Re: Proposal Writers

[Alethea Otero <aotero -at- NMT -dot- EDU>]

I am a student at New Mexico Tech and I am currently editing a proposal
for counter terrorism research.  If you've kept up lately, my
ad. has been scrutinized by many people about how I provided too much
information that may be proprietary, confidential, etc.  I have to admit
that I think the only faux paux that I made was to disclose the amount of
the proposal.  However, I did not disclose too much
information.  If you'll go back and read Don's message, you'll see that he
also agrees.  I did not tell anyone how or where we are conducting our
research nor did I include information about who's directly involved.  I
simply mentioned who my primary audience was (Rule #1) and that I have
another audience to consider since my primary audience will be submitting
our proposal with their name on it (which often happens in the real
world).  I supplied the information I thought necessary to get a
reasonable response for my question about which paper to use to make it
look more professional.

As for Kenneth's ad., I am simply a student who was brought in to do the
work that the physicists and chemists do not want to do.  If it was up to
them, we could probably pull out paper from the recycle bin and submit it
on the back of a used document.  They aren't concerned with "how pretty
it looks" but rather that their equations and results are correct and
consistent. They are responsible for writing the technical information
(which is usually in the passive voice) but I am responsible for making
sure that their equations are accurate and the information is complete.
I am also responsible for "cleaning it up" and getting it ready to go out
the door "as soon as possible".

As far as I know, there is no particular RFP with specific guidelines.
This makes it difficult to decide exactly how to submit this proposal.
Due to the recommendations from others, I have decided to use plain
white paper for several reasons.  For one, many were correct in saying
that the color graphics will look nicer on white paper.  Also, if we
decide to use different paper, then we would have to inconvenience
everyone who's using the network printer by halting all of the printing
jobs while we insert our paper and run our document. Not to mention, tax
payers would be very upset if we used their money to produce a fancy
document that no one appreciates except for people like ourselves who care
about layout and appearance.


--Alethea Otero





On Fri, 11 Apr 1997, KENNETH MAUM wrote:

> I'm glad to see so many other proposal writers out there on the list. In my
> experience with the list this area has not received much attention. I am
> interested in what your roles are in the proposal process. Do you become
> involved only after basic go/no go decisions are made or are you involved in
> finding RFPs and generating interest? I'm not looking for any trade secrets,
> just general interest in how the process works at various organizations.
>
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