1. POLICY.The University will not issue blanket Purchase Orders, and also will not typically issue specific orders for products available for purchase through Materials Distribution Services ( MDS). MDS and Surplus With A Purpose (SWAP) sells commonly used items to supply the operational needs of the UW-Madison, other UW campuses, state agencies, local governments and school districts. MDS maintains limited inventory for "core stock" which are stored as 1061 Thousand Oaks Trail, Verona WI. These are high volume and specialty (printed for the University etc.) items only. MDS has prime vendor relationships for office supply products, laboratory supply products, and maintenance repair and operational supplies. Items purchased from these vendors are received through a cross dock operation and delivered along with core stock inventory. The prices for all MDS core stock items are routinely checked with outside vendors. Comparative items are priced at or below those of outside vendors. SWAP has a large variety of supplies and equipment available at 1061 Thousand Oaks Trail, Verona WI., and at other locations. Sale preference to UW's, State Agencies, Schools, Municipalities and Non-Profit Organizations are prior to the General Public sales. (See SWAP web site: http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/swap/swap.html for sale information.)

2. PROCEDURES

Establishing an MDS/SWAP account: by linking to the following MDS web site: http://www.bussvc.wisc.edu/mds/mds.html Any questions may be addressed by contacting MDS/SWAP at 800-662-1727 or 608-497-4400.