Posted by BJ
On my trip to South Africa to present an APMP Foundation Level Accreditation Preparation Workshop and Exam and to act as Master of Ceremonies, Honored guest and presenter at the 2nd Annual South African APMP Conference I picked up Proposal Panda.
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He returned to the States with me and he accompanied me to the recent Noreasters Chapter of APMP Annual Symposium. He was glad to see old friends there, many with whom he had visited and shared adventures.

He left the conference with a new friend who is a surfer and skateboarder and he was hoping to get in some skate and wave time before heading to his next host. Watch for the story and pictures on this visit to appear here soon.

Proposal Panda is looking for other proposal groups to visit so if you’d like to act as host, please do let us know (send an email to bj@strategicproposals.com) and will arrange for him to come for a visit. Your only obligation in having him visit with you is to send us a story and pictures afterwards (and to make sure he doesn’t get up to any mischief.)

Conference Texas Style
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The next morning, I was up bright and early and helped everyone set things up before folks arrived. Then I joined BJ as he welcomed everyone to the conference.

The rest of the day I spent at the APMP Information Table telling folks about the wonderful benefits of the organization and about the Accreditation Program.  I also got lots of questions about my adventures visiting proposal professionals around the globe!

Ride ‘Em Cowboy
The next day, I went out and got me some cowboy duds. Then off to the Livestock Show we went.

Ride ‘em, Cowboy Panda!  Yup, BJ, that is a real horse!
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After my exciting ride, we hit the midway.

Finishing the Ride
Before I left, I met with the Board of the Greater Houston Chapter and helped give the Conference Report.  Established over 10 years ago, the Houston Chapter is one of the oldest APMP chapters.

Then it was time to say goodbye and head off to my next stop with Joseph Hans with Trinity Consulting, located in Virginia.  The Texas Symposium was a great day and learning to ride a horse was amazing.  Thanks to Jeannette and the Symposium Committee for their hospitality. I’m looking forward to seeing the wonderful folks I met when we all attend the APMP National conference in June.
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Proposal Panda travels the world visiting proposal professionals. Click here for more details. If you’d like Panda to visit you, just email us at panda@theproposalguys.com

​Posted by BJ & Jon
You know, it’s a very small step from “Impossible” to “I’m possible“. Here’s wishing you every happiness for the festive season, and hoping that you achieve every “possible” success in 2010.

We’ll be taking a seasonal break from posting for the next couple of weeks. See you back here at the very start of the new decade…

With very best wishes to all of our many readers

Jon and BJ – and Proposal Panda! 

​After we left the Millennium Park, the Proposal Panda was interested in seeing more architecture and sites of the City. We headed over to the Richard J. Daley Center which is Chicago’s premier civic center and features a massive sculpture by Pablo Picasso. Known by locals simply as “The Picasso,” this renowned sculpture was one of the first of many public art installations throughout Chicago.

During the holidays, the Daley Center features the Christkindlemarket. It is a popular exhibit and many Chicagoans will tell you they could not imagine the holidays in the city without it. The market features a unique shopping experience that includes German food and drinks and holiday entertainment.

The Panda’s favorite part of the market was the Christmas tree. In the past, the tree was made from 100 trees compiled together to make one massive tree. This year, a family in Palos Park, a suburb of Chicago, donated a tree from their backyard. The Proposal Panda was amazed by its size and magnitude. He got a little too excited and tried to pull some ornaments, but you can see the rope that is holding it up…primarily tied to the tree to avoid it from falling over from the Panda’s antics!

