different areas of the region? That is a decision of the collaborating organizations of the winning proposal. If smaller groups are utilized, one person must be selected to serve as the point person for communicating with the ICN staff. Q. What kind of number are we looking at for members in a user group? Please refer to the Regional Technology Centers section of the web site where there is a list of constituents by Region. Q. What will be the role of the on-site Supervisor in terms of the Users Group? The Supervisor and RTC technical staff will serve as a resource to the User Groups regarding connectivity to the ICN. The Regional Coordinator will be the ICN liaison to the User Groups.
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Technical problems or questions?
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