(Note: This is reprinted from FemaleIntel.com
In some of my blogs I've noted how teaching is the noblest profession. I have second-hand experience having heard Janet's teaching experiences over 25 years. I read this piece below and just had to share it - Rod)
"Today's opinion piece explores why teaching is one of the hardest jobs out there.
Submitted By: Denise Hong
This piece was inspired by a heated discussion I had with a man
who believes that teachers have an easy job. Please feel free to share
it with others if you agree with the message.
I
used to be a molecular biologist. I spent my days culturing viruses.
Sometimes, my experiments would fail miserably, and I’d swear to myself
in frustration. Acquaintances would ask how my work was going. I’d
explain how I was having a difficult time cloning this one gene. I
couldn’t seem to figure out the exact recipe to use for my cloning
cocktail.
Acquaintances would sigh sympathetically. And they’d say, “I know you’ll figure it out. I have faith in you.”
And then, they’d tilt their heads in a show of respect for my skills….
Today, I’m a high school teacher. I spend my days culturing
teenagers. Sometimes, my students get disruptive, and I swear to myself
in frustration. Acquaintances ask me how my work is going. I explain how
I’m having a difficult time with a certain kid. I can’t seem to get him
to pay attention in class.
Acquaintances smirk knowingly. And they say, “well, have you tried
making it fun for the kids? That’s how you get through to them, you
know?”
And then, they explain to me how I should do my job….
I realize now how little respect teachers get. Teaching is the
toughest job everyone who’s never done it thinks they can do. I admit, I
was guilty of these delusions myself. When I decided to make the switch
from “doing” science to “teaching” science, I found out that I had to
go back to school to get a teaching credential.
“What the f—?!?,” I screamed to any friends willing to put up with my
griping. “I have a Ph.D.! Why do I need to go back to get a lousy
teaching credential?!?”
I was baffled. How could I, with my advanced degree in biology, not be qualified to teach biology?!
Well, those school administrators were a stubborn bunch. I simply
couldn’t get a job without a credential. And so, I begrudgingly enrolled
in a secondary teaching credential program.
And boy, were my eyes opened. I understand now.
Teaching isn’t just “making it fun” for the kids. Teaching isn’t just academic content.
Teaching is understanding how the human brain processes information and preparing lessons with this understanding in mind.
Teaching is simultaneously instilling in a child the belief that she
can accomplish anything she wants while admonishing her for producing
shoddy work.
Teaching is understanding both the psychology and the physiology behind the changes the adolescent mind goes through.
Teaching is convincing a defiant teenager that the work he sees no
value in does serve a greater purpose in preparing him for the rest of
his life.
Teaching is offering a sympathetic ear while maintaining a stern voice.
Teaching is being both a role model and a mentor to someone who may have neither at home, and may not be looking for either.
Teaching is not easy. Teaching is not intuitive. Teaching is not
something that anyone can figure out on their own. Education
researchers spend lifetimes developing effective new teaching methods.
Teaching takes hard work and constant training. I understand now.
Have you ever watched professional athletes and gawked at how easy
they make it look? Kobe Bryant weaves through five opposing players,
sinking the ball into the basket without even glancing in its direction.
Brett Favre spirals a football 100 feet through the air, landing it in
the arms of a teammate running at full speed. Does anyone have any
delusions that they can do what Kobe and Brett do?
Yet, people have delusions that anyone can do what the typical teacher does on a typical day.
Maybe the problem is tangibility. Shooting a basketball isn’t easy,
but it’s easy to measure how good someone is at shooting a basketball.
Throwing a football isn’t easy, but it’s easy to measure how good
someone is at throwing a football. Similarly, diagnosing illnesses isn’t
easy to do, but it’s easy to measure. Winning court cases isn’t easy to
do, but it’s easy to measure. Creating and designing technology isn’t
easy to do, but it’s easy to measure.
Inspiring kids? Inspiring kids can be downright damned near close to
impossible sometimes. And… it’s downright damned near close to
impossible to measure. You can’t measure inspiration by a child’s test
scores. You can’t measure inspiration by a child’s grades. You measure
inspiration 25 years later when that hot-shot doctor, or lawyer, or
entrepreneur thanks her fourth-grade teacher for having faith in her and
encouraging her to pursue her dreams.