Proposal Panda reported that he thoroughly enjoyed his trip to Chicago and looks forward to visiting again when the weather is a bit warmer and he could maybe take in a Cubs game.
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Proposal Panda travels the world visiting proposal professionals. Click here for more details. If you’d like Panda to visit you, just email us at panda@theproposalguys.com

​I got to attend the 13th Annual Southern Proposal Accents Conference (SPAC).  The Georgia Chattahoochee, Carolinas, and Florida Sunshine Chapters of the APMP did a great job (as always) on this year’s conference.  Thanks for letting me Volunteer.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN (Saturday, October 31, 2009)

​It’s Halloween!!  Rainy day, so my Host, Joni Charron (Proposal Manager with Eclipsys Corporation), said it would not be a good idea to trick or treat, being that I’m a stuffed animal and all.  Just the same, I was all set with my costume (I’m “Pandy Corn”)….and the best part was I had color…no black and white pictures for me!

PROPOSAL PANDA MEETS “THE BIG CHICKEN”

Built in 1963, this Marietta, Georgia landmark is a 56 foot tall chicken head (made of sheet metal) and is designed to rotate with the beak opening & closing.  The Big Chicken is commonly used as a landmark for driving directions — “make a turn at the Big Chicken”, or “it’s about 2 miles past the Big Chicken.”

TIME TO EAT

Hey…fried chicken can be quite messy!   
Go Falcons (Atlanta’s football team);  hey, that’s also a bird!

IT’S MONDAY – GOTTA WORK (November 2, 2009)

Eclipsys Corporation, a large healthcare information software and services company, is based in Atlanta, Georgia.  The 9 proposal team members are hard-working telecommuters who gather in the office on an “as needed” basis for team meetings, proposal production and training.   

On this particular day, Proposal Panda helped us out by providing some required officer’s signatures – Thanks Proposal Panda – we hate chasing down the CEO!

MY NEW PROPOSAL MANTRA

“The ultimate inspiration is the deadline”
Enjoyed my visit in the Atlanta, Georgia area…Off I go to Peachtree City, GA
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Proposal Panda travels the world visiting proposal professionals. Click here for more details. If you’d like Panda to visit you, just email us at panda@theproposalguys.com

Posted by Proposal Panda
My mission to South Africa was to be a Proposal Pioneer at the first ever AGM of the local APMP chapter. I even have a certificate to prove it. For those of you who don’t understand cryptic TLA’s, too bad – refer to the table of abbreviations on page 999 of the proposal I forgot to attach. So here I am with all the other pioneers – that’s me next to the flag in the front row. I’m glad I arrived by plane and car rather than by ox-wagon. Nor did I have to eat any of that vile beef jerky they call biltong. Bamboo shoots are hard to come by in Africa, but the locals were friendly and that tree in the background tasted good.​

Sporting my new cap, I took some time off to go on safari to the local zoo. This elephant tickled my ear – how rude! Unfortunately my hectic globe-trotting schedule didn’t allow for a trip to the Kruger Park game reserve to see the rest of the animals known as the Big 5. And I’ll have to save Cape Town for next time. They say Table Mountain and the wine-lands are amazing. And the garden route sounds worth exploring. I fancy a pony trek in the Drakensberg and a beach holiday on the wild coast to unleash the wild panda within. I’ll be back for their first APMP conference!

​Refreshed after my safari, I took the time to inspire Wendy Word, a local proposal witch. In my absence, she will continue the work I started. I shared with her some secrets on how to motivate bid teams in the dead of night and discouraged her from making potions for them to drink. Instead I showed her how to make a mean cup of coffee and explained what Red Bull does.

Posted by Proposal Panda
Thankfully the nice folk at Sanborn Map Company upgraded my flight from the States to Scotland – it’s a long time to spend in the hold you know.
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I eventually arrived in Perth, Scotland.  I am here to spend some time with the proposal team in within Aviva Insurance UK.  My first impressions were very good – the views are beautiful …

​Aviva has offices all over the UK, so they’re are big fans of teleconferencing.  They invited me to sit in on a couple of them – it was so interesting to hear how they coordinated all of the different parts of their company to deliver insurance solutions to some pretty big customers.

