RNC Fail: This is getting freakin’ ridiculous

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 6th, 2009 at 04:04 PM |

RESIZE: AAA

Attached is an RFP to redesign GOP.com, the Republican National Committee’s website.

Friends, either the RNC has no freakin’ clue what the hell it is doing or else all the rumors about certain consultants having an inside track at RNC contracts is true.

Why? Because there is no way any competent person would put together an RFP like this. It’s crap. It is not legitimate. It is unprofessional. It is illusory.

Either they don’t know what they are doing, or they’ve already picked their consultant and are going through the motions. If it is the former, well, the RNC is screwed. If it is the latter, Michael Steele’s claims about bidding out work was B.S.

And I suspect it is all B.S.

Tags: RNC

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$peciallist

lol
jimmuy8

Don’t know much about this topic, take your word.

But, 12 days to return your response?

I don’t see how you could get a proposal to completely re-do a whole political party website in less than a month, given just how huge and awful the site is now.
bs

Believe me, I’ve seen dozens of IT RFPs, and that was unquestionably created by someone who doesn’t have a clue about what they are or what they are for.

I suspect what you suspect is true.
$peciallist

“Existing vendors for fundraising, hosting, and data management will be fully cooperative in ensuring the redesign process is as seamless as possible.”….ROTF
BlueFalcon

My folks have been RNC supporters for years, and have lately been prodding me to send in cash to support our ’10 efforts, but I’m starting to wonder whether this would be a truly wise investment. Steele is just flat-out disappointing me.

Is there a better, more-grassroots PAC with honest-to-god conservative principles and common sense that I can contribute to, instead?
RedInABleuState

They don’t have any staff members left to write it, do they?
nothingleft

This looks suspiciously like the cover outline for a larger RFP package. I’ve worked on many RFPs and there’s always an intro similar to this followed by a very detailed set of documents. Just wondering…
RyanOHIO

My favorite part is at the end:

“All RFP?s will be due no later than 12pm on Wednesday, March 18 to webrfp@gop.com.”

This is the RFP dip****! You’re asking for the proposals dummy!

I’ve also never seen a 2 page RFP. Sad…
bs
Lamplighter331

I’ve seen three types of RFP’s in my career in the technology space. There are those that a preferred vendor writes for you that is slanted to the benefits of that vendor. Those are usually very easy to pick out as biased.

The second type has very detailed specifications around what the requestor wants. Usually they specify format and deal killers because of required need.

The last type is what I just read. Those that display complete ignorance as to what the requestor wants and needs. As a vendor, I would be salivating over this one. I could propose smell-o-vision and a nickel slot and apparently no one would be the wiser.

Who writes this stuff?
RedInABleuState

My favorite part is “No limitations on design; The RNC will be in on the entire process and will ensure everything is to our exact specifications.”

No limits. But we’ll tell you what you can do.

Sounding more and more like Obama everyday!
http://www.phxgonline.com phxg

Cyrus was, in my estimation fully capable of directing the implementation of the next (and very needed) step in creating a viable web presence to compete with the DNC. Perhaps Rush hit a vary specific point in that Chairman Steele is incapable of the leadership needed at this point.

Cyrus? resignation: which in my , is a huge loss.
http://www.phxgonline.com phxg
azaeroprof

(Close your eyes achance):

http://www.sarahpac.com
$peciallist

we need more journalists on our side…I’ll wait
6eorge Jetson

45 days </Snark>

Time = 45 days
Scope = Your Call
Resources = Your Call

(It’s sad that, to mock this RFP, I need to go no further than the traditional Time/Scope/Resource framework, one that I think misses completely on the often more important but difficult to quantify measures of Quality and Customer Impact.)

Someone here could submit a snarky proposal such as

There, it does whatever you want.
E Pluribus Unum

all day, baby! And they are not scared to primary a RINO.
geminale

45 days to bring it live, and they probably have done ZERO user research. You just can’t make stuff like this up.
AHALgal

If I would have received that RFP, I would have trashed it because it looks like a fake. Seriously.

Maybe Cyrus wrote the dang thing?

Maybe David All’s company is getting the business anyway?

