**AHRQ TASK ORDER REQUEST**

Long Term Care Portfolio Expert Meeting, Sept. 13-14, 2006

Project Officer: William Spector

Period of Performance -- June 15 -- Nov 27, 2006

Statement of Work:

Provide support, as outlined below, for a two-day LTC Portfolio Expert
Meeting

LTC Portfolio Expert Meeting.

The meeting will be held September 13-14, 2006 in the Watts Branch,
Brighton Dam, Great Falls and Rock Creek rooms located in ARHQ's
Conference Center. The PO will work with AHRQ's conference center
coordinators on room set-up. The meeting will be attended by AHRQ's LTC
Portfolio members and invited guest comprising of LTC experts, key
stakeholders, current and recent grantees and contractors, and
participating LTC providers. It is expected that 40 people will
participate in this Conference. In the first part of the meeting AHRQ
LTC projects will present summaries of interventions, lessons learned,
and issues for discussion. In the second part of the meeting small
workshops will address specific Portfolio questions. The third part of
the meeting will be presentations of findings from the small workshops
and a summary of lessons learned. The end product of this meeting will
be a document that consolidates all lessons learned and presents a set
of recommended strategies for helping the LTC Portfolio move its
projects to a higher level of scale and to improve the quality of care
for more long term care consumers.

Tentative meeting schedule:

Sept. 13 7:30am Breakfast

8:00am Meeting begins

5:30 pm Meeting ends

7:00 p.m. Informal dinner

Sept 14 7:30am Breakfast

8:00 am Meeting begins

2:30 pm Meeting ends

By July 14, The PO will provide the contractor with the names and
addresses of the LTC Expert Panel who will be funded by AHRQ. The PO
will also provide the contractor with contact information on
participating AHRQ staff, and other attendees from Federal and private
organizations that will attend the meeting. The PO will identify for the
contractor who should receive briefing books. Letters of invitation will
be FED-Exed to identified members by Aug 21 and e-mailed to all other
invitees by Aug 25. Invitation should state "You will not receive a
briefing book if we do not receive a completed registration form."

The contractor shall accomplish the following tasks:

[Travel]{.underline}:

Arrange for travel for all attendees including making airline
reservations in collaboration with attendees, purchasing tickets, etc.
Arrange payment of honoraria fees (\$150 a day) to 25 non government
participants. For the purpose of bidding, the contractor shall assume
that there will be at least 20 non-local attendees who will need to
travel to Rockville, MD that are non government participants.

[Hotel/Accommodations]{.underline}:

Identify several potential hotels with lodging space to comfortably
accommodate at least 20 persons in the Rockville, Maryland area. For the
purpose of bidding, the contractor shall assume that there will be at
least 7 people who will be staying for two nights and the remainder for
one night only. Government per diem rates should apply. If possible, the
lodging space will be readily accessible to the AHRQ conference center
and the airport.

Discuss the advantages/disadvantages of lodging spaces with the PO and,
based on these discussions, reserve lodging space as directed.

Send hotel accommodation information to all meeting attendees who
require them.

[Ground Transportation]{.underline}:

The contractor will arrange appropriate round trip transportation from
the hotel to the meeting site and return for two days, Sept. 13 and 14.

The contractor will arrange for transportation from the meeting site to
the airports on Sept. 14.

The contractor will also arrange for transportation from the meeting
site or dinner location to the hotel on Sept. 13.

[Food]{.underline}:

Arrange for coffee and light beverages throughout the meeting.

Arrange for breakfast and lunch on both days for all meeting
participants. Federal and all non-funded participants will pay
out-of-pocket for lunch; non-federal participants on official travel
will have their per diem expenses reduced to cover the cost of the meal.

Identify appropriate location for an informal group dinner to be held
Sept. 13. Attendees will pay out-of-pocket if they wish to attend. The
contractor will send logistics information to all invitees and ask them
to inform the contractor if they are going to attend.

[Other]{.underline}:

Receive reimbursement claim forms and reimburse approved expenses to
each Task Force member and invited guests.

