Staffing and Management of Talent Vendors

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. It does NOT constitute a Request for Proposals (RFP), Request for Quotations (RFQ), Invitation for Bids (IFB), a promise to issue a formal acquisition or Broad Agency Announcement (BAA), or an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. Also, the Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or Sources Sought Notice, or otherwise pay for information, inquiries, or the Government's use of such information. Failure to respond to this RFI does NOT preclude participation in any future procurement. In the event a related procurement action is released, it will be released via the Federal Business Opportunities website (http://www.fbo.gov). It is the responsibility of interested sources to monitor this website for any information that may pertain to this RFI. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) is an Executive Branch Federal Government agency that oversees U.S. broadcasting of news and information to audiences around the world. BBG includes the Voice of America (VOA) and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), as well as grantee entities Radio Free Asia (RFA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and the Middle East Broadcasting Network (MBN). Together, VOA and OCB distribute programming in English and 42 other languages to an estimated weekly audience of 175 million people. These languages include English, Afan Oromo, Albanian, Amharic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Bosnian, Burmese, Cantonese, Creole, Croatian, Dari, French, Georgian, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Khmer, Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, Korean, Kurdish, Lao, Macedonian, Mandarin, Ndebele, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Shona, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Tibetan, Tigrigna, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek and Vietnamese. BBG's programming is delivered using almost every available platform including, but not limited to radio, television ("TV"), Internet, and mobile phone technology. Services within the scope of this RFI are provided by individuals who work as radio and TV broadcast announcers, narrators, on-air talent (e.g. anchor, host, moderator), researchers, writers, producers, editors, news desk coordinators, directors for TV and radio, production assistants, makeup artists, master control producers, TV master control technicians, general studio technicians, video switchers, audio technicians, lighting directors, TV technical support maintenance technicians, translators, videotape editors, videotape recycling technicians, videotape recording technicians, TV mini-cam technicians, studio technician directors, video catalogers, camera operators, character generator operators, TV/radio bookers, promo producer/editors, audience mail assistants, web designers, and electronic graphic artists. These individuals primarily work in the Washington, DC or Miami, Florida studios; however, several work as "stringers" or freelance writers in various overseas locations. All contractor personnel that have access to VOA's facilities must undergo a background security investigation and successfully pass it. These services are currently provided by a large number of individual independent contractors. In order to enhance performance of its journalism and international broadcasting missions, BBG is exploring the possibility of consolidating these contracted services under one or more "umbrella" service contracts. BBG is conducting market research to ascertain the existence of sources having the demonstrated ability to provide staffing and management of contractor personnel to perform the services described above. The information below is provided to help those sources who are interested in responding to this RFI. Interested sources shall submit a comprehensive written "Capabilities Statement" verifiable by the BBG, so that BBG may determine whether the Source's capabilities would be responsive to this notice. The Capabilities Statement should be no more than 20 pages in length. The total page count DOES NOT include a cover letter, table of contents, or acronym list. The total page count DOES include all other corporate or technical information therein. The Capabilities Statement must be prepared using a Microsoft application. Font size and type must be 12 point, Times New Roman. Additionally, the cover page shall display: 1) Company name; 2) Primary and secondary points of contact; 3) Telephone number, address, city, state, and country; 4) Business or organization size (e.g., small, large, etc.) and 2010 (or 2011, if available) annual sales volume in U.S. dollars; and (if applicable), 5) Federal Supply and/or Service Schedule information. All proprietary information must be clearly marked in accordance with the instructions set forth below in "Marking Requirements." Any information that is not labeled in accordance with these instructions shall be deemed non-proprietary by the BBG. All information submitted in response to this RFI may be disclosed to BBG and other Government personnel, as well as to third parties. BBG will protect properly marked proprietary information submitted in response to this RFI from unauthorized disclosure in accordance with applicable law and regulation. The BBG reserves the right to challenge proprietary information markings. Notwithstanding any proprietary information marking, BBG shall be able to include any information provided by interested sources, in a subsequent RFP, should one be issued. Marking Requirements. The header and footer of each page containing interested source proprietary information shall be marked with the legend "PROPRIETARY INFORMATION." Further, the particular paragraph(s), section(s), etc. containing the actual proprietary information shall be clearly high-lighted or otherwise marked by the interested source. The Capabilities Statement must address the following matters. CORPORATE CAPABILITES (maximum 10 pages). The Source shall clearly describe its demonstrated experience relative to staffing and managing a workforce of at least100 full-time employees providing to news organization and Government customers (with very general guidance from, but NOT supervision by, those customers): English and multiple foreign language translation and broadcast journalism services, video editing services, related broadcast studio and non-studio technical services (including electronic graphic arts services), and other services as described above. PAST CONTRACTS. List 3 locations and customers where and for whom you have provided the same or similar services. For each, provide: the contract number, type, total amount, and contract start and completion dates; a brief description of the project; and customer contact information (including name, address, telephone number, and email). REFERENCES. Provide the name, title, current address, city, state, country, and email for at least three customers (who may include individuals named in the "Past Contracts" section, immediately above). BUDGET ESTIMATE. Provide a "straw man staffing plan" for a hypothetical mixed-skills workforce of 100 full-time equivalents (FTEs) that consists of: on-site supervisory personnel, Language specialist-journalists for at least six languages, including Mandarin, Persian, Russian, Swahili, Spanish, and Ukrainian; Video editors; Sound technicians; Radio broadcast engineers; TV broadcast engineers; Electronic graphic arts specialists; Technical support specialists; Administrative support specialists, and other specialists as described above. Include a range of estimated fully burdened labor rates for each skillset / labor category. When developing the hypothetical budget (and only for the limited purpose of developing this hypothetical budget), assume that every FTE provides 1,800 billable hours of labor per year, for an annual total of 180,000 billable labor hours per year, from a mixed-skills workforce of 100 FTEs. Interested sources may submit written questions regarding this RFI by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), April 13, 2012. Written "Capabilities Statements" shall be submitted to Jim McGuirk (jmcguirk@bbg.gov), Broadcasting Board of Governors, IBB Office of Contracts, 330 "C" Street, S.W., Room 4300, Washington, DC 20237 by 3:00 p.m. EDT, April 27, 2012. Interested sources may send their submittals by regular U.S. mail, e-mail, or courier. Telephone or facsimile responses ARE NOT acceptable and WILL NOT be considered.