Immigration & Naturalization Service, Procurement Division, 425 I St., NW, Room 2208, Washington, DC 20536

U -- EDUCATION & TRAINING SERVICE SOL OPS-9-00005 DUE 122298 POC Contact Point, Victoria Short, Contract Specialist, 202/514-1959 Betty Johnson, 202/514-3766 This notice constitutes a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for a technically qualified Instructor, proficient in writing and teaching Plain English. BACKGROUND: In order to improve the quality of writing within the Office of Field Operation, Immigration and Nationalization Services is seeking instruction on writing "Plain English." The emphasis in the course should be on clarity -- not grammar. The course should include guidance on style, organization, and layout, and include practical examples. PURPOSE/SCOPE OF WORK: The requirement for this Purchase order is to provide expert instruction in writing Plain English. The instruction should emphasize the need for a good layout, use of headings and white space; good organization, making the point early in the writing; and style, use of ordinary words and active voice. TASK: Train between a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5 classes between January 1999 and September 1999. Capacity of each class would include up to 25 students. The suggested book is: "The Plain English Approach to Business Writing"(Revised Edition), Edward P. Bailey, Jr., Oxford University Press, Inc., or equal. EXPERTISE REQUIRED: The instructor must be a recognized subject matter expertise. The contractor must meet the following requirements: 1. Ph.D. in English; 2. Experience teaching plain English at the college level; 3. Experience conducting Executive level training in plain English; and 4. An author of published books on writing. The contractor shall submit (3) professional references. These references will be contacted during(Past Performance evaluation) to confirm the integrity of the contractor's training in plain English. All references shall be submitted from individuals, companies, or schools for whom the person has performed training that is the same or similar to the training described in this Statement Of Work. DELIVERABLES: 1. An approved quality instruction by the Contracting Officer Technical Representative(COTR) prior to award; and 2. Contractor shall provide a copy of the approved book to each student. GOVERNMENT FURNISHED MATERIAL: The Government will provide a training room for the periods of instruction. The contractor is responsible for all other required material. PLACE OF PERFOMANCE: Immigration & Naturalization Services, 425 I Street, NW Washington DC 20536. No travel is expected. SECURITY REQUIREMENT: The contractor shall only enter the facility/building with continuous escort during working hours. The contractor will be required to sign in and out during arrival and departure of the facility/building. BASIS FOR AWARD: The Government will award a Purchase Order for a minimum of one course and a maximum five courses to the responsible offeror whose proposal, conforming to the RFQ, will be of the Best Value to the Government, price and other factors considered. Prospective offerors should note that a proposal meeting the RFQ requirements with the lowest price may not be selected if award to a higher priced proposal is determined to be most advantageous to the Government. The evaluation factors in descending order of importance are as follows: Past Performance, Technical Acceptability as a pass/fail factor and price. Offerors rated as "fail" on technical acceptability or are unable to provide personnel immediately upon award shall be ineligible for award. The Past Performance information is intended to describe the offerors most recent and relevant experience with plain English teaching projects of similar size, scope, and complexity of the offeror and other competitors to successfully meet the requirements of the solicitation. The Government reserves the right to obtain information for use in the evaluation of past performance from any all sources including sources outside of the Government. Offerors lacking relevant past performance history will receive a neutral rating for past performance. However, the proposal of an offeror with no relevant past performance history, while rated neutral in past performance, may not represent the most advantageous proposal to the governmentand thus, may be an unsuccessful proposal when compared to the proposals of other offerors. The offeror must provide the information requested for past performance evaluation, or affirmatively state that it possesses no relevant directly related or similar past performance experience. The government reserves the right not to evaluate or consider for award the entire proposal from an offeror which fails to provide the past performance information or which fails to assert that it has not relevant directly rated or similar past performance experience. The government will use the following adjectival definitions as guidelines in evaluation past performance: Neutral: no relevant past performance available for evaluation. Offeror has asserted that it has no relevant directly related or similar past performance experience. Proposal will not be evaluated favorably on past performance. Outstanding: No risk anticipated of receiving quality product, delivered on time, or of any degraded performance, or lack of customersatisfaction based upon offerors past performance. Good: Very little risk anticipated of receiving quality product, delivered on time, or of degraded performance, or lack of customer satisfaction based upon the offerors past performance. Satisfactory: some potential risk anticipated of receiving quality product, delivered on time, or of degraded performance, or lack of customer satisfaction base upon the offerors past performance. Marginal: Significant potential risk anticipated of receiving quality product, delivered on time, or of degraded performance, or lack of customer satisfaction base upon the offerors past performance. (A rating of marginal does not, by itself, make the proposal ineligible for award). EVALUATION OF PRICE: The unit price times the quantity shall equal the extended price for the year. The INS reserves the right to award to the contractor that offers the best value, price and other factors considered. EVALUATION OF TECHNICAL ACCEPTABILITY: 1. Author of Published Book on Writing; 2. PH.Din English; 3. Experience teaching plain English at the College Level and 4. Experience conducting Executive level training in plain English. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation, offers are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. All responsible sources must submit written responses containing sufficient technical documentation to establish capability to meet requirement. Award is to be upon price and other factors in accordance with FAR Clause 52.212-2 and as specified in descending order of importance: 1. Past Performance; 2. Technical Acceptability and 3. Price. This solicitation is 100 percent set aside for Small Businesses. If no affirmative responses are received from a small business, the solicitation will be issued as unrestricted without further notice. All responses must be received in writing within 15 calendar days of publication of this notice. Questions and concerns regarding this acquisition must be submitted in writing to the address specified above or via fax to Victoria Short, Contract Specialist at (202)514-3353(fax). Facsimile proposals will be accepted. No collect calls will be accepted. Posted 12/07/98 (W-SN277741). (0341)

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