In addition to the technical writer, provide one (1) staff member to
provide on-site support during the meeting.

Prepare meeting materials such as name tags, name plates, supplies,
agenda and background information as requested. Depending on briefing
book size, provide rings with cardstock covers or binders for briefing
books.

[Briefing Books:]{.underline}

AHRQ will forward electronic files to the contractor by close of
business (COB) Sept. 28, and hard copy materials will be received by the
contractor on Sept 29, so they can begin copying for the briefing books.
Most of the files will be in MS Word and some will be in Excel,
PowerPoint or PDF format. AHRQ will provide a mock-up briefing book to
the contractor on Sept 27. The mock-up briefing book will serve as the
master copy for all materials, including any materials the contractor
did not receive, or was unable to print successfully or completely. The
contractor will check all documents to ensure the copies documents match
the Master Briefing Book and will correct any errors.

Oct 5, AHRQ will provide supplemental materials (some in electronic
files and others in hard copy) for the contractor to copy and compile as
handouts prior to the start of the meeting.

Unless otherwise specified, please use the following specifications for
copying documents for the briefing book:

-   Pages with text should be copied on 2-sided paper

-   Pages with tables should be copied on 1-sided paper only

-   PowerPoint slides should be 3 slides per page and copied on 2-sided
    paper

-   PDF files should be copied on 2-sided paper

[Timeline for Assembling Briefing Books for Sept 2006
Meeting]{.underline}

-   Sept 22 -- By COB, AHRQ and the contractor will start to receive any
    available electronic files (from AHRQ staff, and guest presenters)
    so that they can begin copying for briefing books.

-   Sept 27 -- AHRQ and the contractor will receive the rest of the
    electronic files and hard copy files in the morning (from AHRQ
    staff, and guest presenters) so that the contractor can complete
    copying.

-   Sept 28 -- AHRQ will assemble Master Briefing Book and deliver to
    the contractor by early afternoon. The contractor copies any
    remaining materials to be included in the briefing books and will
    begin assembling briefing books for guest presenters.

-   Sept 29 - The contractor will FED-EX briefing books to guest
    presenters Sept 30.

-   Oct 5 - The contractor will deliver briefing books for AHRQ staff to
    William Spector (via courier) for distribution.

-   Oct 5 -- The contractor will FED-EX (two day delivery) briefing
    books to other participants.

-   Oct 6-11 -- The contractor will copy supplemental materials for
    distribution at the meeting.

[Meeting Facilitator:]{.underline}

> The Contractor will hire an experienced facilitator who at a minimum
> shall have the following responsibilities:

-   Guide the group through each agenda item, asking questions as
    appropriate to elicit information and/or reach decisions.

-   Direct/control verbal traffic flow and group dialogue to make sure
    each person has an opportunity to be heard and finish their train of
    thought.

> The Government reserves the right to recommend a facilitator, and
> shall have final approval for the facilitator proposed by the
> Contractor.

[Meeting Transcript:]{.underline}

> The Contractor will hire an experienced writer to take minutes of the
> meetings, prepare a summary report and will also arrange to have the
> entire meeting tape recorded. At the end of each meeting day, the
> contractor will provide AHRQ with an unedited disk with the rough
> notes of that day's activities. The Government reserves the right to
> recommend a writer, and shall have final approval for the writer
> proposed by the Contractor.
>
> Prepare and deliver to the PO within 15 working days following the
> meeting a draft written report that accurately incorporates the
> discussions (including controversies and debates), recommendations,
> and decisions that were covered during the meeting. When the PO
> receives the draft transcript, the PO will send it to appropriate AHRQ
> staff for editing. AHRQ staff will have two weeks to make changes and
> return to PO who will then send all changes back to the contracted
> writer who will then finalize the report. One week after the
> contractor receives the draft report with corrections, the final copy
> of the report will be sent to the PO along with the tapes and report
> diskette(s) in Microsoft Word.

To ensure information consistency, direct all questions related to this
assignment to William Spector, AHRQ; telephone (301) 427-1446, e-mail:
William.Spector@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Deliverables: Performance as stated above.