Maybe that’s why teachers get so little respect. It’s hard to respect a skill that is so hard to quantify.
So, maybe you just have to take our word for it. The next time you
walk into a classroom, and you see the teacher calmly presiding over a
room full of kids, all actively engaged in the lesson, realize that it’s
not because the job is easy. It’s because we make it look easy. And because we work our asses off to make it look easy.
And, yes, we make it fun, too."
Like you, I've had many ups and downs, and quite a few sideways experiences. I firmly believe everyone should write theirs and share them, whether just for themselves or their kids. Here are some from my memoirs, observations and thoughts.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Friday, July 26, 2013
The Joy of Walking Away
I handled agreements and contracts between the State and vendors for over twenty years. I can handle Force Majeure (an act of God), or indemnification (limiting liability), and the thirty other terms and conditions with the best of them. But I went thru heartache and thousands of dollars before I learned the most important term in every agreement (legal, binding contract).
And that term is what most people gloss over.
It's the "Termination" clause.
Oh yes, you want to buy their product, sometimes badly. Sometimes its the only one of its kind on the market, so you put up with onerous terms like absolving them of all liability for their actions or their product defects, limiting your recourse to only a refund of the money you paid and nothing else. And never is there anything written in the contract about how well the product or service performs. Always sold "As is." Does it do what you bought it to do? The essential question of every buyer on earth, "Will it do what I expect it to?" The vendor takes no responsibility amd makes no promises.
Oh, and so let me answer this essential question for you. "The product or service will only perform, or be as good as, what the agreement says." Rule of the road. At best you get the product name like "Microsoft Office 2010," and little else except a glossy brochure, if you're lucky enough to get that.
I've already written that the first thing to do on a product website, is to find the product specifications. If you can't find any? Buyer beware. Guaranteed your chances of being dissatisfied or disappointed just skyrocketed.
So back to Termination. You "receive" the product (online download, in the mail, at the store counter etc.). You paid good money for it. It should work. You try it. It fails to perform to your standards, or and this happens more often, it doesn't operate as advertised. Three questions arise. Can they fix the product at no charge to you? Yes, they may fix the product, but there's usually a charge regardless, even if just shipping. Can you get a refund? If you used a credit card, yes, by disputing the charge with your credit card company, who will block future vendor charges and give you a refund on your next bill. If you paid cash? Good luck with that. Yet most retail stores will give it to you, or in store credit, with a receipt (I've already written how important that is!).
With New Jersey State purchases we payed thousands, tens of thousands, and millions of dollars for goods and services. A billion $$ worth every year. Getting our money back was/is very important. The most important.
Hence the Termination or Cancellation clause. Termination ends the total agreement, everything null and void. Cancellation modifies or ends certain conditions.
A good example. When I bought mainframe computer software for millions of dollars, the software companies always, always had an Evergreen clause in the contract, which means you continually pay their fee, forever. That's right, forever! Although it doesn't use that word, it's left open-ended. The renewal payment (and price increases) occur on the anniversary of the purchase, every year.
That's where the Cancellation clause comes in. We adjusted the vendor's cancellation clause to state "Customer will notify Company within thirty (30) days of contract termination or payment renewal if it intends to renew. Absent such notice, Customer will not be responsible for renewal payment." At the very least, this meant that every year the vendor called us with the new fee and we at least got a chance to negotiate, which, sometimes lowered the fee, even though we had no intent to cancel.
Most contracts you have, without realizing it, have this "Evergreen Clause." Your utility company, your heating and air conditioning provider, Verizon, your mobile phone company, etc. that's if you weren't careful to get the agreement terms, in writing, up front. Have you ever read these agreements? You get 'em you know. Lots of 'em. I'll bet a buck you haven't.
The product's bad. You don't like the company or its lack of an 800 number. You bought something to replace them and their product or service. Guess what? You're stuck by what the Termination clause states. Someday I'll write about how to get out of it anyway, but not today.
So check your Agreement and cancellation, renewal and termination clauses.
Stop wasting money on something you don't need or want anymore.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
And that term is what most people gloss over.
It's the "Termination" clause.
