- Cape Rolling Out Bloomfield Road Art Trail (8/21/19)1
- Donors Pledge Almost Two Grand To Replace SEMO's Possibly Sentient ‘Gum Tree' (8/16/18)
- SEMO and The Will To (Become A Consultant) – Part 2 (6/14/18)
- Judge, Jury... Trashman (6/1/18)
- Diary of Cape Girardeau Road Deconstruction (5/11/18)
- Trying To Save A Tree From City “Improvements” (4/30/18)2
- Eggs-asperated: A Topic Made For Twitter (1/24/17)1
SEMO and The Will To Do (You Really Want To See That Legal Notice?) – Part 1
My wife claims I read the papers we get – the Southeast Missourian, St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Wall Street Journal – cover to cover. That’s not quite true. I read what catches my eye, and sometimes that is the minutia buried within a page.
For instance, in the Sunday, May 27 issue of the Southeast Missourian, a brief legal notice from the University, tucked at the bottom of a classified page, caught my attention. It’s only 51 words, so allow me to share:
Proposed Single Feasible Source Purchase
Southeast Missouri State University anticipates the purchase of branding and marketing services from Ologie. This notice is posted in accordance with RSMo 34.044. Additional details may be obtained by calling (573)651-2021 no later than five (5) days from the date of this notice.
(May 27, 2018)(479614)
A number of thoughts ran through my head when I first read this:
1. How can you have a single feasible source purchase for branding and marketing? In the University’s service area, there are a few dozen firms that specialize in advertising and marketing. I wonder how many SEMO graduates with degrees in marketing or related fields are employed by those firms? I imagine quite a few.
2. I found the timing of the ad suspect. Let’s run a tiny no-bid, single-source legal notice one time on a holiday weekend, when readership is super low and interested parties only have 5 days to contact the University for more information. There is a good possibility that only a handful of people even noticed the notice.
3. The fact the single source vendor was Ologie, the Ohio marketing firm that was hired four years ago by the University and created its current The Will To Do campaign. Did this legal notice mean the University was going to create a whole new campaign and incur the expenses that entails?
4. Knowing that the University is having significant financial challenges and that a number of staff members have been laid off or re-organized out of a job made me further question this purchase and what it was all about.
So I emailed Ann Hayes, the University Communications Director, requesting more information about the specifics of this purchase and how much it was going to cost. Even though it was a holiday weekend, she promptly emailed me back saying she’d get back with me the following week.
Wednesday rolled around and I received an email from Director Hayes asking if I’d be available for a meeting the following Tuesday with Debbie Below, the VP for Enrollment Management and Student Success, and Tonya Wells, Director of Marketing.
I did not ask for a meeting. I wanted documentation, which the University should already have had compiled per the statewide submission process for Single Feasible Source purchases as defined by RSMo 34.044. I declined, since why would I meet about a vague 51 word legal notice without first having more information.
I then called the number in the ad. That is the number for purchasing at SEMO. Apparently the “additional details” the ad claims they can supply is that interested parties have to request those details in writing from Christopher R. Martin, the University’s Custodian of Records.
So I have now requested the information and have been told by Mr. Martin that:
“The process for identifying potentially responsive records has begun; however, additional time is needed to complete this task. It is my hope to have any pertinent records identified and reviewed by June 6, 2018. I will provide copies of any responsive open documents to you on or before that date.”
My apologies to readers, but what may have initially been a single blog has now become at least two. Stay tuned for further developments.
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