News and Information
(Updated 3/12/2009)
We are now getting
ready for the spring meeting of the AEPA members held in middle of April. The main purpose of the meeting is to decide
what new bids should be done. So if you
have any good ideas, please let us know.
We will also be meeting with the various vendors we have contracts with. If you would like to see an improvement in
any of the services, we can let them know.
The following
bids have now been dropped form the How to Order Guide: Administrative Software
--- Learn Key; Food Service Management Software --- School Link
Technologies and Pacific Triangle. Most of the existing bids that we have
are still in place and have been renewed for another year. They may be viewed
on our web by clicking on How
to Order. Bids are not
renewed because they are not being used or the bidder is not meeting terms and
conditions of the bid.
On May 25th of 2006, we opened
the bid for food with Food Services
of America; (FSA) being the successful bidder. The bid ends June 30, 2009
and will be rebid again this spring. This
bid is saving a number of schools money with many actually in the black for the
first time. Most MCS members are taking advantage of this bid with
savings averaging 20%. You may join at
any time of the year and will not be held to buying 60% (a condition of the
bid) of last years food purchases for the remainder of this year. If you
wish to join, email me and I will send the forms to you (Or you may download
them from the front page).
In the spring of last year we
started a process to rebid the manufacturing side of the food bid. The combined volume of five states (
You may buy over the bid limit of $50,000 from any of the companies MCS has bids with without bidding, since the coop has already done the bidding. Please refer to MCA 20-9-204 (3) "--- or as provided in subsection (4)". As a member, you have a cooperative purchasing agreement with MCS and MCS follows all requirements of subsection (4).
I have put together a "How to Order" fact sheet that I update frequently. New and existing members will find this helpful when placing orders.
CDWG has their web page www.cdwg.com/mtcoop set up so you can order online.
This is quite convenient. Almost anything you need that is technology can
be ordered from this site. You need to set up your account first, and
then a reduced prices web page comes up for
September 1st is the registration
date for all members. Register now you will be a member until August
31, 2009. To register your schools just fill out an application.
MCS has lowered the dues and they are now $1.00/student instead of the
$1.50/student plus $50.00. We have been
able to do this because of the increased number of schools that have joined and
the increased usage of the bids. Our
membership is now over100 schools, up from 95 last year. We also changed the end of our year to August
31.
All our vendors can be found
on the Company
Contracts page.
Be sure to get the cooperative prices we have obtained. Just let the vendor know that you want the cooperative price you get as a member of MCS. It's as simple as that.
If you have any questions, please call 406-488-6247 or e-mail. Rhonda Houston is also available for questions about bids. She will be calling on some of you to see if you need anything and answer any questions. rhonda@mtcoop.org or call 406-698-4941.
Frank
Loehding
Executive Director
Copyright 2001 Montana
Cooperative Services LLC