Maybe they’re just clueless and need help instead of ridicule?
Paul Seale

Because you know it really does.
usrbinperl

No way is this document legitimate…
http://www.rollovermartin.com Lee Hempfling

Being ‘in’ the business they address allow me to clarify some issues.

1: The 45 days is after completion. They will go ‘live’ after 45 days. That does NOT mean it is expected to be built in 45 days. It means they want a 45 day hidden beta period (an alpha session actually.)
2: Their caveat is the one desiring an existing CMS. What they have asked for is a totally custom CMS but they require an existing platform, which means they want a clone of some other very large political site package. They don’t want their own system.
3: They only want a pre-built, pre-functioning CMS back end which they only want to ‘customize’ and skin.

In other words:

They want someone who can make a married package of Word Press and VBulletin, as they certainly do not want to spend the high 6 figures it would take to make a custom package. And at this time in history they should not be spending that amount of money on something they will never properly use. What they have is good enough to get the job done. What they don’t have is someone to make it work and that is rather obvious, not from the request for proposals, but from what the RFP asks for.

I’m sorry gang, but the RFP is not as lame as one might think, it is rather typical of a ‘non-net-nut’s take on what they want. It does show a massive amount of ignorance on the planning, flow charting, wire-framing and development part of a project of that magnitude and I’m sure they expect proposals to fill in those blanks. But since they stress they are looking for an existing CMS package, very little of that is even needed.

I build custom CMS packages (here and I would not consider submitting a bid for this project for only one reason:

The person in charge is obviously way in over his or her head. That can only mean a disaster of a planning process and a worse execution. Anyway, the required ‘sit down’ sessions, mean a local D.C. development company only! This is not really a call for proposals. It is a notice to the same-ole sale-ole to start the engines and warm up the standard to get the same-ole lame user experience, just cast in a nice (obviously Obama style) design, because web CMS companies are like dinosaurs on skateboards: they can get there pretty fast, but they’ll knock down everything in the path and they became extinct years ago. They just don’t know it yet. Its the ‘add-on’ outfit to watch.
liberalrepublican

I call this the “Field of Dreams” web design.

If we build it, they will come.

Really?

I would laugh at anyone who put something like that in front of me.

I live in one tiny part of this world, but in my world, it’s all about results.

What are the goals?

How do they define a conversion? Sign up? Money? Volunteer?

What is their conversion rate across their different goals? Across different persona’s? Where are people falling off the conversion train? What are they going to do to increase it? How will they know? What else are they going to test? Etc.

Like I said, I live in one tiny part of this world. A decent RSP for my tiny world would be so much more detailed than this.
liberalrepublican

Someone could build them a site they would LOVE with minimal effort and minimum effectiveness.

Or Someone could bust my butt and build them a site that was incredibly effective at meeting very specific conversion goals. Agonize over every detail, test every call to action etc.

And they wouldn’t know the difference.

I bet they end up with nichel slots.
liberalrepublican

“I?m sorry gang, but the RFP is not as lame as one might think, it is rather typical of a ?non-net-nut?s take on what they want. ”

True. but it is typical of someone who builds a totally ineffective site that ends up failing.
MetaCosm

After some back and forth via email with people who I consider fairly clueful, someone (not me) summarized the groups perspective as so:

“It’s just depressing ineptitude going on now for years”

or

“Collusion and nepotism of the worst kind.”

Which type of RNC failure do you prefer?
liberalrepublican

“An aesthetically pleasing site that is intuitive and fun to use should be the overall goal.”

LOL.

Let the Democrats have the sites that are online cash machines, we want pretty and FUN!!!!
liberalrepublican

Hotcouponworld rocks. I bet someone is making some bank on that site.

Nice job.
http://www.rollovermartin.com Lee Hempfling

I certainly hope so Thank you. I can’t claim credit for all if it. My task there was to take what was provided by a skin company and make it work properly. It was indeed a mess. I did do the SEO for it though and that I am very proud of. They were delisted and now they’ve ‘come a long way baby’. An absolutely great outfit too! If anyone I’ve ever provided consulting for deserved to win big it is the coupon girls!
mom2oneson

You did a wonderful job!!! !!! !!! I recommend that site to everyone! I get stopped all the time in the store with my coupon binder and I tell them that is the best place to learn!
Did you see they were featured in Woman’s World a few weeks ago?
George Claghorn

Hohohohohoo heeheehee oh! *gasp* hahahahahahaha! Oh, that was a good one.

