Bureau of the Census, Procurement Office, FOB #3, Room 1541, Washington,(Suitland, MD) DC 20233

R -- STATE ACTION MEETINGS SOL 8-66014 DUE 071698 POC Patti Becker 301-457-1808 The Bureau of the Census (BOC) plans to negotiate on an other than full and open competition basis with Mendez-England & Associates (MEA), 5550 Friendship Blvd., Chevy Chase, MD 20815-7201, a small, minority-owned business, for services to coordinate a series of Regional Elected Officials Meetings to build awareness for the Census 2000. The BOC has an urgent and compelling requirement for a company which possesses the skills and experience of MEA to plan for and conduct highly successful meetings; an example is the "National Conference of Governments on Census 2000", conducted by MEA, which featured a large number of participants representing a cross-section of high-level state, local and tribal government officials. The BOC's decision to contract with MEA for the Census 2000 State Action Meeting program is based on the firm's demonstrated capability and experience in performing such tasks in a highly successful, efficient and timely fashion. For this upcoming national series of 53 state meetings, there will be an extremely short lead time for the start of the first half dozen meetings in early 1999. To be considered for this requirement a firm must a) demonstrate a broad knowledge of the decennial census, past programs, and planned Census 2000 activities; b) demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the potential audience; c) display recent experience in coordinating high-attendance, information-dense national meetings among high-level government entities; d) demonstrate that they can immediately begin the many technical, logistical, and public relations tasks required to begin the first meetings on schedule (fall of 1999) with only minimal BOC oversight; e) have the contacts and ability to directly approach and invite senior officials in each state to serve as hosts for the State Action Meetings; f) be able to secure corporate or governmental sponsors to fund social events for each meeting; and g) be able to support both the planning and conduct of 4-5 State Action Meetings simultaneously to achieve the Bureau's timing goal of completing at least one meeting in each state between January 1999 and January 2000, without necessitating the Bureau hiring additional staff for this project. The Contractor will plan, coordinate and participate in these State Action Meetings; ensure flexibility in the distribution of its staff and other resources to support short-notice scheduling of particular meetings in this series, last-minute changes in location, amenities and other meeting features; document in detail the planning and conduct of each meeting, with a report to the Bureau assessing the relative success and problems of each meeting within 3 days following the event to allow time for corrective action to be taken for upcoming meetings; within one month following the last meeting, provide the Census Bureau with a detailed evaluation of the entire series of meetings, a profile of each meeting; and suggested changes in any such future meetings, follow-up recommendations and options for maintaining the support of the attendees, etc. Firms wishing to compete for this project must provide detailed written statements of how they qualify both in terms of past experience with decennial census programs and in terms of currently available staff and other resources required to perform each stated task and estimated costs and pricing to perform the work. In addition, firms must provide three examples of past performance indicating recent (within the last three years) experience orchestrating intensive, complex conferences involving senior state and local government officials; past performance examples must include references (name and telephone number). The information provided will only be considered if it shows clear and convincing evidence of the ability to fulfill the government's requirement, and that it is advantageous for the government to consider such sources. Capability statements must reach the Census Bureau by July 16, 1998. See numbered Note 22. See numbered notes from any Monday edition of the CBD. The applicable StandardIndustrial Code (SIC) is 8741 -- Conference Management Services and the size Standard is 5.0 million. No Telephone Requests will be accepted. NO SOLICITATION EXISTS AT THIS TIME. Capabilities statements can be mailed to the address listed above attention Patti Becker. Reference # 8-66014. Posted 06/26/98 (0177)

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