Member FAQ | Texas BuyBoard Purchasing Cooperative

Texas Cooperative Member FAQ

Find out what the Texas Purchasing Cooperative is, how it's administered and governed, who can participate, and more.

How is the Cooperative administered and governed?

The Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) administers and handles the day-to-day activities of the Cooperative. The Cooperative is endorsed by the Texas Municipal League (TML), the Texas Association of Counties (TAC), and the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), and is a Strategic Partner of the Texas Association of School Business Officials (TASBO).

The Cooperative is governed by an eleven-member board of trustees. Four trustees are elected officials or employees of school districts, two are elected officials or employees of municipalities, one is an elected official or employee of a county, and four are at-large positions from any type of participating governmental entity.

Can you outline the competitive procurement process used by the Cooperative?

Advertisements are placed in 11 newspapers across Texas for once a week for two weeks.
The proposal invitation and specification document is posted to the website at www.vendor.buyboard.com. Registered vendors with BuyBoard are notified via e-mail regarding the proposal opportunity.
Electronic vendor responses are received. Vendor responses received after the due date and time are not opened.
Proposals are reviewed, tabulated, and analyzed based on the criteria outlined in the proposal terms and conditions, and a scoring matrix is used to rank the criteria.
Recommendations are prepared and presented to the Cooperative Board for consideration of award.

What is the method for conducting evaluations of proposals received and making recommendation selection(s)?

The Cooperative places strong emphasis on using an open, competitive process for the award of vendor goods and services. BuyBoard uses a proposal invitation process to award contracts to vendors for goods and services that Cooperative determines, based on a review of all vendor-submitted proposals and an evaluation of multiple published criteria, represent the best value. The Cooperative gives broad notice of opportunity to vendors to encourage vendor participation and increase competition. Proposal invitations are publicly advertised in multiple newspapers and on the Cooperative’s BuyBoard vendor website.

The Cooperative’s proposal invitations incorporate full, detailed descriptions of the contract requirements for vendors, including specifications for product and service categories, requirements vendors must fulfill, and all other factors to be used in evaluating proposals.

Proposals are then reviewed, analyzed, and scored based on the criteria outlined in the proposal terms and conditions by a procurement committee. Criteria generally includes factors such as:

Price Competitiveness
Vendor Past Performance
Vendor Reputation for Goods and Services
Financial and Technical resources
Capability of servicing Cooperative members
Any other factor or requirement listed in the proposal invitation

Recommendations are prepared and presented to the Cooperative Board for consideration of award. The Cooperative’s Board awards contracts on the basis of best value based of the criteria outlined in the proposal invitation.

How does the Cooperative determine price competitiveness?

The Cooperative evaluates vendor proposals on the basis of best value to Cooperative members. As a general matter, the Cooperative makes competitive and indefinite quantity awards to vendors that give the same or better discounts/pricing than they give their best governmental clients.

Each vendor proposal is evaluated on its own merit and is determined to be fair and reasonable. Discount practices may be examined and evaluated based on historical data, sales information, discounts granted to other governmental clients, and other market research techniques.

The Cooperative may award to multiple vendors supplying comparable products or services, known as a multiple award schedule, or award to a single vendor. The Cooperative’s decision to make multiple or single awards is based on the type of award that provides the best value to all Cooperative members.

Who can participate and what does it cost?

BuyBoard membership is free and open to all local governments, nonprofits, and other political subdivisions of the state of Texas. The following entities must be active, associate, or affiliate members of the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) in order to participate in the BuyBoard:

Texas school districts including open enrollment and college/university charter schools
Educational cooperatives
Community colleges
Central appraisal districts

While not eligible for cooperative membership, TASB offers nonprofit, tax exempt entities use of the BuyBoard through a nonprofit subscriber agreement.

Revenue to operate the system and the Cooperative comes primarily from a service fee payable by participating vendors.

The only exceptions to this are for vehicles. The Cooperative charges a flat amount per purchase order, regardless of the number of vehicles on the purchase order, as a service fee for the purchase of vehicles. This service fee is payable by the member entity but is collected by the vehicle dealer as part of the overall vehicle price. The flat amount per purchase order is as follows:

vehicles and trucks - $400
ambulances and school buses - $800
fire apparatus - $1,500

Some of the revenue paid by vendors is shared with the Cooperative's marketing partners and co-sponsors. Excess revenue over and above expenses may be rebated back to the governmental membership only at the discretion of the Cooperative's Board of Trustees.

How does the Cooperative work and how do I order products?

The Cooperative analyzes and makes award recommendations for products and services that have been submitted through a competitive proposal invitation process.

All awarded items or catalogs will be posted on a secure website, called the BuyBoard, so that Cooperative members can search for and select items. The BuyBoard is only available to members.

Each user has a security role, defined by the entity that allows them to shop, and/or transmit a purchase order to the vendor. Individuals can be assigned multiple roles or a single role, such as a shopper only. Only those individuals with the authority to transmit a purchase order to a vendor will have the ability to do so.

The other option is to simply email your purchase order to the BuyBoard for input. Purchase orders are electronically transmitted to the vendor based on the profile selected by the vendor. All purchase order history is tracked by the BuyBoard and is accessible at any time.