After all of that hard work I decided to explore a bit about the Scottish culture, I did a bit of research…(check out my wee kilt, by the way – they wrestled me into it the moment I arrived)

I was feeling rather the worse for wear the following day so the team put me on to another local delicacy – it’s called Iron Bru.  It’s bright orange with enough sugar to keep a narcoleptic up all night.  It certainly sorted me out.

I spent the day proof reading a few of the proposals that the team are currently working on and reviewing some of the successes the team have had.

Posted by Proposal Panda
After a long flight from Virginia, I arrived at The Sanborn Map Company in Colorado Springs, hoping to relax and enjoy my time near the mountains. But soon after stretching my legs, I was issued an official staff badge and tasked to assemble an important proposal set to ship that day. No ladder was in sight, so I scrambled up the side of the file cabinets and got to work.

Posted by Proposal Panda
Greetings all.

I am SO glad to be out of my box once again. I’ve just arrived in Nashua, NH (that’s where the U.S. offices of Strategic Proposals LLC is located) having travelled (apparently by the slowest means possible!) from Chandler Arizona, where I attended the 20th Annual conference of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP).

The conference was great fun and I enjoyed being part of it. I even got to share the stage with Jon and BJ as they opened the event. I also hung out where the pictures were being taken for the profiles, helping the Dianes take all those pictures and hang up all those profiles.

It was so nice traveling in his truck, even if it was just for a short trip, instead of being shipped! That box is getting kind of cramped these days as people keep giving me things to take with me. More on that in a minute. Prior to visiting with Don I was with Joe Villa and the gang at Motorola in Colorado.  I think they’re the ones’ that added the Air Force Academy T-shirt to my box.
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Those of you who have been following my adventures will know I’ve visited with quite a few proposal groups across the U.S. I’ve visited with the 24 Hour Company in Virginia, with Medical Transportation Management in Missouri, Connexus in Texas, Project Time and Cost in Atlanta and a host of other groups and places. And I’ve got fond memories and mementos from each of my visits. Here’s what’s currently in my box:

•    A baseball cap from Leonies
•    A leather biker jacket
•    Wrap around shades
•    Three Hawaiian leis (orange, blue and white)
•    A badge for Sanborn (Total Geospatial Solutions)
•    A water bottle
•    A Motorola luggage tag and badge holder
•    An Air Force Academy T-shirt
•    Copies of what appear to be some animal’s rear end.
•    A folding beach chair
•    A photo album
•    An empty tequila bottle

It’s been quite an adventure so far. From here I’m headed overseas to meet up with Jon and the Strategic Proposal folks on that side of the Atlantic. I’m told there’s a quite a few proposal groups that have requested I visit them and that I’m going to get to see lots of place in Europe and maybe even the Far East and Australia! (If you’d like me to come visit you and your proposal team, just send a mail to me and we’ll put you on the list.)

But before I get back in my box I’ve asked BJ to take me for a ride on his motorcycle. Got my shades, got my jacket and it’s motorcycle week here in NH (Laconia!). Woo hoo!

Posted by BJ & Jon
​​Now this is what I call southern hospitality.  Bamboo shoot and pineapple pizza…  yum!

Hey ya’ll! (as they say down south)

I’ve just been to Columbia, South Carolina to visit with Ruth Turman at BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina (they’re an insurance company).

​Here I am with my new buddy, RFP Raccoon.  He thinks we might be distantly related (there is a somewhat alarming resemblance; here around the eyes).  He insists he was born in China, but his tag says he was made for a California company.  Maybe very distant cousins…  Several times removed…  On my mother’s side of the family…

Raccoon helped me understand the history and evolution of the subsidiary he and Ruth support by showing me one of the documents from their hard-copy archive.  Seems it all started with a proposal to run something called an Enterprise Data Center for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Can you believe what they ask for in these government solicitations?

They wanted how many copies of this?  Okay, so 8 copies of 1375 pages; that’s…  that’s…  Panda’s don’t have that many fingers!

No wonder those of us who work on proposals are prone to dark circles under our eyes.

