Bid Opening

On Thursday, I conducted a bid opening at the University of Washington Tacoma for a $6.3 million new assembly hall building. With five minutes before the bid receipt deadline, we had received no bids. Then two bids came in. With one minute to go, another bid was clocked in. With nine seconds before the deadline, another bidder raced in. The final bidder, who had been madly filling in the final figures in a chair just steps from the bid counter, slapped their sealed bid on the counter with a nail-biting three seconds before the clock struck the 2:00 p.m. deadline. Interestingly, the low bidder was the first one to submit its bid. My effort in Tacoma was part of training the staff there on receiving and conducting bid openings on their own. I've developed a set of written guidelines and procedures, laying out issues to be aware of in managing bid receipt and opening. If you'd like a copy of the guidelines as part of thinking about your own practices, please let me know and I'd be glad to e-mail you a copy.