If you load a .dot file or any word document, access to the macro subroutines exist as long as they are "Public" subs.

I'm guessing you pointed to it's location as a template folder location and are not manually opening it?

I think the easist thing to do is just to manually open that file whenever it's updated or something and copy the macros in it over to your own normal.dot file.

All you have to do is :

Open Word
Open the other guys template .dot file manually
Go to: "Tools/Macros/Macros"
Select "Organize"
Select the other guys '.dot' file in the left window and your own normal.dot file in the right window.
Then just click "copy".