The purpose of this effort is to establish agreements in accordance with FAR 16.7 to ensure the United States Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute (FSI) establishes and maintains qualified alternative sources available for FSI training, seminars, instruction etc for the following topic areas: • Job Counselors for Retiring and Transitioning employees The agreements solicited are for commercial services or items and is open to all vendors who are registered to do business with the federal government. This is not a small business set aside as total awards are expected to exceed $100,000 over the life of the agreement. FSI has unique requirements for contractor support and this is a CONTINUOUS solicitation but has defined proposal submission cut off dates. Approximately every 6 months, FSI will reopen this solicitation and establish a new proposal due date. Vendors are encouraged to submit proposals outlining the criteria listed in this solicitation. Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation factors in section M, and subsequent awards will be made as necessary. It is in the best interest of the government for the prospective respondent vendors to have an understanding of the FSI mission in regards to the need for flexibility and availability of vendor support. The current period for proposal submission is from June 25, 2008 through July 16, 2008 at 1:00 PM Eastern. FSI provides training and professional development to personnel of the Department of State, the Foreign Service community and other government agencies. FSI trains Foreign Service Officers (FSO) from all diplomatic posts throughout the world. Students attend training and classes at FSI which are scheduled and have little, to no room for adjustment. Students arrive and must be trained during the scheduled times as they must return to post. Therefore, FSI must ensure trainers, presenters, instructors, etc are available when needed. Instances occur when a government employee or a contracted vendor is not available to instruct and FSI must find a replacement, as cancelling a course for t his reason is not cost effective for the government.