Request for Qualifications: Strategic Planning Consultant Services
The pre-submittal question deadline has passed. All questions asked are answered below. Any logistical questions about Qualifications submittal should be directed to inquiries@libraryvisit.org.
Answered questions
Just to confirm, we should NOT include any budget or cost information in our proposal, correct?
Correct
Will you be providing the recording of the virtual pre-submittal session?
No, all questions and answers will be summarized here.
Are partner-based qualifications/proposals allowed?
Yes
Are there specific languages that you are interested in having the survey translated into, or possible interpretation of during community engagement activities? If so, are there fluent speakers of that language on staff (or otherwise already partnered with the library) who could help reach that community
Spanish would be the likeliest language for translation, and we do have an outside partner
Since this is a qualifications-based solicitation and pricing is not requested at this stage, will PLYMC negotiate the final scope, budget, and level of engagement with the highest-ranked respondent after selection?
We expect to rank respondents to establish a shortlist of firms that will be invited to interview and submit pricing. However, PLYMC reserves the right to adjust that process depending on the number and quality of the proposals submitted.
The RFQ references a range of possible engagement methods, including surveys, interviews, focus groups, workshops, community conversations, intercepts, and digital engagement. Does PLYMC expect respondents to describe a recommended approach rather than commit to all listed methods at this stage?
Respondents may take either approach. However, to manage the workload of crafting a proposal, it would be perfectly reasonable to reference a preferred or recommended approach and simply refer to others that you are comfortable offering. We expect specifics on the project to be determined post-selection based on the firm and PLYMC’s priorities.
Does PLYMC have an anticipated budget range or level of effort in mind for the eventual contract, even though pricing should not be included in the RFQ response?
Could you please share the budget or not-to-exceed budget range for this project? Doing so would assist us in preparing a proposal that is appropriate and customized to your expectations.
We have budgeted $50,000 for the project but have flexibility with the final cost depending on the elements considered most valuable.
Are there specific expectations for in-person work versus virtual facilitation, particularly for staff, trustee, public, and partner engagement sessions?
In general, in-person (or possibly hybrid) facilitation would probably lead to better results for patron/stakeholder and staff sessions. Some trustees, community leaders, or other stakeholders/stakeholder groups would likely be successful with virtual options. Long-time residents who don’t use virtual communication technology in their daily lives have a higher trust level with people from the area, so we suspect that virtual facilitation would not lead to good results with those groups.
Will the selected consultant have access to the current strategic plan background materials, 2025 facilities master plan materials, community engagement findings, usage data, demographic data, and other prior research to help avoid duplicating recent work?
Have you done any recent constituent research from which we could build for the strategic planning process? If so, understanding the audience, format, and types of questions would be extremely helpful to ensure our approach is not duplicative of previous efforts.
Yes – much of that information is already available on our website, however we will explore making additional components available by the proposal deadline if possible. We will certainly have it available for the selected consultant.
For the 150th anniversary component, is PLYMC seeking a high-level strategic framework for leveraging the anniversary within the plan, or a more detailed celebration/event planning strategy?
We aren’t asking the selected respondent to be a party planner, never fear! However, we want to make sure that an event like our 150th anniversary is a strategic priority in all five years, and we are integrating preparations throughout that plan. That might look like relationship building, facility and service investment, and making sure that we are devoting time to preparing three years out rather than one year out.
Should the required electronic copy be provided on a USB drive with the sealed paper submission, or is there a separate preferred method for providing the electronic copy?
If delivered via USB, the envelope is preferred for tracking purposes.
If you would like to deliver the electronic proposal via an accessible link for us to download, that is also acceptable. Please make sure that the link remains accessible through the end of the selection process.
Emailed proposals are acceptable however be mindful of large file sizes and delivery problems that may occur as a result. If your Qualifications are not received by PLYMC due to this kind of problem that will be treated the same as a missed deadline. If emailing, we highly recommend that you send a separate email to inquiries@libraryvisit.org requesting confirmation of receipt.
We will not be offering a repository where you can place the information.
No disc-based media, please.
Under outcomes, you mentioned that you wanted to develop objective standards for success. Do you see this as a full operational plan to take place? Following this strategy, do you see that as a full operational advisement piece that will have clear KPIs? Or are you including that as more of an objective for the strategy retreat?