Wait, you mean that RFP isn’t a joke? Oh. Never mind.
Mike gamecock DeVine

Should we even be seeing this memo? Hell no.

God help us.
katesmith

I just heard the tail end, he didn’t identify himself when he signed off but I recognized his voice. I read comments about what he said on another site, got the impression he was OK. We are listening closely wherever you are, Mr. Steele.
Mike gamecock DeVine
JustLeaveMeAlone

These people couldn’t pour … ummm… liquid out of a boot with directions written on the bottom.
Mike gamecock DeVine

Its too many of We the People

so that, the GOP will prosper from lessons learned anew from the results of lib policies
Mike gamecock DeVine

The GOP is too reluctant to pose issues on MORAL grounds. The dem party was wrong on most all issues, but they were successful due to how they framed issues. The GOP is too polite. We are right on the issues but are reluctant to assume the obvious about our opponents.

I know from the inside, the rot that is the dem party. They do not share our values. They do not CARE about what they ought care about. They want power thru falied policies that produce more dependent voters.

The dems say we don’t care about the poor all the time. They lie.

We do care. That is why we are conservatives. We care about results! We should start saying so!

my next blog
AKSteveB

In the real world there are only two parties. One of them is a European Socialist one.
AKSteveB

In the real world there are only two parties. One of them is a European Socialist one.
mdoneil

I can’t even identify available resouces and begin the analysis in 45 days.

Six months is a reasonable time frame here.

They don’t even have any real requirements. We would like to plug into our CRM app, and our social networking app. Holy geez.
aardpig

http://cxc.harvard.edu/proposer/CfP/html/index.html

…note the slight difference in length and detail. Which one smells of anchovies, eh?
http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

Meaning there were 4 months to respond, not 10 days….
nextlevel

As one of those wussy Independents, I was going to write a snarky response on how “outside the box” and “Republican Party”, HAS to lead to an amateurish solicitation….BUT THEN….while I’m writing this, MSNBC has this story about Steele and using “baby” in every sentence that he offers and I’ve got to go with the masses here…I believe that this RFP is a LEGITIMATE OFFERING from the RNC. I don’t think that this RFP is thown together because the vendor’s already been chosen…I believe the exact OPPOSITE. This RNC is THAT incompetent. It’s a Mickey Mouse RFP written by Mickey Mouse. I’m sorry but Michael Steele’s going to be ousted. He SHOULD resign. He won’t. He’s a straight-up con artist who’s running game on a Party that needs to present a fresh young face in the “era of Obama”….Republicans may not see this stunt for what it is. Steele’s hurting your Party. He all talk with little substance. I’ll quote the words from Al Quaeda’s favorite “Black Conservative”: “You’ve been, had!…you’ve been.. took!,..you’ve been, Hoodwinked!….Bamboozled!…Led astray!…Run amouk!” – - Malcolm X….. Michael Steele needs to go. He’s a con artist and unworthy of the Party of Lincoln.
Achance

if it will get her to DC and out of Juneau.

BTW, the view behind her on the front page of the PAC’s site is pretty much the view from my front windows. I live a couple of miles closer to the mountains and glacier and to the right.
http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

Because if you are, free advice: whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish here, your spelling and grammatical errors are subverting it.
George Claghorn

This is a complete farce.
http://www.rollovermartin.com Lee Hempfling

Yes I did. I had to ask for a pdf of the article in order to read it. Very impressive. I’m sure there is more on the way. In fact I’m doing something now (have been for a while come to think of it ) that is going to change a lot of things for the better and expand the brand as well. Should be killer I suspect. Thank you very much for liking the site. The coupon girls deserve all the exposure they can get. They are indeed wonderful people with their hearts in the right place. Remember, It’s All About The Deals!!!
JustLeaveMeAlone
JustLeaveMeAlone

I don’t see the Republican Party ~being~ conservative. It seems to be run by squishies, RINOs, and sellouts. There’s a huge lack of vision and leadership. And the incompetence is breathtaking.

