RFPs
Requests for Proposals (also known as RFPs) are used in all corporations in preserving, upgrading, repairing, or learning from the professionals ‘best known practices’. Community Resource Advocates is a consulting team to help assist community members in creating their own RFPs without the need for the management team to write one for them.
The form most management teams use are basically a template utilized for all communities they manage and lack detail for the work requesting. This leaves the board members uneducated in what they are paying for and one can only hope the contractor will calculate correctly what the needs are.
CRA’s goal is to assist board members in creating all RFP’s, contracts and ‘bid specs’ without the need for their contractors to do it for them. The community managers are not educated in sustainable practices and rely only on what a contractor tells them. The contractors will give you the cheapest way to earn a contract but not a sustainable one unless requested to do so.
Taking on the responsibility to understand what your community needs are is what managing means. Learning what sustainable practices are will automatically provide you with the educational tools needed to make corporate decisions without guessing.
What is an RFP?
A Request for Proposal is used when the purchaser needs something done but is not educated in this vocation. Therefore, the proposal will need the professional guidance that is considered ‘best known practice’ or ‘sustainable’. We would be asking the contractors about their professional experience, and how they would proceed with this project utilizing their specialized expertise, along with an estimated cost and a summary regarding why it is considered sustainable for the future of the community.
Bid Specs
Bid Specs are a detailed list of all material, equipment, labor and time needed to perform the task. Some boards already know in detail what they are looking for and the RFP will have “see attached for bid specs”. Most contracts that have the bid spec information are on a maintenance schedule either weekly, monthly or even on a year to 5 year program. These ‘ bid specs’ will help avoid all possible misunderstanding about what the contractor and the buyer will need to fulfill the contract. With the bid specs in place the contractors can provide a hard cost for the project instead of an estimated cost while waiting for details.
The RFP Process
Once a contractor has accepted the contract, the RFP/bid specs must include all the legal jargon required by the state. This portion will be a template created by the community’s legal team to include the contractors information, the buyer information, duration and payment terms.
Any contract that does not include these items, (most contracts in HOAs do not) are subject to constant turnover by unsatisfied customers and confused contractors not assessing the community’s needs correctly.
Sustainable practices are imperative in managing all community assets. These contracts will consist of ‘preventable policies’. Community Resource Advocates educate on preventable actions specified by Arizona State requirements as well as assisting in creating a sustainable program for your community’s contracting needs. When details are included in all contracts it encourages reliability, sustainability, and accountability to help protect all community members assets while protecting the contractors used in your community.