​Next, I wanted to get the remote staff’s take on the proposal process in a virtual environment.  Armed with half a pot of coffee and Raccoon’s support, the conversation went something like this:

ME:  “Can you hear me now?”

ME:  “I said ‘We want to win’ does NOT constitute a strategy statement!”

ME:  “Yes, I’m sure you do.  Your customer, on the other hand, is thinking ‘So what?’  Why do they care if you want to win?  What’s in this for them?  You need to do your homework!  What are their hot buttons?  What causes them pain?  What can you do for them to eliminate that pain?  Come on, you can do this!  You told me no one knows your customer better than you do…”

* * M U T E * *

ME:  “Would someone please pass the aspirin?  And the Tums.”  (I had wondered why there was a large but half empty bottle of Tums on the conference table.)

After a very full day, we were in need of a little relaxation.  The latest issue of Journal of the Association of Proposal Management had arrived and Colleen Jolly’s article, “Yoga for Proposal Professionals” seemed like just the ticket.

Raccoon was thrilled about this because from day one his mantra has been “I am the raccoon…  I am one with the forest…”  And Ruth has been trying for four years to get in touch with her inner raccoon (with only intermittent success).

Ruth had to contend with some corporate documentation, but Raccoon and I found ourselves some mats and attempted Colleen’s FedEx Salutation.

Is it just me or does Raccoon’s Where’s My Stapler? pose look exactly like his Is the Toner Low? pose?

​Turns out the proposal center has a somewhat infamous reputation for their highly detailed proposal production logistics and other mission critical tasks like maintaining the proposal center and its equipment.

As a professional Proposal Panda, I know that no task is too insignificant or beneath my dignity and I’m willing to help out when and wherever I’m needed.

On this particular day it was time to swap out the toner cartridges in the color printer.  It’s a potentially messy job, but someone has to do these things.

(Don’t worry Jon, they put gloves, an apron and a mask on me before the really dirty work began.)

Did you know there are such things as box subject matter experts in proposal management?  Neither did I.  But another proposal team in the company called us and wanted to know how many binders would fit in a box.

Proposal professionals believe in sharing best practices so we helped out by asking some probing questions:

How big is the box?
How big are the binders?
How much paper will be in those binders?
How are you planning on getting the box from point A to point B?
At any point will the boxes need to be sent through x-ray equipment or manually inspected?

Turns out it wasn’t such a simple question after all so I volunteered to take some first hand measurements for the calculations.

So how many binders will fit in a box?

​Life’s too short to not love your job and to have a good time doing it.

In my professional opinion, all proposal professionals should take time to stop and play in the bubble wrap.

​As all of you know, the gang at Strategic Proposals (BJ and Jon in particular) strongly supports APMP’s accreditation program.

I was able to take advantage of some quiet time during my visit to coach Raccoon (my very first student!) on some of the knowledge areas he’ll need to be familiar with when he takes his Foundation Level exam.

Naturally there are some areas of proposal management that he’s not as familiar with as he is others (Raccoon’s not so good with a calculator, so he doesn’t get involved in pricing proposals), but I feel confident that he will do well.

​Hmmm, knowledge is power.  Raccoon and I are really looking forward to the upcoming Annual Conference of APMP.

Old friends to see…  New friends to make…

Vendors to talk to…  APMP business to attend to…

Ideas to share…  Things to learn…

Wonder what BJ and Jon are planning to do this year?  (I know, but I can’t tell!)

So many great sessions; so little time…

​Now this is fun…

Are you sure you know how to drive this thing?

Ouch!  Watch out for the paper shredder.

Don’t make me come back there…

I think the airport is the other direction.  Left!  Your other left!

What do you mean ‘your other hand truck is equipped with GPS?!?!?!?!’

Hey! Don’t EVEN think about sticking one of your shipping labels on me!  Jon and BJ promised me I’d be flying first class to Virginia for my visit with Ali at Leonie Industries.