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September 20, 2004

Meeting With New Client

Yesterday I finished the draft outline for my new client's DOD proposal, and e-mailed it to them early this morning. Then I drove to their office for a 2-hour meeting with their proposal team. It was then that I learned that, with the proposal due date looming, very little has actually been done so far. Apparently, the staffperson who works on many of their proposals was in an accident, and that is why I have been called in. Also, some of their top managers -- who would otherwise be able to assist and/or provide information -- are out of town.

The proposal requires three volumes, and my responsibility lies with Volume II -- the Technical and Management Volume -- which is limited to 40 pages plus a couple of pages for Past Performance information. Fortunately, the Technical section is not really technical in the sense of having to provide the who, what, when, where, and how for each task. It is really more of a narrative qualifications statement with some technical stuff thrown in for good measure. But my client (who is bidding as the prime contractor) has several subcontractors, and did not realize that each sub must also provide a similar narrative on their own qualifications. So none of the subs had been asked to do this. I suggested to my client that one of their tasks for today should be to contact all the subs and inform them that we need this info ASAP. In addition, I asked the client to send me information from other proposals and documents that could be used in preparing the technical narrative for their company.

Then I was told that a staff member who is out of town will be working on the 20-page Management section. But he needs help with it, and I am scheduled to call him tomorrow to discuss. I can only hope that "needing help" doesn't translate into "can you do it?"

Posted by Deborah at September 20, 2004 06:19 PM





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