Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce

This is a Nassau County grant from County Executive Bruce A. Blakeman and the Legislature, and it is being operated by the Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce (NCCC) the umbrella organization that ties all of Nassau’s Chambers together.  The goal is to help every small business in our great county, as much as we can, having Chambers involved as hosts of events at the grass roots level, using companies physically located in Nassau and contracted by the NCCC to supply the services.

There will be a ZOOM Pre-Bid Conference on Wednesday 4/17/24 at 7pm, to answer the questions that were previously submitted by email, along with all that come in during that event. Any Nassau County based company even remotely interested in participating should attend.
Click HERE to sign into the Zoom or you can use https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89594302477?pwd=amRDUMZawvaA3smz8s69tzkzHijSMp.1#success

This will serve as a formal re-cap of the PBC for those in attendance, or even those who missed it.

ADENNDUM
Recap Of Technical Services Grant Pre-Bid Zoom Conference on 4/22/24

1. What type of businesses would we be potentially servicing?

All small business physically located in Nassau County qualify to either receive the services the grant
provides, and/or participate in the RFP process to be a potential provider. Being located outside of the
county, but doing business here, does not qualify in either case.

2. Regarding services beyond the webinar, what is the main goal: to develop a basic product to serve
as many clients as possible, or to oGer more comprehensive services but to a smaller number (10-
15) of businesses? Or is this something we will decide?

The NCCC makes the decision. The goal is to have workgroups on each of the topics first, to actually help
the businesses as much as we can given the dynamics, instead of a sales type presentation from the
original rfp. It is designed by the service provider as outlined in their RFP to us. There is no need for a
provider to promote anything, as the NCCC will be providing the venue (along with all associated
logistics) and promoting the programs all over the county, as part of our end. The size of the meetings will
be as large as we can feasibly handle.

There are three zones, each with three diGerent categories, for a total of 9 separate RFP opportunities, up
from three with the original RFP.

3. Who chooses the businesses we service, especially if some businesses don’t need e-commerce
or physical print marketing? Are the businesses chosen based on specific needs, or do they
require all services?

Any business that qualifies to receive the services, as previously discussed, will receive them if we can.
There is no provision to weigh if a business needs it or not.

4. Can we hi-light the diGerences between this RFP version and the last?

In the 1st version all three topics were in one RFP, so a company would need to supply services for all of
them. It would be unlikely for a company to be able to do that, given the diGerences between them,
without involving subcontractors. So instead, we broke them up, allowing companies to concentrate on
their core, and of course also increasing opportunities to participate. Also, moving from sales
pitch/presentations to workshops, to actually help the businesses from the start, before moving onto
individual one on one sessions. Part of the RFPs are these eventual sessions, that’s something that has
not changed.

We also addressed terminology and clarity so people would have a better understanding of what was
expected and how it would operate, which is evident as there are far less questions this time around.
Since we now broke it into three separate RFPs, we could be clearer about each one. Another aspect of
the new RFP, it allows a company to concentrate on things that they have a better working knowledge of.

5. What does a company have to show in RFP about the workshop we will be providing?

In the RFP you have to write what you are planning on doing and why. What your expectations of what we
are going to achieve. Both the subcontractor and the NCCC have to quantify/justify what we are
spending. The NCCC needs to combine all that’s been done with all the 9 RFP’s, the money that’s been
spent and on what specifically, and the outcomes. We need this for reporting purposes and to figure out
how we want to proceed in phase two… and so on.

6. After the workshop then at some point individual sessions are given. Is there a cap on how many
of these sessions.

The RFP you submit will include how much you are charging for the workshop, and then for each
individual session when you do them. Based on a 15,000 budget, if you hit it with a certain number of
individual sessions that’s it, if not we reassess.

7. How does the NCCC determine that the workshop was a success?

The number of signups for individual sessions at the end of the workshop will be a good determination of
how well it went, especially if we wind up with a waiting list that we might wind up with a round two. The
NCCC will also be following up with every business, after the workshop and the individual sessions. In
the case of an individual session, that business would then need to basically sign oG for it for the provider
to get paid.

8. Clarification about the size of the businesses allowed to participate on both sides.

If a business has less than 500 employees and is in Nassau County they qualify. If that same company
also utilizes sub-contractors they can apply as an umbrella if the total is less than 500, if all the subcontractors
are also located in Nassau, if it is over then the subcontractors could apply separately if
again, they are located in Nassau.