Oh yes, you want to buy their product, sometimes badly. Sometimes its the only one of its kind on the market, so you put up with onerous terms like absolving them of all liability for their actions or their product defects, limiting your recourse to only a refund of the money you paid and nothing else. And never is there anything written in the contract about how well the product or service performs. Always sold "As is." Does it do what you bought it to do? The essential question of every buyer on earth, "Will it do what I expect it to?" The vendor takes no responsibility amd makes no promises.
Oh, and so let me answer this essential question for you. "The product or service will only perform, or be as good as, what the agreement says." Rule of the road. At best you get the product name like "Microsoft Office 2010," and little else except a glossy brochure, if you're lucky enough to get that.
I've already written that the first thing to do on a product website, is to find the product specifications. If you can't find any? Buyer beware. Guaranteed your chances of being dissatisfied or disappointed just skyrocketed.
So back to Termination. You "receive" the product (online download, in the mail, at the store counter etc.). You paid good money for it. It should work. You try it. It fails to perform to your standards, or and this happens more often, it doesn't operate as advertised. Three questions arise. Can they fix the product at no charge to you? Yes, they may fix the product, but there's usually a charge regardless, even if just shipping. Can you get a refund? If you used a credit card, yes, by disputing the charge with your credit card company, who will block future vendor charges and give you a refund on your next bill. If you paid cash? Good luck with that. Yet most retail stores will give it to you, or in store credit, with a receipt (I've already written how important that is!).
With New Jersey State purchases we payed thousands, tens of thousands, and millions of dollars for goods and services. A billion $$ worth every year. Getting our money back was/is very important. The most important.
Hence the Termination or Cancellation clause. Termination ends the total agreement, everything null and void. Cancellation modifies or ends certain conditions.
A good example. When I bought mainframe computer software for millions of dollars, the software companies always, always had an Evergreen clause in the contract, which means you continually pay their fee, forever. That's right, forever! Although it doesn't use that word, it's left open-ended. The renewal payment (and price increases) occur on the anniversary of the purchase, every year.
That's where the Cancellation clause comes in. We adjusted the vendor's cancellation clause to state "Customer will notify Company within thirty (30) days of contract termination or payment renewal if it intends to renew. Absent such notice, Customer will not be responsible for renewal payment." At the very least, this meant that every year the vendor called us with the new fee and we at least got a chance to negotiate, which, sometimes lowered the fee, even though we had no intent to cancel.
Most contracts you have, without realizing it, have this "Evergreen Clause." Your utility company, your heating and air conditioning provider, Verizon, your mobile phone company, etc. that's if you weren't careful to get the agreement terms, in writing, up front. Have you ever read these agreements? You get 'em you know. Lots of 'em. I'll bet a buck you haven't.
The product's bad. You don't like the company or its lack of an 800 number. You bought something to replace them and their product or service. Guess what? You're stuck by what the Termination clause states. Someday I'll write about how to get out of it anyway, but not today.
So check your Agreement and cancellation, renewal and termination clauses.
Stop wasting money on something you don't need or want anymore.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
The Joy of Writing
As I've said, I love to write. Yeah, I'll run out of good ideas someday, but til then I find it enjoyable. I start with writing "what happened" then go back thru and edit and polish what I've written.
Editing means paying close attention to grammar, sentence and paragraph structure. On my early draft of my book (too early), I paid a friend/copy editor to do just that, which helped tremendously. A must do if self-publishing.
I like to embed many crisp, short sentences into paragraphs or at the ends of paragraphs. "His hugs were ferocious." "It's 'Wake up, get up, do something." "Don't blame others."
"I'm breakin' outta here." I told him, "Now." And so on.
Then I insert longer run thru sentences at key spots:
I burst out and started screaming and ranting, pacing, tearing off my clothes, and throwing them as mightily as I could, not caring where they fell to earth.
Gotta get to Haifa to Haifa can't stop must stop where can I stop do I stop.
But I eschew long unbroken paragraphs. I avoid writing long paragraphs, unlike the author's English prose I admire most, by Shoghi Effendi.
Editing is also adding descriptive, colorful, picture-building adjectives and verbs, which is easy with the computer. I open up my thesaurus, type in "walk" and watch the list come up; stroll, stomp, trudge, sashay etc. Then I go to "Find" in my document and type in the word "walk." It highlights each occurrence of "walk." I scroll to each one and either leave it alone or change it depending on the scene. Sometimes I let go and change other words, phrasings and sentence formats. I spend weeks doing that, going thru the list.