Should the roadmap include measurable goals/KPIs and initiative sequencing or is the expectation a high-level priorities framework?
We do want to make sure that we come out of this plan with measures, whether that is KPIs or some other kind of measures. Creating goals that set a destination and showing objective reality progress whether that is in terms of numbers or ways to capture stories so that we can demonstrate impact. We want to be able to demonstrate to the community that we have made progress on the objectives that we set. I want to have some sort of methodology to measure our progress over the plan time.
I heard you say earlier that your current strategic plan was developed internally. Why, for this, are you looking to bring in an external partner?
We, in part, did the strategic plan internally, because it was a way to reconnect with staff post-COVID. We had just finished up a six-year strategic plan in 2020. I had every intention of making a strategic plan in 2021, but with COVID hangover that didn’t happen. So, when we made our three-year plan, it was a good opportunity to reconnect.
Now that we are finishing that up, I think it is a good opportunity to go to an external firm so we can help achieve objectivity. Currently, in Ohio, there are a lot of conversations about libraries. We are seeing anti-LGBTQ content, restriction attempts at the legislature, and we just had a state funding budget reduction that changed our funding formula for the first time in forty years. In response to some of this, I created a Stakeholder Relations Department, which includes our government relations, a media person, and a development person. The head of that unit is focused on not only communicating the outside world to our frontline staff but also communicating with our business community and other people who might not interact with us as patrons. Whether they are taxpayers or have some other vested interest, they need to understand how the library works. We also have a push for a statewide referendum to eliminate property taxes completely, which would be disastrous for many organizations within the state, not just the libraries. So, getting the word outside our walls beyond just the services we offer to patrons is really important. That is part of what’s driving this externally created strategic plan and the desire for measures.
We had a little bit of controversy around one of our branch buildings, but we are seeing that while there are some negative feelings and some anti-tax feeling in our community, largely, people are supportive of the library whether they are patrons or stakeholders in a more general respect. So, I want to make sure that we are trying to be as accountable as we can to the community. Criticism may still come through, but it won’t be because we didn’t try.
Are there demographics that you’re hoping to get your arms around? Anybody new that you’re hoping to bring into this planning process? Especially since you’re possibly facing a lot of outside pressures.
We are active with our local chamber, but this is a great opportunity to get to the business community. We do our best to do robust communication with our elected officials and because we have an overly large media market, we do get a lot of media attention, so we can reach a wide audience with this process. We certainly would love to have more interaction with the growing Hispanic population in the community. Nationally, and I’m not sure how true it is here, public libraries have difficulties reaching young singles and young men. PLYMC’s value proposition is real people and real information. We have all the technological bells and whistles, but you can talk to a real person whether you call on the phone or walk in the door.
Are you open to expanding your project steering committee to include members of the community? Or do you want that to be kept internal?
We are open to it, but that selection process could be complicated. There has been a certain push by people who do not have the library’s best interest at heart by achieving control through participation. We are not going to say no to those conversations, but it raises some concerns.
I know you anticipate this launching in January 2027. Timeline-wise, when do you envision having the final framework approved by the Board and in hand?
We know that we may have to be flexible with that January 1st start date. We want to do it well even if it takes a little longer. The steering committee includes two trustees and enables us to have board involvement with the onset of the project. In addition, we have quarterly Board Meetings so, depending on what the calendar looks like, our opportunities for Board acceptance or sharing at the Board level would either be December or February.
Of note, we are a non-profit doing business as a public library. (An “Association Library” as classified in Ohio Revised Code.) With our Board structure, they don’t necessarily have to approve the final plan, but I think it would be both appropriate and useful to have them do so.
Under the evaluation criteria, where it stated relevant strategic planning experience, and I know you said public libraries preferred, outside of public libraries what other types of experience would be preferable? Would it be public sector organizations like cities, municipalities or anything else beyond that?
Certainly. We are unique. But if you’ve done work with parks, churches and libraries, we are the palaces of the people, as they say. Certainly, cities I think would be an interesting way to look at it. There are some things at the Valley level, Trumbull County and Mahoning County with a certain degree of Columbiana County, that comprise the Valley for those of you who aren’t familiar with Northeast Ohio, the Mahoning River Valley. We do have a recently completed Valley Vision 2050. We are notorious for creating plans at the county or higher level and then putting them on a shelf. Hopefully Valley Vision will be different this time. That was done by our local Eastgate Council Governments and by EY. There are some other higher-level strategic plans. The Youngstown City Schools wouldn’t be a direct connect there, but I think there could be good things learned from the school side of things.
