SPECIAL NOTICE
99 -- Notice of Intent to Sole Source - Sheinberg Associates
- Notice Date
- 3/11/2010
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- Contracting Office
- ARO - AKRO ALASKA REGIONAL OFFICE 240 West 5th Avenue ANCHORAGE AK 99501
- ZIP Code
- 99501
- Archive Date
- 3/11/2011
- E-Mail Address
-
Point of Contact above, or if none listed, contact the IDEAS EC HELP DESK for assistance
(EC_helpdesk@NBC.GOV)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a notice of intent to award a sole source contract and is not a request for competitive proposals. The government intends to solicit a proposal and enter into a contract with SHEINBERG ASSOCIATES, 204 N FRANKLIN ST, JUNEAU, AK 99801-1225, a small business concern, to provide Facilitation Services to Glacier Bay National Park. Steinberg Associates has previous experience working on this type of specific scientific meeting. Please see the below Justification for other than Full and Open Competition for further details. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. However, the Government shall consider all responses received prior to the close date of this announcement. Written responses to this notice shall contain sufficient documentation to establish bonafide capability to fulfill the requirement. A solicitation is not available. Please-mail contract specialist, Jordan Gunn with responses or questions regarding this requirement at jordan_gunn@nps.gov. JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPENCOMPETITION (or SOLE SOURCE) BACKGROUND:Since even before its establishment in 1925, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (GLBA) has maintained a long and storied tradition of hosting scientific research. Its enabling Proclamation and subsequent legislation and management policies and guidance have all explicitly recognized the park's inherent values to science, principally owing to the character of its young, dynamic, and actively developing ecosystems, its record of landscape history, and the relatively pristine condition of resources mostly buffered from anthropogenic impacts. The park encompasses a suite of world-class natural and cultural resources even as it perpetually faces a variety of challenging management issues associated with protecting those resources while providing for public enjoyment.GLBA's "research opportunity value", then - both to substantially contribute to science in general as well as to provide information to assist management in addressing pressing management problems - is exceeding high. Ironically, the park has never formally developed a comprehensive research plan which identifies and prioritizes its full range of scientific needs and opportunities. This is a task necessary to effectively and efficiently allocate limited resources (funds, energy, time) to resolve important issues by informing science-based decision-making. Such a task will also optimally organize the park's approach to encouraging and supporting research efforts that can best contribute to scientific knowledge in general. Consequently, the GLBA Resource Management staff has embarked upon a process to identify and prioritize scientific information needs that will guide park management and external researchers in intelligently investing research effort over the coming decades. As a central and initial step, the Resource Management staff will actively develop its knowledge to create the core of a Research Plan. To facilitate full and open communication among park staff, and to capture the results, a facilitated two-day workshop is being planned. The meeting will have two measurable outcomes. First, the meeting format will ensure robust and focused communication among park resource managers. These managers are uniquely qualified to identify not only the important management issues, but also the research approaches that will address the information gaps to ensure knowledge-based decisions-making. Similarly, they are intimately familiar with the potential for park resources to frame research that will contribute to scientific knowledge in general. Secondly, the meeting results and recommendations must be captured in a formal report - tailored to park managers - documenting research needs and priorities. This report will ultimately guide the park's future research agenda, and it will serve as the primary and essential product of the workshop. This workshop needs to be directed by a skilled professional facilitator who is intimately familiar with earlier, less-comprehensive and more focused internal park efforts to organize its scientific knowledge (particularly re. identifying information gaps). In addition, the facilitator must have a deep understanding of GLBA park management goals, as well as familiarity with park resources and management issues. 1) FAR Statutory Authority cited: 6.302-1, only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements: Since 2004, Sheinberg Associates, 204 N. Franklin Street, Suite 1, Juneau, Alaska 99801 have facilitated several meetings of the NPS Southeast Alaska Inventory and Monitoring Network of parks, of which GLBA is a dominant member. Subsequent to those meetings Sheinberg Associates produced major programmatic documents detailing both the natural resources and the scientific research legacy and prospects of GLBA. These products include Freshwater Monitoring Scoping Workshop Summary Report (2005), Marine Ecosystems Monitoring Scoping Workshop Summary Report (2006), Terrestrial Ecosystems Monitoring Scoping Workshop Summary Report (2006), and Vital Signs Selection Historical Documentation: Southeast Alaska Network (2007). Similarly, Sheinberg Associates have facilitated every meeting of the Glacier Bay Science Advisory Board (a group charged with identifying and prioritizing research needs related to evaluating potential resource impacts by cruise ships) since its inception in 2004, and have helped write The Glacier Bay National Park Science Advisory Board: Final Report for Research and Monitoring Needs Relevant to Decisions Regarding Increasing Seasonal Use Days for Cruise Ships in Glacier Bay (2005); the follow-up Glacier Bay Science Advisory Board Recommendations Regarding Prioritization of Research and Monitoring Needs Relevant to Decisions Regarding Increasing Seasonal Use Days for Cruise Ships in Glacier Bay (2006); and most recently the Proceedings of the SAB-hosted 2009 Cruise Ship Science Meeting to present research results to date (final in preparation, 2010). This contractor has intimate familiarity with the natural resources, scientific research processes, and associated technical terminology that will be used throughout the workshop. They also are familiar with the park's scientific history as well as its management issues, and they have worked closely with many of the workshop participants. If Sheinberg Associates were not used for facilitation there would be substantial duplication of the cost to the Government (as stated in FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii)(A)) in that a new vendor would have to closely review all of the documents and efforts of park staff and the Science Advisory Board in order to fully understand the purpose and the expected product (and critical supporting background information) that Sheinberg Associates already is very familiar with. The quality of this workshop and its products will be a direct reflection of the effectiveness of the facilitator during and immediately following the meeting. 2) Nature and description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs: Facilitate Research Agenda Workshop and resulting summary report. 3) A demonstration that the proposed contractor is the only source available to provide these services or goods (i.e., unique qualifications, proprietary rights, etc.): The Research Agenda Workshop, slated for April 2010, will reflect the cumulative actions and knowledge of key resource staff, particularly those of the past decade. Sheinberg Associates have facilitated several of the seminal meetings (including every Science Advisory Board meeting since its inception in 2005) and helped write many of the formal summary reports upon which this workshop's process and outcomes will be based. Because of their experience and close association with like GLBA processes in the recent past, Sheinberg Associates have the skills and expertise to very efficiently assist park staff with historical and contextual issues that will likely arise during the workshop. 4) A description of the market research that was conducted and the results, or a statement of the reason a market research was not conducted: In many ways the upcoming workshop will represent and be based upon an accumulation of those meetings and resulting reports that have occurred since 2004, virtually all of which have been facilitated by Sheinberg Associates. We are not aware of another vendor who can bring to bear a similar amount and combination of knowledge and expertise. Given their previous six years of experience with GLBA and that this meeting represents an accumulation of those efforts, Sheinberg Associates is the only facilitator with the knowledge to efficiently support park staff in achieving the outcomes desired from the workshop. 5)Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition: N/A 6) A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers for competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required: There has been only one vendor, Sheinberg Associates, who has participated in activities related to natural resource ecological synthesis and scientific research analysis, including meeting facilitation and report production. No other facilitator has this ability to combine knowledge of park resources and processes, the history of research, park management issues, and park management goals - all in context - to effectively and efficiently facilitate a workshop like this and produce a report that builds on the previous efforts. Prepared by:Approved:Lewis SharmanJoy KucinskiEcologist and Research Coordinator Contracting OfficerResource Management DivisionGlacier Bay National Park and Preserve
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