Christopher Stevenson

One thing to bear in mind about the IC, and I have had a similar “get out” experience in the IC, is that they don’t have to meet SB goals like the rest of the federal government. NGA does, but only because it is dual IC/DOD.

Sandra Broadnax and her team at NGA are fantastic, and NGA takes its small business goals very seriously from what I have seen in responding to about a dozen RFPs from them.

Thanks for the reply. I’ve gotten conflicting information on this based on some experienced interpretations. A couple of people were stating that a Task Order could reset the size/set-aside requirements. Example, a company is SDVOSB in 2011 when they submi, but award takes place in 2012 when they are only now a SB due to an ownership. They are…[Read more]

• NAICS: I don’t recommend replacing the concept or even the existing system. The simplest fix is for CO’s to take a more expansive view of how to use them. For example, 541611 (Administrative Management and General Management Consulting) is one of the more heavily utilized generic NAICS codes. When using 541611 couldn’t several other codes apply…

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I get what you’re saying about Shipley’s if requirements were well understood etc. But unfortunately for the Industry, we don’t really ever know how well the government understands its own needs. So it’s kind of a crapshoot for us to begin with. Further, Contractors are ALWAYS competing against each other, regardless of the quality of the…[Read more]

Replying to myself to pose a question to anyone in the government who reads this:

What do you all think of Shipley’s? They are considered THE standard for writing proposals. Do you think that is a valid and useful guide for industry to work from? Would you prefer that approach be overhauled?

Pete,

Really like your point regarding debriefing. I have attended a few of these, and I felt like I was forcing the government debriefer to perform a root canal on himself. Needless to say that session was not very informative. I too have found debriefs to be nearly useless. We went to every effort we could to make it clear we weren’t…[Read more]

Looking forward to some interesting responses that you’ll get. I’ll have to think harder to provide some better comments, but here are a few items off the top of my head:

• NAICS codes: They seem to be arbitrarily selected, and have a huge impact on the potential bidders. Either this concept needs to be revamped totally, or a much more thorough…

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Here’s an article from GovWin (Deltek) summing up the latest news on the implications of a shutdown. Which includes a link to this pretty thorough list of questions.Here are some more details from WashTech:Contracts paid for with fiscal 2010 money are still in operation, but invoices might be paid late because of a shutdown. The government might…[Read more]

Thom,

Based on all the article I have read, a Fixed Price contract with up-front funding is probably one of the few contracts that would be allowed to continue work. This though, assumes that you still have access to the facility/ies necessary for doing the work, IT systems are still running, and if you require any government approvals or…[Read more]

1) Enable me to import my Contacts from Gmail etc so I can more readily invite friends, and find out if they are already on GovLoop
2) Consider opening up the API for GovLoop so 3rd party applications can be more readily developed
3) Develop a way so that my profile will show the latest posts from my blog (http://ckstevenson.blogspot.com), my…[Read more]

A simple question with a very large set of answers that are possible. I think we’d need to know some more specifics about the consultant (which I presume to be you), what area of focus, if the person works for themselves or a company, etc etc.

The federal world is full of consultants (as noted above, often referred to as “contractors” much to my…[Read more]