Another list I do the same thing to is pronouns, forms of "be," and prepositions. I'm writing a memoir. I found 1358 iterations of "was" for example, in 130 pages. You see the problem. With a little effort and rephrasing I cut out half, making the writing much tighter and more to the point. I have a list of twenty words like that, including "like" and "that." "Were" is another big one.
I do the same thing with "I," "we," and character's names.
Then I add or expand my emotions:
"I'm coming," I shouted, "nothing can stop me!" and I'm not afraid to use exclamation points which writers like Stephen King in his book "On Writing" tell you to use sparingly, if at all. Bah!
Another example: Being perfectly reasonable and rational. In reality, jumbled thoughts tumbled thru my mind, including those of escape.
It's great when you can throw in juxtaposed ideas, actions or thoughts.
And that is a key to my writing, adding ideas, generally unknown facts, opinions, actions, description, and thoughts. Each deserves a paragraph themselves, But there's plenty of books, websites and blogs that say a lot about all those. And I subscribe to many, and read them, and save many white papers on my computer.
Character development is also very important, more so in fiction. In memoir there's only so much you can do for yourself and other characters. It is what it was at the time. And a lot of that has to be thru dialogue, realistic and personality appropriate. As a memoirist, unless you wrote it down when it happened, it's not going to be exact. And it doesn't have to be to move the story along, always moving the story along. And the reader automatically understands this, as long as you have "Memoir" somewhere on the cover.
Then you're nearly finished and the hardest part comes; formatting. Indented paragraphs? Or flush. Lots of spaces? Few spaces. Blank pages between chapters? Or not. (For me, not.) Font size? (It's different depending on the section.) Page numbering? (Be careful.)
Then another hardest part comes. Self-publish? Or get an agent? Or write to publishers directly? I'm self-publishing. I'm not keen on waiting six to eighteen months for a publisher to print and distribute my book. I can do it on Amazon overnight for nothing. Yes, literally nothing. No aggravation sending out query letters and emails and getting rejections. That means I have to market my book myself, but I'm enjoying doing things like that with this Blog, a website I'm considering building (for free), social media etc.
Its a Brave New World as Huxley wrote in 1932. It was then and more so now. There are no rules to writing and publishing anymore. Anyone can do it, and 300,000 writers do, in the U.S. alone -- every year.
Competition for readers attention is fierce, so write well. You have a unique story to tell, in your own voice.
Pick up a pen or laptop and join the crowd.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Editing means paying close attention to grammar, sentence and paragraph structure. On my early draft of my book (too early), I paid a friend/copy editor to do just that, which helped tremendously. A must do if self-publishing.
I like to embed many crisp, short sentences into paragraphs or at the ends of paragraphs. "His hugs were ferocious." "It's 'Wake up, get up, do something." "Don't blame others."
"I'm breakin' outta here." I told him, "Now." And so on.
Then I insert longer run thru sentences at key spots:
I burst out and started screaming and ranting, pacing, tearing off my clothes, and throwing them as mightily as I could, not caring where they fell to earth.
Gotta get to Haifa to Haifa can't stop must stop where can I stop do I stop.
But I eschew long unbroken paragraphs. I avoid writing long paragraphs, unlike the author's English prose I admire most, by Shoghi Effendi.
Editing is also adding descriptive, colorful, picture-building adjectives and verbs, which is easy with the computer. I open up my thesaurus, type in "walk" and watch the list come up; stroll, stomp, trudge, sashay etc. Then I go to "Find" in my document and type in the word "walk." It highlights each occurrence of "walk." I scroll to each one and either leave it alone or change it depending on the scene. Sometimes I let go and change other words, phrasings and sentence formats. I spend weeks doing that, going thru the list.
Another list I do the same thing to is pronouns, forms of "be," and prepositions. I'm writing a memoir. I found 1358 iterations of "was" for example, in 130 pages. You see the problem. With a little effort and rephrasing I cut out half, making the writing much tighter and more to the point. I have a list of twenty words like that, including "like" and "that." "Were" is another big one.
I do the same thing with "I," "we," and character's names.