Reminds me of the truth of my favorite quote from PJ O’Rourke:

“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.”
azaeroprof

I want her in DC, you want her out of Juneau, sounds like a match to me!
She seems to have gone into her quiet phase. Don’t know if she’s writing, reading, or just governing. She, like the other GOP hopefuls, is probably laying low to see where Obama’s popularity is in a couple years to see if ’12 or ’16 is the better environment.

Alaska is my dream vacation. I like my mountain view here in AZ, but the mountains are only 6000-8000 feet, rarely (though sometimes) snow-covered, and there are no glaciers!
Mike gamecock DeVine

and say to dems, YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT THE POOR AND MIDDLE CLASS.

Rush has been saying this for years. We must stop being nice.
aardpig

…but most respondents start preparing a proposal 10 days before the deadline.
http://www.800cart.com Ron Robinson

You are right on Erick! GOP.com is lame, the GOP Tech Summit was lame and I decided to do something about it:

http://gopguerrillas.ning.com

Yes, we are going to do a hijack and do the job the GOP won’t do.

Yes, we are going to get a bunch of open source type programmers together and put up what will become the authoritative Action Center. FOr GOP activists.

So if you are a coder, an artist, designer, database guru, or even just a blog moderator type, we are going to need you. Please go to

http://gopguerrillas.ning.com

…and get involved. We will provide the activism tools not even discussed in the GOP RFP like:

1. If I register and desire a call, then I get a phone call within a day from a LOCAL GOP worker telling me how I could help
2. I can BE the GOP worker calling #1 above from my area
3. Phone list of LOCAL voters I can call for party outreach RIGHT NOW
4. A calendar of events within 100 miles I can attend RIGHT NOW
5. Ability to add a new event to the #2 (above) calendar RIGHT NOW
6. A phone/email list of LOCAL party workers who have said they want to be contacted to help with events RIGHT NOW
7. A defined LOCAL geographic area (dynamically and demographically examined for potential effectiveness) where I can walk a district and knock on doors RIGHT NOW

These are the activism tools we need. Let’s make them.

If we build it they will come.
Achance

stuff. Reasonable people could disagree about some of that Governor stuff, but he’s been paying attention.

The mountains right around here are only 3 – 5K. A few miles north and west the Chilkats are 10K or so. The Fairweather Range on the Gulf Coast between here and Anchorage are 15K +. Mt. Logan, just over the border in the Yukon is 19K and change, only a couple hundred feet lower than Mt. McKinley. On a rare clear day or if the cloud deck is low so you can see the bulk of them, the Fairweather Range is simply awe-inspiring. I’ve flown from JNU to ANC only God knows how many times and even still, I can’t turn away from the window if I’m on the shoreside. It is truly the Hall of the Mountain King; to my mind even moreso than the Central Alaska Range with McKinley and Foraker. There ain’t nothing like it in the World!
1stRichard

Ok, I was about to comment on that but now I see I don?t have to?

7. A defined LOCAL geographic area (dynamically and demographically examined for potential effectiveness) where I can walk a district and knock on doors RIGHT NOW

Heck, I from the keister end Taxachusetts the Marxist welfare state, it gets really hostile out here, got a plan for some backup?
ColdWarrior

I’m envious of Achance’s getting to see all that awesome beauty every day. I’ve been blessed to visit Alaska four times. Spent the Bi-centennial looking out the window of a jet while flying from Anchorage to Fairbanks and looking down at Mt. McKinley. Most recent memorable experience was rising to the tops of the peaks above Juneau in a helicopter and seeing snow covered peaks as far as the eye could see. Jaw-droppingly beautiful. And later, in Glacier Bay, watching a seal give birth to a pup on a chunk of ice while a Forest Service guy gave running commentary to the folks at the rails on the cruise ship, and then thirty seconds or so later, to the absolute horror of most in the crowd, a bald eagle swoops in and flys off with the newborn pup in its claws, with the Forest Service guy, without missing a beat, saying something like, “Well, ladies and gentlemen, you’ve just witnessed what nature is all about . . . .”
AZ is beautiful — I love it every time I drive through the Salt River Canyon on the way up to Sunrise to ski, for example, or just driving out into the desert outside of Phoenix, in any direction, but Alaska, I think, is on another plane altogether in terms of its vastness, diversity and raw beauty. If you can, book your travel now. I hope to go again soon.
http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

