Hi,
I received this in an email today and thought I'd pass it along to our local groups as it seems their criteria could be supplied by Drupal better than anything else. I know there is a job posting area but since I'm not the one posting the job I thought a message might be more appropriate as I can answer questions but am not able to take applications.
Request for Proposals: Association Website
New England Library Association
Project Summary
The New England Library Association (NELA) is accepting proposals from qualified individuals and firms to develop a new website for the organization. NELA’s current site (http://www.nelib.org/) lacks visual appeal and important functionality to drive member engagement. The new website must be visually appealing, provide robust functionality, allow members to easily conduct association business and facilitate the creation of rich content and media that drive member traffic.
The association is open to proposals that include both open source and commercial solutions and invites constructive input into the array of and the connections between the different websites and social media platforms that comprise NELA’s Web presence. NELA expects that its new site will continue to include a number of different Web tools and social media platforms and encourages respondents to suggest a smart approach for the association.
About NELA
The New England Library Association provides educational and leadership opportunities for library staff in support of improved library services for the people of New England. To that end, the association (1) engages regionally in important discussions in the library profession, (2) encourages the exchange of ideas through a variety of formal and informal events and (3) collaborates regionally and nationally with allied organizations. NELA is a chapter of the American Library Association.
NELA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with approximately 650 members that is governed by an elected board of member representatives. Representatives from throughout the NELA organization serve on its Executive Board. Those include Vice President, President, Past President, Secretary, Treasurer, Junior Director and Senior Director whom together comprise the Administrative Committee. Each of the six New England states has a representative on the board as do NELA’s topical sections. Those sections include Academic Librarians Section, Information Technology Section, LGBT Section, New England Roundtable of Teen and Children’s Librarians and New England Technical Services Librarians. Standing committee chairs comprise the remainder of the Executive Board. Those committees are Bylaws, Conference, Educational Assistance, Finance, Intellectual Freedom and Public Relations.
NELA employs one part time Association Administrator and frequently uses the services of two independent contractors for its annual conference and for technology support.
Purpose
The New England Library Association has an outdated website that lacks visual appeal and that is difficult for content creators to use. It does not provide an easy interface to connect with social media and does not provide for easy integration with other Web tools. The current Web presence includes the main site powered by Wild Apricot, events in EventKeeper and Google Calendar, listservs in Google Groups and various wiki sites for special projects.
In its new website, NELA wishes to see improved visual appeal, improved facility for content creation, improved capacity for events and communications, and robust connections to social media and other Web tools. The new website will be an active hub for members with thriving content and engaging conversations. The site will capitalize on social media and established Web tools to aggregate conversations, rich content and rich media to drive traffic and to build excitement in the association.
Requirements
In their proposals respondents should address the following requirements for the website:
Category Requirements Priority
Aesthetically pleasing The new site should have:
• Modern graphics, colors and other aesthetically pleasing visual elements
• Improved layout, readability and accessibility Must have
Easy to maintain The new site needs tools that help the association to manage the site such as:
• The ability to assign content/site areas to individuals and groups.
• The ability to easily monitor meaningful data on site use.
• The ability to monitor/schedule/prompt new content creation to ensure that the site remains dynamic. Must have
Easy to “find it” Menus and navigation should be:
• Intuitive for users
• Easy to configure for content creators Must have
Easy to contribute It should be simple for content creators to:
• Add content to the site including rich text, graphics and other media. Must have
• Cross-publish to social media platforms. Should have
Easy to do business The new site should connect to or replace Web services that provide:
• Membership management services including membership forms, e-commerce, profile management and associated communications. Must have
• Conference/event management services including an event calendar, registration, e-commerce and associated communications. Should have
• More robust and integrated tools for member engagement including:
o Program evaluations
o Comments Should have
• “Classifieds” functionality to enable career resources or similar content Would like to have
Be mobile The new site should be easy to use on mobile devices. Must have
The successful respondent shall conduct initial training for NELA’s consultants, staff person and core members of the Executive Board. Such training may be conducted in person or virtually and will include sufficient training materials for future successful operation of all features. Given the short timeline, NELA may consider proposals in which the training is provided immediately following the new site launch.
Once completed, NELA will assume responsibility for the ongoing use and maintenance of the website. The site, including all content, graphics and other media will become the sole property of NELA.
Project Timeline
April 4, 2013 RFP release
April 18, 2013 Responder Q&A session
May 6, 2013 Proposals due
July 31, 2013 Contract award
October 20, 2013 Public site launch
Project Budget
$10,000 has been allocated to this project for FY 2013. Respondents are strongly encouraged to apply this budget to the scope of work in their proposals and to clearly indicate recommendations for additional site features and their associated costs above and beyond this budget in both the scope of work and the project costs submitted.
Submission Guidelines
Potential respondents are encouraged to ask questions in advance of submission. NELA, at its sole discretion, may request an interview with respondents following a question or a submission.
NELA will offer respondents an opportunity to ask questions via a webinar on April 18th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Interested respondents should contact the NELA Past President via email (below) for an invitation to the webinar or to receive a summary of questions and answers from the webinar.
Proposals are due no later than May 6, 2013.
Questions and final proposals should be submitted to:
Mary Ann List
NELA Past President
pastpresident@nela1.org
Each proposal shall contain:
- Qualifications of the respondents related to the scope of work,
- A scope of work that outlines all work to be done and all deliverables to be provided to NELA,
- A project timeline that outlines major project milestones,
- A firm cost estimate that lists all fees and costs associated with the project,
- Resumes of all individuals who would be involved in the project, and
- Three client references from similar organizations with URLs and project descriptions.
Once submitted, proposals become the property of NELA. NELA reserves the right to amend or withdraw this RFP at any time and for any reason. NELA further reserves the right to reject any proposal that, in its estimation, fails to satisfactorily respond to the RFP. NELA may also, at its sole discretion, split the award and work among multiple respondents.