Independent Study Program

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - INDEPENDENT STUDY PROGRAM SUPPORT SERVICES The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), on behalf of the Emergency Management Institute (EMI), has developed this Request for Information (RFI) to solicit market research information from industry. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY: It is not a Request for Proposal, a Request for Quotation, an Invitation for Bids, a Solicitation, or an indication FEMA will contract for the items contained in the RFI. This RFI is part of a government market research effort to determine the scope of industry capabilities and interest and will be treated as information only. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responses to this RFI are strictly voluntary and the Government will not pay respondents for information provided in response to this RFI. Responses to this RFI will not be returned and respondents will not be notified of the result of the review. If an open market Solicitation is issued, it will be announced on the SAM.gov website later, and all interested parties must respond to that Solicitation announcement separately from any response to this announcement. This RFI does not restrict the Government's acquisition approach on a future Solicitation. NO PROPOSALS ARE BEING REQUESTED OR ACCEPTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS SYNOPSIS AND NO CONTRACT SHALL BE AWARDED AS A RESULT OF THIS RFI. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this RFI or any follow up information requests. It is requested and appreciated that all contractors interested in participating in this market research effort note their interest by responding to the areas identified in the - Company Details", "Capabilities Statement, and - General Questions sections below. The purpose of this RFI is to assess industry capabilities, including small business's ability to provide a total solution, and to receive industry comments on: the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) including (but not limited to) technical questions and comments, and related acquisition considerations for the competitively contracted services for Independent Study Program Support Services for the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) located in Emmitsburg, MD. BACKGROUND: FEMA, which was incorporated into the Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003, is the coordinator within the Federal government for a wide range of emergency management activities. FEMA is dedicated to working closely with all levels and branches of government, as well as related organizations of the emergency management community to achieve a realistic state of preparedness and an increased capacity to mitigate against, respond to and recover from emergencies of all types. The agency has numerous roles, including: coordinating government activities. providing planning. grants and technical assistance. guiding and advising various agencies. and delivering training. FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI) provides both training and technical assistance to State, tribal and local jurisdictions as well as our federal partners, other government agencies, and associated organizations such as the American Red Cross on a wide variety of topics related to emergency management. EMI's Independent Study (IS) Program uses alternate delivery formats to provide emergency management training to State, tribal and local officials, Federal partners, and associated organizations in emergency management communities. This program provides free on-demand training that is available through downloadable format from the Web, or Web interactive materials. The IS curriculum is increasing and expanding to include additional independent study/self-study courses from EMI. The total enrollments fluctuate between two-three million annually. IS Program Support Services as described in the attached draft PWS include but are not limited to: educational/training/management support to manage and administer FEMA's IS Program. review, coordination, and records management for the approval of course materials for college credit through a Regionally Accredited college or university. facilitation of the award of college credits for those successfully completed IS courses as requested by individual students at the students expense. communication with state and local government, higher education programs, and other Federal programs, related associations and organizations, and private citizens requesting access to training materials or other information on the IS program and courses. and communication with students on all student services, such as applications, tests, student records, certificates and transcripts, college credits, continuing education units, and access to training materials. The Government desires that respondents offer their experience and recommendations on the following questions and issues related to the EMI requirements. The Government recommends that you first review the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) so that you may have a better insight on the questions below. COMPANY DETAILS: The page limit for responses to this section is one (1) page. Provide company point(s) of contact information (name, email address, address, telephone number, and UEI number). Identify if your company is any of the following socio-economic business concern statuses (include all that apply): Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB); Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB); Small Business (SB); Certified Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) firm; Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB); Economically Disadvantage Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB); Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB); Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Small Business; Large Business. The anticipated NAICS code of this requirement is 541611 - Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services with a small business size standard of $24.5M. CAPABILITIES STATEMENT: The page limit for responses to this section is no more than five (5) pages. Provide an overview, detailing your firm's capabilities to fulfill all the requirements within the draft PWS, to include organizational and staff capability. Provide up to three (3) prior contracts that your company has performed within the past 5 years that are comparable in size, scope, and complexity to the requirements of the draft PWS. Briefly describe the scope of the contract. Please be specific and provide a complete reference to include contract number, contract title, description, period of performance, and award amount; as well as identify whether you performed as a prime contractor, sub-contractor, teaming partner, or as a project manager. Provide a brief write up of your capability to provide support using a learning management systems (LMS) in a training environment. GENERAL QUESTIONS: The page limit for responses in this section is two (2) pages. Provide feedback and recommend any changes to better support the requirements detailed in the draft PWS. Is the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) clear, concise, and/or sufficient to develop and submit the required information in response to a Request for Quote (RFQ)? Discuss any concerns, comments, or recommendations you may have with the attached draft PWS. Is 30 days enough time for a contractor to prepare a quote/proposal given the scenario of a full trade-off best value source selection requiring a technical and price proposal and past performance references? If 30 days is not sufficient, please provide a reasonable timeframe to prepare a quote/proposal. Are there any pricing, terms, and conditions, and/or business practices that are uniquely prevalent or customary in the industry that EMI should consider? Would your firm require any additional information, such as specific historical data, to successfully respond to a formal solicitation and/or propose a firm fixed price for the tasks identified in the draft PWS? No inquiries will be answered at this time and respondents shall not be notified of the results of the market research. Again, this document is merely for market research and planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment, implied, or otherwise, that a procurement action will be issued, nor will the Government pay or reimburse for information solicited or produced and may not be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract. In the event a solicitation is developed, it will be assigned a formal RFQ or RFP number, and the announcement will be published on SAM.gov. Vendor comments may be incorporated and used to develop the final PWS as well as the solicitation. Responders to this RFI will not automatically be notified of any potential solicitation; therefore, interested parties should be vigilant in looking for and must respond to the official solicitation announcement when it is posted on SAM.gov. Submissions must be submitted electronically as a Microsoft Word or an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF); no other document format or type will be accepted. It is important to note that there is a system wide size limitation on e-mail attachments of 10MB per e-mail message. It is highly recommended that respondents check the total size of the response before sending and if necessary submit responses on sequential e-mails. All responses to the RFI shall be submitted by email to Donald Hoover, Contract Specialist, DHS/FEMA, Emmitsburg, MD. E-mail address: donald.hoover@fema.dhs.gov no later than July 19, 2024, 4:00 PM Eastern Time. No phone calls accepted. ================================== The purpose of this amendment is to attach a draft copy of the PWS, which was inadverntly not included in the original posting. The response deadline is hereby extended to July 19, 2024, 4:00 PM Eastern Time.