How to Write a Govt. Proposal

A few weeks ago my husband said he had a job lead for me. The VP of Engineering at his company, a manufacturer in Lancaster, PA, asked him if I was interested in helping his engineering dept. write SBIR/STTR proposals for the myriad of the defense departments. Since I am unemployed and felt under pressure to at least try, I met with the VP and said I would give it a try.

SBIR/STTR Kick-Off Meeting

I attended the meeting where the VP and the engineers chose the proposals that they were going to "do." The VP said that he wrote a similar proposal for the Office of Secretary of Defense so we decided that I would write that proposal. I had to find the original govt. proposal and compare it to the 2009 proposal. The proposals are somewhat similar but I decided that the VP or another engineer needs to come up with a new idea. The company is working with another company on a similar project so I suggested in an email to the VP that the info could be a starting point.

Research About Writing Proposals

The VP wants me to make the proposals "pop," too. I have done some research on writing govt. proposals and ordered a book specific to how to write them. He gave me an example of a GE proposal that used color and some fancy artwork and graphs. There are a lot of different books about writing business proposals that I found on the Internet but I don't want to spend anymore money until I get the $40 book I bought last week. I found a web site that offers SBIR proposal writing training but there aren't any seminars listed for this year. The web site owner said he could write proposals from scratch but would have to spend full days with the engineers at the plant.

My Emotions About This Project

I have no idea what I'm doing so my emotions fluctuate rapidly from "freaking out" to "who cares - I'll just do the best job I can." If it were up to me, I would have turned it down because I'm not an engineer and honestly don't know what I can offer for the $$ I'm getting paid except to take notes and write it to the best of my ability. I wish I was more of an artist because I think that's what the VP is looking for because he wants some "cool" illustrations. I should get going to feel at least I'm doing "something" to earn the $30/hour Thermacore is going to pay me.

Books and Seminars:

Handbook for Writing Proposals
Persuasive Business Proposals
www.rogercohen/sbir/SBIR_training

A change in plans

I'm watching another DVD of "Grey's Anatomy" and waiting for the next snowstorm to hit Lititz. I was supposed to be on my way to Milwaukee so that I could fly to Sacramento with my mom tomorrow. Based on the winter storm warning in Milwaukee, I rescheduled our plans to fly next week. There was a bit of a drama because my mom initially wanted me to take a chance because she didn't want to take the chance of not seeing her sister if she died before we arrived. I understood how she felt but I couldn't take the risk of getting stuck in Chicago.

Premonition About Trip

What was strange about postponing the trip was that I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach all day on Sunday. I even wrote a Haiku poem about it. I thought I was experiencing a bad bout of depression (because I'm currently unemployed) until my brother texted me that Milwaukee was supposed to get 8-12 inches.

A smooth, large gray stone
Sits heavy in my stomach
Don't know the reason.

After tossing and turning for an hour or two, I logged onto the computer and actually looked into leaving yesterday. After a few frantic searches, I decided "I'm not going to go and will reschedule." At that point I could go to sleep.

More Haiku Poems

Here are some more upbeat Haiku poems when I was employed and had the possibility of future employment with the same company:

First snow fell today
Turning the world a bright white
Momentarily

We watched the snow fall
While huddled warm in our car
In awe of nature

2010 Super Bowl

The Indianapolis Colts are outshining and outscoring the New Orlean Saints right now. I hope it's not a blow-out. I want the Saints to win.

I watch the Superbowl for the commercials. So far, Bud Light/Budweiser and Doritos showed the most commercials. The first Doritos commercial has been the best so far. A woman asks her friend (a male) take care of her five-year-old son while she runs an errand. Her male friend watches her walk out the door then he starts to grab a Dorito from a bowl. The little boy slaps the guy's face and says right in the guy's face, "Keep your hands off my mama and my Doritos." That's our favorite commercial so far. There have been a few other funny one: a commercial that shows David Letterman watching the Superbowl with Jay Leno and Ophra Winfrey. Letterman said this was the worst Superbowl party ever. Leno said, "It's probably because I'm here." OLO

Update on My Aunt in CA

My aunt opened her eyes yesterday and squeezed my cousin's hand. I guess that's good news so my mom and other aunt can see her and let her know that they are there. We're still going. I called an old friend of mine who lives with her husband in Benecia, which is a town outside of San Francisco. We're going to get together next Sunday afternoon. I don't know what we're going to do but by then I will need a break.

Too many questions

My aunt, who lives outside of Sacramento, suffered a second stroke. The first stroke occurred several years ago. She could function but had to be pushed around in a wheelchair. My cousin Scott's girlfriend took care of her during the day because my uncle has cancer and couldn't take care of my aunt anymore.

My mom wanted to go visit her elder sister, who is 85 years old. I told her I would travel with her to California because my siblings and I don't feel comfortable with my mom traveling that distance by herself. I made all of the arrangements (thank goodness for the Internet).

My mom called this afternoon while I was taking a nap. She said, "Your aunt is in a coma. Should we go to Sacramento earlier?" I said, "No. We are not changing our plans." I hung up the phone. I didn't ask any questions.

Questions from My Sisters

I called my two sisters and told them about what happened to our aunt. They asked me lots of questions like how is she? What do the doctors say? Are you still going to go to California? My sister called me while she and her husband were on a "date." I had to cut her off because I didn't have any answers to their questions. I said I'll get some answers when we go to California.

It Sucks Getting Old

I read about sons and daughters having to deal with their parents and their health problems. My dad passed away over two years ago but worked until three weeks before he died so we didn't have to deal with what we should do with his care. My mom is healthy - for the most part but we need to think about her down the road - and us, down the road...

My blog name and a boast about my son

One of my friends asked me how I arrived at "Annie J Casanova" for my personal blog. It's not a famous writer's name (well, maybe someday)... My mom called me Annie as a nickname. My "real" first name is Stephanie. "J" was borrowed from my friend Michael who lives in San Diego, CA. He and his siblings all have the middle name of "J" with no period. I thought that was interesting. "Casanova" is the maiden name of one of my good college friends.

Our Son Matt's Accomplishment

Our younger son Matt is a 6th grader who participated in the annual 6th grade Geography Bee at his elementary school. All of the 80 (or more) students answered seven rounds of questions determine the finalists. Matt won the Bee. The Warwick School District (www.warwicksd.org) wrote an article and featured it on its web site. Matt is the third person on the left in the photo below:

The upcoming snowstorm

It's late Thursday night. I stopped at the grocery store this afternoon around 4 p.m. Giant was packed. I thought, "What's going on?" Turns out a snowstorm is headed towards southeastern PA late tomorrow afternoon. PA folks flock to the grocery stores to stock up on milk, bread and other staples as if we're going to get snowed in for a week.

When I first heard about this PA phenomena, I laughed because I'm from Wisconsin where snowstorms occur more frequently and dump a lot more snow. Another event that happens is the Lancaster county school districts usually have a 2-hour delay even if the area gets an inch of snow. In Wisconsin, schools never close unless there's a blizzard. There's no such thing as a two-hour delay.

My Mother Said I Didn't Look Good in Black

My mother never let me wear black when I was young so when I decided to start another blog for my free computer class at the Ephrata Public Library I chose the "black" template. This blog will be more personal than my www.unemployedwhitewoman.blogspot.com blog. My friend Suzanne emailed me about this class, which will help us build a blog step by step. Thanks, Suzanne!

This blog will be more of a mish-mash of everything that's going on in my life outside of being unemployed, which I still am. Unfortunately, I couldn't get connected to the Internet with my own computer so I'm working on the Ephrata Library's computer and can't access any of my photos, which I will do later.