Then I add or expand my emotions:
"I'm coming," I shouted, "nothing can stop me!" and I'm not afraid to use exclamation points which writers like Stephen King in his book "On Writing" tell you to use sparingly, if at all. Bah!
Another example: Being perfectly reasonable and rational. In reality, jumbled thoughts tumbled thru my mind, including those of escape.
It's great when you can throw in juxtaposed ideas, actions or thoughts.
And that is a key to my writing, adding ideas, generally unknown facts, opinions, actions, description, and thoughts. Each deserves a paragraph themselves, But there's plenty of books, websites and blogs that say a lot about all those. And I subscribe to many, and read them, and save many white papers on my computer.
Character development is also very important, more so in fiction. In memoir there's only so much you can do for yourself and other characters. It is what it was at the time. And a lot of that has to be thru dialogue, realistic and personality appropriate. As a memoirist, unless you wrote it down when it happened, it's not going to be exact. And it doesn't have to be to move the story along, always moving the story along. And the reader automatically understands this, as long as you have "Memoir" somewhere on the cover.
Then you're nearly finished and the hardest part comes; formatting. Indented paragraphs? Or flush. Lots of spaces? Few spaces. Blank pages between chapters? Or not. (For me, not.) Font size? (It's different depending on the section.) Page numbering? (Be careful.)
Then another hardest part comes. Self-publish? Or get an agent? Or write to publishers directly? I'm self-publishing. I'm not keen on waiting six to eighteen months for a publisher to print and distribute my book. I can do it on Amazon overnight for nothing. Yes, literally nothing. No aggravation sending out query letters and emails and getting rejections. That means I have to market my book myself, but I'm enjoying doing things like that with this Blog, a website I'm considering building (for free), social media etc.
Its a Brave New World as Huxley wrote in 1932. It was then and more so now. There are no rules to writing and publishing anymore. Anyone can do it, and 300,000 writers do, in the U.S. alone -- every year.
Competition for readers attention is fierce, so write well. You have a unique story to tell, in your own voice.
Pick up a pen or laptop and join the crowd.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Thursday, July 18, 2013
The Joy of Whistleblowing
CEPA became New Jersey law in 1986. I remember reading the new law at work. It was summarized on an 18-inch by 2-ft long poster on the bulletin board in our lunch room. When I read it, especially part two, I knew I wouldn't use it unless I was very, very careful. In all honesty, our division was honest; all employees I knew anyway (about 100), so I wasn't too concerned. But being in purchasing and contracting like I was, managing a unit, and dealing with dozens of state agencies who sometimes bent the rules, I read the poster again.
"1. New Jersey law prohibits an employer from taking any retaliatory action against an employee because the employee does any of the following:
a. Discloses, or threatens to disclose, to a supervisor or to a public body an activity, policy or practice of the employer or another employer, with whom there is a business relationship, that the employee believes is in violation of a law, or a rule or regulation issued under the law (and so on)."
2. The protection against retaliation, when a disclosure is made to a public body, does not apply unless the employee has brought the activity, policy or practice to the attention of a supervisor of the employee by written notice and given the employer a reasonable opportunity to correct the activity, policy or practice. However, disclosure is not required where the employee reasonably believes that the activity, policy or practice is known to one or more supervisors of the employer or where the employee fears physical harm as a result of the disclosure, provided that the situation is emergency in nature.
So, if I see something not kosher, I'm to tell my boss, and let them and management correct the "supposed" problem. My experience with my outside agency cohorts who found themselves in that situation meant: they'd never hear of it again, or if they did, they were in trouble because they had no "hard" evidence, and the situation, usually wasting state money, continued.
Sometimes there was nothing to be done anyway. Deputy directors, directors and higher had made a decision, and by gum, my friends were to carry it out, no matter how shady.
The moral of the story: If you don't have hard evidence, keep your mouth shut, or it could be you that's sent off to a corner with no work, and there were already some of them, for one reason or another.
No, this law and laws like it are all wrong. That's why I liked the State Ethics Commission. We all had copies of their rules and examples, and they were independent of the bigwigs. I knew if I ever came across something sinister, I'd go to them before going to my boss, even tho Chris, or later Dick or John fair-minded.
