Government Bids (been talked about before, just venting)

[Mark Suszko]

Anybody ever tell you you’re hard to please, Todd?:-)

[Todd Terry]

Are you kidding, Mark… I’m a peach.

You of all people should know that. 🙂

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Al Bergstein]

Is anyone here actually *winning* government bids? I occasionally do one just for the exercise of keeping my grant writing skills current, but rarely assume I will win one. There are so many requirements that don’t have anything to do with skills, but to meet some federal requirement in contract awards. I did win one two years ago, working through a consortium of non profits that wanted to see a film done. It was low budget, but was worth making for them, and led to a current bunch of work that I’m doing for the husband of one of the people from the non-profits. It’s all about networking.

I sent in a government bid for a training video last fall, and simply bid it as best I could to make money. My hope was that if the other company failed, or they couldn’t find someone, that if I was called it would be on my terms. But I wasn’t. (G). At least not yet. That price allowed me to cover my base if I actually won it. The last thing I want is a job that I don’t want to do, when I have other, better, paying work. I have my plate full with some free work for non-profits I want to support, so don’t want to give away any more.

Al

[John Baumchen]

As someone who works for a government agency, (federal), and is a contract technical representative, it sounds as though someone is rigging the bid. To specify that the company has to have won awards is not indicative of how well they will perform.

My take on these ‘awards’ are that they are nothing more than a means for the awarding organization to make money from the ‘entry fee’ and for the award ‘winner’ to hang a gold star on their wall, hoping it will give them some credibility.

I’m not sure how to challenge a contract in the state or local arena but this one sure needs it from what you’ve said. I’d suggest you start by contacting the contracting officer for the agency and go from there if you want to persue it.