if so, then this needs to be RedState supported project with front page space and a kick-off announcement.

Indeed, we may well need a RNC 2.0 to supercede the existing dysfunctional structure.
johnpriestleyjr

Was donatinf to the Palin Gubenatorial race some sort of hope she would be running another a pay to play administration?

Why did you put money on her getting to Juneau, anyway?
johnpriestleyjr

Was donatinf to the Palin Gubenatorial race some sort of hope she would be running another a pay to play administration?

Why did you put money on her getting to Juneau, anyway?
johnpriestleyjr

Wasn’t that you donating to the Palin Gubenatorial Campaign? Were you thinking it was another pay to play administration and that you would have an “in.?” I just don’t understand, or am I correct that you hoped for an appointment since you donated?

This makes no sense. You donate to get her sent to Juneau and now say this.

Whichever way the wind blows , I guess.
johnpriestleyjr

Wasn’t that you donating to the Palin Gubenatorial Campaign? Were you thinking it was another pay to play administration and that you would have an “in.?” I just don’t understand, or am I correct that you hoped for an appointment since you donated?

This makes no sense. You donate to get her sent to Juneau and now say this.

Whichever way the wind blows , I guess.
6eorge Jetson

ACTION

Conference Call: Sunday, 3/8/2009 for interested developers at 8PM Eastern and 5PM Pacific at 641-715-3630 Conference Code 922519#. We’ll arrange another conference call sooner if warranted by activity posted here. Be on the call if you are a developer who can make a contribution in developing the Authoritative Action Center for conservative activists.
Rod_Patrick

Yes the project is clear: to redesign the GOP website. But the requirements specified are blurred and in disorder.

On the document itself, my specific comments are as follows:

1. Too lengthy objectives.

2. The Tasks are not fully defined.

3. The Deliverables are not clearly stated.

4. The Qualifications for the tenders are not specified.

5. The Technical procedure for selection is not fully specified, including the criteria for the ranking and selection of the proposal.

Item 4 is important that the website should be built by “people with conservatism in their heart”. This is not just an ordinary RFP.

In summary, the paper is more of a concept paper…. NOT RFP.
azaeroprof

I’ve got an extra house I’m trying to get rid of and a kid starting college in the fall, so I may not make it asap! But your story encourages me to bump this up on the priority list for sure! Thanks.
farstar99

Michael Steele’s most-reported suggestion so far is to say the RNC needs to be more Hip-Hop.

Anybody under 30 can tell you Hip-Hop’s been dead for over five years.

I bet he wears Bermuda shorts and sock garters.
http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

to put together online petitions, have a site stakeholder okay them, and fax them once complete to everyone in Congress.

While you’re at it, how about regular polls that can be turned into news for the dead tree media?
http://onefinejay.com Jay C.

“No limitations on design; the RNC will be in on the entire process and will ensure everything is to our exact specifications.”

I’ve been a freelance web designer for the better part of six years. You know what that sentence says? “If we need something from you that you didn’t include in the cost, well, f*** it, it’s included anyway.”

So. You submit a bid that meets the requirements, spec out a cost of X dollars, and then all of a sudden they ask you develop an application from scratch? Repeat after me: “Well, f*** it, it’s included anyway.”

This is NOT how you get a good designer and a good developer to team up and bring together a revived GOP.com site. Given his functional requirements if anyone bids less than 40 Gs on this… I don’t care what the job market is like in web design and development these days. This is a project that requires you to perform 6 months’ worth of man-hours in a 45-day period.

RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

RNC Fail: This is getting freakin’ ridiculous

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