Why? Because in-house things got taken care of in-house and never, never made it out unless it was someone caught in the act of out and out fraud and not just stupidity and wastefulness. In my experience real fraud was rare, but usually the higher you got the stupidity got worse (not all mind you). And it wasn't always the managers and directors who were at fault, but all the big shots in the State House or commissioner's offices making humongous deals with vendors on questionable, or specious projects, spending millions of dollars.
The problem? No real, effective oversight, especially when the big wigs said "do it." If the Governor's Office said "Do this." we jumped. If a Commissioner said the same, it got done. Especially when the gatekeepers were told to push it thru also. Everyone from us, to the funding guys, to the Information Technology folks, or whoever else had to be involved, greased the skids. The twists and turns of words and phrases would be made to fit the regs. I'd seen million plus dollar schemes (Waivers of Advertising), get walked thru and approved in a day (with all the documentation), especially as the years rolled on.
I knew. I wrote that documentation.
I knew. I wrote that documentation.
So, this whining brings me back to effective oversight.
Agencies in NJ government are so siloed, they only worry about their own specific little piece and not the whole picture. The reviewers are all in charge of a piece of the pie, the procurement request itself, whether for the department, IT, funding, rules and regs or whatever.
That's why I loved my job as manager of the Statewide Contract Consolidation Unit, now practically abolished (2013). Agencies provided all their procurement documentation to us, and we matched it against rules and regs -- and common sense. So we accepted or rejected their requests in whole or in part, usually asking for, and getting, revisions to be made, sometimes telling them what to say. Of course we also handled our OWN contracts worth millions, but in all fairness, we applied the same rules to them.
Once I held up the purchase of a $4 million mainframe computer system for a two weeks, meeting with the State's sole Contracting Officer and the vendor (by phone), until all questions were answered satisfactorily. And that was a fast track project from the highest departmental levels.
The point? We were independent of the requester, we had our Director's backing, we thought we were doing the right thing, and so that procurement got held up.
Whistleblower supervisors are not independent; management audits (of which they're are many in state government), are not all adhered to or practices changed as they should be.
So the wasteful cycle continues.
Let's change to independent commissions and let the whistleblowers speak up.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Joy of RFIs, RFQs and RFPs
You've probably dealt or written all three of the above documents yourself at some point, but in government they take on a different meeting.
Take the RFI -- Request for Information. You do this on Google when you scan the specs for that new tablet you're thinking of buying, or read the box your new edger comes in for the warranty info. Your looking for data -- information on a product or service. No commitment, just interested. It's easier to get RFI info on established brands than it is on new products.
I worked in computer hardware, software and services purchasing for the State of NJ -- for a long time. Writing official RFIs to companies became very easy. In many cases I'd simply call a vendor and request they send me detailed product or service info by mail, or later, by email attachment. Sometimes I had to go back to the vendor for more info. Whether I called or wrote there had to be a record of it. That's government.
Well, that should be government, and clerks and managers and others call vendors all the time for information . . . and don't document it. I always wrote every phone call down. I didn't have to, but it came in handy many times.
Circa 2007 I wrote an official two-page RFI to three online reverse auction vendors, for an energy procurement we were considering. It was also an RFQ. I had already done the preliminary research on the net and potential companies websites, so I knew what questions to ask, and how to phrase them so they weren't too restrictive. Three responses became a selection of one of the vendors, World Energy, and I had to follow up that RFI/RFQ with a Request for Waiver of Advertising so we could procure the service.
It was a big contract. WES would get 3% of the value of the contract -- hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it was all done very carefully and above board. That meant even tho we had selected WES, we couldn't speak to them or make any contact until the Waiver was approved by the Director of the Div. of Purchase & Property -- the State's chief contracting officer, responsible for billions of dollars spent every year, including municipalities.
The Waiver will get its own blog, because the State Treasurer him or herself (or deputy), has to sign that. During my 39 year tenure we had one female state treasurer, Feather O'Connor, and she was pretty good (to us). The vast majority of managers, directors and higher up in NJ government are men it appears to me -- what a shame.
The RFQ, if you haven't guessed, is Request for Quotation -- This is a bigger deal -- you're asking for the vendor's prices, as opposed to just information and NO formal prices, on a specific item which you have defined. I did this with DPA bids (under $27,000 per purchase), all the time -- well once in a while, but it was easy. Depending on the price of the item (not cost which is very different), I would call three or more vendors for a quote and record their verbal responses, or request their response by sealed bid via a deadline and the mail (or hand delivered.) All fun stuff.
