Have we made the right decision? I am still getting queries from companies that I contacted over the course of the process. One company’s main guy contacted me after weeks of no contact. I told him that the guy he’d referred me to had ignored my request to set an appointment to talk to him. The main guy tried to tell me he had referred me to a different person than I told him! Some of these businesses seem very strange and disorganized. We definitely based some of our decisions on how strong the companies seemed, especially based on their web presence and their general conduct.

In any case, another wrinkle may be in store for us. We heard from Anthony Hornof at the University of Oregon that the Oregon University System (of which both our schools are a part) required him to basically decide on the specifications for a system and “put it up on the web for bid” for a month, even though he had already chosen the system and the vendor that best suited his project. Luckily, no one responded to the public bid and he was able to go with what he wanted. Maybe the fact that we’re specifying the system in our matching funds proposal will help us out, but if it doesn’t, we could be in for another delay in purchasing. As it is, once we get the go-ahead for funding, it takes about a month for delivery of the system. So we’re currently looking at March delivery.

The good news is, the staff here are eager to volunteer to test out the equipment when we get it!