The AFCEA is going to be offering a three-day course that will focus on the fundamentals of government contracting, a course tailored primarily to the needs of government and industry engineers, technical representatives, project managers, and procurement specialists, working in an austere budget and changing environment.

Members of this group are often unwittingly the source of contract grief. Many engineers and other members of the acquisition team may not be sufficiently schooled in the mysteries of government contracting — the rights, the obligations, the pitfalls involved in the procurement process. As a result, engineers and others frequently talk too much, promise too much and strive to produce products far beyond contract requirements — all without considering that the extra costs and time spent in such efforts may not be recoverable or worthwhile. The course incorporates the required process for market research; use of relevant Internet accessible data bases; the DoD data rights rules; recent Acquisition Reform Acts; GAO Bid Protest Rules; selected updates to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to include Performance-Based Service Acquisition; extensive study of Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) Contracting; FAR PART 15, Contracting by Negotiation; and the key clauses essential  for contract administration. The course will be conducted from November 3rd through November 5th and carries an "unclassified" classification. The training will occur at AFCEA headquarters, 4400 Fair Lakes Court, Fairfax, Virginia.