RFP Questions and Answers

To what extent is Maine Arts Commission staff support available?  For instance, to help identify local hosts and participants and assist with logistics for community forums and focus groups; to identify state leaders for research (such as interviews, focus groups, etc.); to prepare email lists for constituent surveys; and to provide input into the plan writing and research.  

The Arts Commission staff will be available in a supporting role. Providing input into the plan writing, identifying committee members, focus groups participants, etc. Staff will not be conducting research or writing the plan. Past research can and will be provided.

Is this plan designed to respond to the NEA Partnership Agreement’s strategic plan requirement?  When will the Maine Arts Commission’s next NEA partnership agreement proposal be due?Yes and no.  It will be used for our NEA partnership agreement.  See below. 

We have noted the use of the terms “strategic plan” and “strategic cultural plan” in the RFP.  Please confirm if the deliverable is a strategic plan for the state agency (the Maine Arts Commission’s plan approved by its Commissioners and implemented by its staff), or a more general cultural plan for the state of Maine with responsibilities shared by multiple public and private agencies? 

It will be a combination of a strategic and cultural plan, hence Strategic Cultural Plan.  It WILL be the Plan to guide the Commission for the next five years.  It will also have broader impact and we hope to include responsibilities shared by the Commission and other agencies that will be identified through the planning process.   
 
Does the Maine Arts Commission wish to have a public opinion poll conducted of a representative sample of Maine’s citizens?
Yes 
 
What are the required liability insurance limits?  (e.g. $500,000, $1 million, etc.)Awaiting an answer to this question 
 
Is it permissible to e-mail our proposal as well as to mail it?  
Yes it is permissible to e-mail, so long as it has also been submitted physically.
 
 
To respond to the RFP request (section 1, 2b) to provide “documentation of any applicable Maine licensure requirements”  are required with the RFP submission. Are these all that are required?
 
1.       Certificate of good standing from our home state (not Maine)
2.       Statement of Foreign Qualification
3.       Registered Agent 
 
Yes, this documentation will be sufficient.