The COR Member of the Acquisition Team: The Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) Guide to Performance and Quality

About the Program

The "COR Member of the Acquisition Team” National Education Seminar (NES) is designed to better illustrate the important role that the contracting officer’s representative (COR) plays in ensuring that the contract specialist or contracting officer properly manages his or her contract. The tenets of the course are universal as it points to the oft-disregarded portions of contracting, which are post-award contract management and the importance of the role of the COR.

Everyone involved with acquiring supplies and services needs to understand this important relationship and the significance of the distinct responsibilities of the COR ("the eyes and ears of the contracting office").

Critically examining the role of the COR on the acquisition team gives the COR a tailored learning experience to better perform his or her key duties and industry invaluable insight and analogies regarding their customers' internal business processes and procedures.

While the focus is on the COR's role, this course ultimately illuminates the value of teamwork, partnering, planning, and executing across all functions (e.g., program management, performance work statement/proposal development, evaluation/negotiation, technical monitoring, budgeting, logistics and contract administration) throughout the acquisition life cycle.

Whether you are a new or experienced COR, contracting professional, or simply a member of the acquisition team, this seminar is for you! Each unit of this course builds on the previous unit, thus reinforcing and connecting what has been learned. This building block approach is coupled with both active end-of-unit exercises and case studies.

The objective of the course is to ensure that each participant will have a greater understanding and appreciation of the following:

• Knowledge of the importance of the role of the COR to the acquisition process;
• Understanding of the need for diversified skill set to perform the COR duties;
• Tools and techniques to aid the COR in:
  • Conducting market research,
  • Understanding requirements (bona fide needs),
  • Building a quality assurance surveillance plan,
  • Creating evaluation factors,
  • Assessing performance, and
  • Building and using a COR handbook;
• Communication skills to effectively facilitate and document an evaluation of contractor performance, and
• Ethical insight and how to stay out of trouble as a COR (ethics and conflict of interest)

Every attendee will receive a copy of The COR Member of the Acquisition Team book and its accompanying workbook.