There were a lot of things that were taken into consideration for our Facilities Master Plan that go back to the research question. But I think we have been working really hard over the last post-COVID years to turn us outward and be more collaborative with our community organizations, and that work needs to continue. I think similar organizations that libraries would be collaborating with would be useful.
Could you remind us of who is on the steering committee?
Yes. I have my Leadership Team and they are the six division heads: Mark Mrofchak, who is our Chief Financial Officer, Erin Phemester, our Chief Experience Officer (our patron services), Tom Casey is our Chief Technology Officer, Jordan Shaver is our Chief Operating Officer (facilities and security), and Zak Kozberg who is our Chief Stakeholder Relations Officer. In addition to the Leadership Team and me, we also have our Board of Trustees President, Carole Weimer and our Board of Trustees Service & Personnel Committee Chair, Tom Frost.
I am interested in how the staff are right now and how much they know about the strategic plan. What is the temperature around it?
Communication is always complicated, as I am sure you are aware. What we found in this last process of doing our Facilities Master Plan, there were substantial focus groups with our staff. However, by the time we released the plan six months later, people had completely forgotten the focus group they participated in and didn’t connect it with the resulting plan. To avoid that, we want to make sure we have a good communication plan in place.
Tools we have at our disposal in 2026 and where we are laying the groundwork now:
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- Stakeholder Relation Division, responsible for communicating externally and with staff
- Monthly blog posts from the Director & CEO for staff
- Leaders of Current Strategic Plan Goa/Action Areas
- Quarterly all-staff meetings
One more follow-up question and please answer in whichever is the correct and diplomatic way, but how is the relationship with the union currently?
We have two unions. They are both SEIU. One is the clerical, technical and maintenance personnel. The other one is PLAY, which is the librarians' union. In general, our relationship is pretty good. We have been working on our communication over the last couple of years and some of those efforts are paying off. We are mid-contract right now. We will negotiate next in 2030.
How about the managers? My guess is that they are a lot more versed in, at a minimum, reading the blog. But do they meet more regularly and have more insight into all of this?
Managers are aware that the strategic planning process is upcoming. Our administrative managers and four Public Service Managers are key communication channels across the system. While the Public Service Managers have recently been focused on operational demands, we expect that to improve with new procedures that have been put in place. Erin Phemester, Chief Experience Officer, has established a standard monthly communication process with the Public Service Managers, who then share key updates with branch supervisors to ensure consistent messaging throughout the organization.
With your internal process or with the previous outside folks that you worked with, were there things you particularly liked that worked well, that you would like to replicate? Are there things that you would rather not see happen again?
Our most recent process has been the Facilities Master Planning process. We had a lot of drama around one of our branches and so we had boards in libraries where people could leave comments. I think that worked well. This time I’d really like to see more in terms of community focus groups and in-person things. We tend to get a good response online, so we should certainly do that again. However, we know we have a lot of people who are not going to want to use an online tool as their first way of communicating and having input.
Usually, people who care and use the library show up. People who don’t use the library, have time pressures or don’t really want to take the time often don’t. I don’t know the best way these days to reach people that aside from an online survey. But we have community partners we can tap as well, if that’s a useful way to get people involved.
Is there a particular driver, beyond the regular planning cadence, for this current strategic planning cycle? For example: facing a particular challenge, looking for exponential growth in a particular area, or struggling to maintain focus.
Our biggest challenge is our funding given the volatility at our local and state levels. We receive approximately 50% of our funding from each of the following sources: the State of Ohio Public Library Fund (PLF) and our local real estate levy. A state funding budget reduction occurred with regards to our PLF funding that changed our funding formula for the first time in forty years. In addition, there is an ongoing statewide initiative to eliminate property tax revenues in Ohio.
We have reviewed your current 2024-2026 Strategic Plan found on your website as well as all of the work that has been accomplished in your 2024 and 2025 Highlights. Has this plan been an effective tool to guide the organization over the past 3 years? Do you feel you have accomplished all you set out to do in your current strategic plan?
We believe that it has – we have been measuring our successes internally via quarterly updates and feel that a substantial amount has been accomplished from this plan.