That's how I hired Gabel Associates of Highland Park to be our energy consultants for buying electricity and natural gas for all state agencies -- 826 MWH and 25 million therms worth, or $100 million annually. Bob Chilton was the very best to work with during those contract years, and also Brian their database guru. All above board, documented and approved per State Circular Letter 23I for Delegated Purchase Authority (DPA).
DPA simply means the agency, in my case the Div. of Administration (and there's hundreds of divisions), was authorized to buy things direct from vendors -- as long as we followed protocol -- the regs. If an agency did a poor job, DPA authority could be taken away from them. No matter how poorly done (and I knew), no one's authority was ever taken away except for the University of Medicine and Dentistry shakeup.
However, the first Gabel DPA couldn't suffice long term, and it's against regs to split DPAs or exceed limits in a year, so it had to be bid.
So I wrote the RFP for a 3-year contract, no $ limits.
Now the piece de' resistance, the RFP -- Request for Proposal(s). This is the most formal procurement document used by government. Very formal with convoluted and extensive terms and conditions that have to met at a big cost to the bidder. We issued RFPs and companies bid to win the contract. I and others had worked on one, for statewide computer and PC maintenance and software, with five categories -- in which we awarded four separate vendors, and cancelled one category bid as too high, Honeywell Bull. So RFPs can be very complex. Usually none is less than twenty pages, usually much more.
The last big RFP I wrote, was for an Energy Tracking System, a means whereby a successful bidder would receive ALL state utility bills directly, verify them, analyze them (from thousands of electric and gas accounts across the state), every month, and submit to us a concise monthly bill and energy use statistics by using agency. Our Office of Energy Savings (Treasury Department) had 10 days to pay the consolidated bills, i.e. 10 days. That system and contract is still in place today, five years later. (That will be another blog also.) In that contract, awarded to Energy Solve, a NJ firm, they received up to $6 per invoice processed. We thought that was a reasonable fee for what we wanted and what they offered in meeting our RFP requirements.
That RFP was 60 pages long. So you get the idea. I've seen RFPs over 100 pages long. One over 200 pages, for IFAS, the OIT's proposed new financial, purchasing and asset control system. That was over 4100 million when we didn't have cash, so that went no where.That's why today's NJCFS system is so outdated and takes manual manipulation at times. By prior boss, chris reid had been the project mamnager who created the state's first statewide financial system, AAS in the early 80s. These systems lasted a decade or more with lots of customization along the way.
The state was never "bleeding edge" when it came to IT, even tho we're closer now than ever.
The idea here, whether RFI, RFQ or RFP, is 1) do your homework on the product you want first, and Google makes that easy, 2) Obtain and read carefully the product specifications -- if the specs aren't complete or too sparse, I go to another product or vendor. (Remember; what it doesn't say, you don't get), and 3) Always get a solid written price quote. If its a big purchase, say over $2,500 come up with a list of sellers and send them a list of what features you want, tell them this is going to other bidders and ask them to respond in writing.
You will be amazed at the detailed info they send you and the promises they make, in writing! And you'll get deeper discounts to boot, guaranteed.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Take the RFI -- Request for Information. You do this on Google when you scan the specs for that new tablet you're thinking of buying, or read the box your new edger comes in for the warranty info. Your looking for data -- information on a product or service. No commitment, just interested. It's easier to get RFI info on established brands than it is on new products.
I worked in computer hardware, software and services purchasing for the State of NJ -- for a long time. Writing official RFIs to companies became very easy. In many cases I'd simply call a vendor and request they send me detailed product or service info by mail, or later, by email attachment. Sometimes I had to go back to the vendor for more info. Whether I called or wrote there had to be a record of it. That's government.
Well, that should be government, and clerks and managers and others call vendors all the time for information . . . and don't document it. I always wrote every phone call down. I didn't have to, but it came in handy many times.
Circa 2007 I wrote an official two-page RFI to three online reverse auction vendors, for an energy procurement we were considering. It was also an RFQ. I had already done the preliminary research on the net and potential companies websites, so I knew what questions to ask, and how to phrase them so they weren't too restrictive. Three responses became a selection of one of the vendors, World Energy, and I had to follow up that RFI/RFQ with a Request for Waiver of Advertising so we could procure the service.
