ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM ESTABLISHMENT ``The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is pleased to announce the establishment of an electronic Bulletin Board System (BBS) to enhance competition for certain of its small purchase requirements. Beginning on 09/19/94, 1994, the NIST Small Purchasing Office (SPO) will post open market requirements in the BBS for supplies, equipment and services between $10,000 and $25,000. This will be in addition to the local posting at the NIST SPO required by Federal Acquisition Regulation 5.101(a)(2). The NIST BBS provides the opportunity for interested vendors and individuals to review available Requests for Quotation (RFQA) to determine their interest in submitting a quotation. The BBS facilitates this determination by first, providing access to summary information for available RFQs by commodity classification (like typical Commerce Business Daily announcements) and, secondly, providing detailed information contained in individual RFQs (Standard Form 18) for each specific requirement. In order to access the NIST BBS, the following modem setting is recommended; 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit or 7 bits, even parity, 1 stop bit. To connect to the system, call (301)212-9587 or (301)212-9780. On initial login, the user will be prompted to answer a series of questions including name, company, etc. The user will also be asked to select a password. At this point, the user will be shown an introductory screen that describes usage of the system. The user will be required to enter the password for each subsequent connection. If a password is forgotten, trouble is encountered gaining access, or any technical questions arise, please contact Dave Wise at (301)975-5047 or Pat Grimes at (301)975-6387. Administative/Procurement questions should be referred to Doug Atkins at (301)975-6302.

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0618 19950203\SP-0001.MSC)