Costume Management - Option Year Two

In July 2000, the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) launched the Eat Smart. Play Hard. campaign, a nutrition education and physical activity promotion initiative and introduced the Power Panther as the campaign spokescharacter. In 2001, FNS also purchased eight (8) costumes for use by program cooperators in their nutrition education and physical activity efforts. The Power Panther costume has been extremely popular and the costumes are oftentimes booked for months at a time. In 2005, the spokescharacter underwent a re-design to maximize his appeal to children 8-10 years old. As a result of this re-design, elements of the character including the head, body shape, clothes and personality have evolved. To replace the now out-dated costumes and meet the continued high demand for the costume, FNS wishes to purchase 20 new Power Panther costumes. Also, FNS may award the Costume Fabrication/Delivery and the Costume Management portions of this Statement of Work to the same or different vendors. Costume Management Services The contractor shall provide costume management services at their facility for the 20 new costumes and 9 old Power Panther costumes. In order to accomplish this, the contractor shall: - Schedule and track the costumes. The vendor will receive written notification from designated FNS personnel via fax of cooperators who have been authorized to borrow the costume. The vendor shall schedule usage of the costume from these written requests and track the costumes through the shipping process. The scheduling system will identify the specific costume assigned by inventory control (the unique costume identifier). If the vendor cannot fill an approved request, the designated FNS official that approved the order will be notified within 24 hours and given information on other potential dates a costume would be available. At the end of each month, copies of all the written notices (those filled and unfilled) and any completed feedback forms returned with the costume (filled out by the borrower) shall be sent to FNS with the invoice. In addition, the vendor shall supply FNS with information on borrowers who have returned the costume late, including the number of days the costume was delayed. Vendors who currently have a scheduling and tracking system should fully describe the system they use in their proposal. - Ship the costume (both ways) within the United States of America via the least expensive ground rate to program cooperators who have been approved to borrow the costume by authorized FNS personnel. Contractor will ship via corrugated boxes. Further, the existing 9 costumes will be furnished along with hard shipping trunks at the start of contract performance. The costume weighs approximately 20 pounds boxed and it is estimated that each costume (20) will be shipped twice per month for a period of six to eight months. The old Power Panther costumes weighs approximately 49 pounds boxed and it is estimated that each costume (9) will be shipped twice per month for a period of four to six months. Program cooperators wishing to expedite delivery of the costume may pay the cost of speedier delivery directly to the vendor, if the vendor has a way to handle this. Proposal must specify whether they have the capacity to bill the lender for expedited delivery.