It was a big contract. WES would get 3% of the value of the contract -- hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it was all done very carefully and above board. That meant even tho we had selected WES, we couldn't speak to them or make any contact until the Waiver was approved by the Director of the Div. of Purchase & Property -- the State's chief contracting officer, responsible for billions of dollars spent every year, including municipalities.
The Waiver will get its own blog, because the State Treasurer him or herself (or deputy), has to sign that. During my 39 year tenure we had one female state treasurer, Feather O'Connor, and she was pretty good (to us). The vast majority of managers, directors and higher up in NJ government are men it appears to me -- what a shame.
The RFQ, if you haven't guessed, is Request for Quotation -- This is a bigger deal -- you're asking for the vendor's prices, as opposed to just information and NO formal prices, on a specific item which you have defined. I did this with DPA bids (under $27,000 per purchase), all the time -- well once in a while, but it was easy. Depending on the price of the item (not cost which is very different), I would call three or more vendors for a quote and record their verbal responses, or request their response by sealed bid via a deadline and the mail (or hand delivered.) All fun stuff.
That's how I hired Gabel Associates of Highland Park to be our energy consultants for buying electricity and natural gas for all state agencies -- 826 MWH and 25 million therms worth, or $100 million annually. Bob Chilton was the very best to work with during those contract years, and also Brian their database guru. All above board, documented and approved per State Circular Letter 23I for Delegated Purchase Authority (DPA).
DPA simply means the agency, in my case the Div. of Administration (and there's hundreds of divisions), was authorized to buy things direct from vendors -- as long as we followed protocol -- the regs. If an agency did a poor job, DPA authority could be taken away from them. No matter how poorly done (and I knew), no one's authority was ever taken away except for the University of Medicine and Dentistry shakeup.
However, the first Gabel DPA couldn't suffice long term, and it's against regs to split DPAs or exceed limits in a year, so it had to be bid.
So I wrote the RFP for a 3-year contract, no $ limits.
Now the piece de' resistance, the RFP -- Request for Proposal(s). This is the most formal procurement document used by government. Very formal with convoluted and extensive terms and conditions that have to met at a big cost to the bidder. We issued RFPs and companies bid to win the contract. I and others had worked on one, for statewide computer and PC maintenance and software, with five categories -- in which we awarded four separate vendors, and cancelled one category bid as too high, Honeywell Bull. So RFPs can be very complex. Usually none is less than twenty pages, usually much more.
The last big RFP I wrote, was for an Energy Tracking System, a means whereby a successful bidder would receive ALL state utility bills directly, verify them, analyze them (from thousands of electric and gas accounts across the state), every month, and submit to us a concise monthly bill and energy use statistics by using agency. Our Office of Energy Savings (Treasury Department) had 10 days to pay the consolidated bills, i.e. 10 days. That system and contract is still in place today, five years later. (That will be another blog also.) In that contract, awarded to Energy Solve, a NJ firm, they received up to $6 per invoice processed. We thought that was a reasonable fee for what we wanted and what they offered in meeting our RFP requirements.
That RFP was 60 pages long. So you get the idea. I've seen RFPs over 100 pages long. One over 200 pages, for IFAS, the OIT's proposed new financial, purchasing and asset control system. That was over 4100 million when we didn't have cash, so that went no where.That's why today's NJCFS system is so outdated and takes manual manipulation at times. By prior boss, chris reid had been the project mamnager who created the state's first statewide financial system, AAS in the early 80s. These systems lasted a decade or more with lots of customization along the way.
The state was never "bleeding edge" when it came to IT, even tho we're closer now than ever.
The idea here, whether RFI, RFQ or RFP, is 1) do your homework on the product you want first, and Google makes that easy, 2) Obtain and read carefully the product specifications -- if the specs aren't complete or too sparse, I go to another product or vendor. (Remember; what it doesn't say, you don't get), and 3) Always get a solid written price quote. If its a big purchase, say over $2,500 come up with a list of sellers and send them a list of what features you want, tell them this is going to other bidders and ask them to respond in writing.
You will be amazed at the detailed info they send you and the promises they make, in writing! And you'll get deeper discounts to boot, guaranteed.
By Rodney Richards, NJ
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)