Posted by BJ on 20 May, 2010 under APMP & accreditation | 
I’ve had several e-mails from people who have decided to seek APMP accreditation asking me whether they should attend a workshop or just take the exam. While I’ve responded to those people individually, I will also address this question here, as many of you who are considering seeking APMP accreditation might be asking the same question.
The APMP Foundation level accreditation exam tests an individual’s knowledge of basic proposal best practices, which is, in my opinion, appropriate for the first level of accreditation.
However, for several reasons (which I won’t go into here at the moment but which I will perhaps address in a future post) the exam is also heavily based on federal government proposals. Those of you who have only worked on commercial or public sector proposals would probably not be familiar with concepts or terms such as ‘color reviews’, ‘capture planning’, etc. Further, the correct answers are very specific, and while you might think the correct answer is “it depends” (that is, based on the particular scenario), you need to give the answer that is looked for. All this makes for it being extremely difficult for those who have only worked on commercial proposal to pass without extensive review of the exam material. Even those who work primarily or solely within the government space tell us that the exam can be difficult to pass without the appropriate review of the exam material.
What Jon and I hear from those who have attended workshops we’ve presented, both verbally and on feedback forms is:
- “I never would have passed this exam without having attended this session.”
- “I might have passed, but the workshop gave me the confidence to know I would pass.”
- “The review of materials within the workshop was incredibly helpful and definitely contributed to my passing the exam.”
- “I work on federal proposals and I would have had a very difficult time passing this exam without having attended this session.”
- “The tips for how to approach and take the exam were invaluable.”
- “I would highly recommend this workshop, especially to those who work on commercial proposals.”
I’ve no doubt that it’s possible to pass the exam by studying on your own and I’m sure many people have. I’m also equally sure that the workshop makes it much easier to review, prepare for and ultimately pass the APMP Foundation Level accreditation exam.
Posted by BJ on 14 May, 2010 under APMP & accreditation |
Are you APMP accredited yet? If you are, great and congratulations. If you’ve been considering seeking APMP accreditation but have been putting this off, for whatever reason, perhaps a milestone which is rapidly approaching will act as a catalyst and cause you to seek APMP accreditation.
The milestone? Given the number of members who have achieved some level of APMP accreditation to date, as well as the number of members who will achieve APMP Foundation level accreditation either at workshops prior to or at the annual APMP conference, by the time of the conference – the first week of June – more than 50% of APMP members will have achieved some level of APMP accreditation.
I’ve no doubt that reaching the point where the majority of APMP members have some level of accreditation will lead to an expectation of a person working in the proposal arena being APMP accredited. More and more, ads for proposal staff will read, “APMP accreditation required” or “APMP accreditation given preference.”
The good news is there’s still time for you to become accredited prior to the conference. We will facilitate an APMP Foundation Level Accreditation Preparation Workshop and Exam in the Washington D.C. on May 24t (information and registration regarding the workshops Strategic Proposals has scheduled can be found at www.apmpaccreditation.com). And there’s also a workshop scheduled immediately prior to the conference.
Jon and I, as strong supporters of and believers in the value of APMP accreditation, hope reaching this important milestone will help many you who have been undecided about APMP accreditation finally go for it (and we hope to see you in one of our upcoming workshops!)
Posted by Jon on 12 May, 2010 under APMP & accreditation, Word play & writing |
Although I’m travelling so extensively at the moment that it’s hard to get a moment to stop and think, I am beginning to really look forward to the APMP conference, which starts in Orlando in just a few weeks’ time.
As well as a session (“Proposal World”) from the main stage with BJ on the Thursday morning of the event, I’m presenting a slot on “The Excellent Executive Summary”. I submitted my final paper last week, and the good folks at APMP were kind enough to review it in detail.
They came back with the observation that they’d apparently found a “punctuation error”. The issue concerned was a box in which I’d used the phrase “e.g. RFP”, provoking them to observe:
there should be a comma after “e.g.” and before the RFP acronym, so it looks like “e.g.,”
This rather surprised me, so I thought I’d check it out. After all, if “e.g.” without a comma is incorrect, I’ve made proofreading errors in pretty much every document I’ve written over the years! And a reliable online source made for interesting reading:
For American English usage, you should always put a comma right after both “i.e.” and “e.g.”, as shown in the examples above. For British English usage, do not put a comma right after either “i.e.” or “e.g.”.
Well, I never knew that! I’m used to the fact that spellings are sometimes different on opposite sides of the pond – but I’d never picked up on this particularly subtle difference in punctuation.
Of course, were the APMP conference a US event, I’d clearly translate my material into American English. But it’s not – it’s an international event that happens to take place in the States, with an audience drawn from across the globe. As such, I think it’s more appropriate to present in my native language! Yet even that’s an interesting point for debate…
Posted by Jon on 30 March, 2010 under APMP & accreditation, Processes & best practice |
One of APMP’s powerful contributions to the profession is its code of ethics. It’s hidden away on the APMP website, and is well worth a read if you’ve not looked at it lately:
Members of the APMP are expected to:
- Comply with rules, government regulations, and laws in their respective countries, as well as other appropriate private and public regulatory agencies.
- Ensure compliance with all rules concerning interaction with clients and Government liaisons.
- Protect sensitive information and comply with all legal requirements for the disclosure of information.
- Avoid conflicts of interest, or the appearance of same, and disclose to their employer or client any circumstances that may influence their judgment and objectivity.
- Ensure that a mutual understanding of the objectives, scope, work plan, and fee arrangements has been established before accepting any assignment.
- Represent the proposal profession with integrity in their relationships with employers, clients, colleagues, and the general public.
- When in doubt about how to resolve an ethical dilemma, confer with a person you trust—one who is not directly involved in the outcome.
We circulate the document periodically around our team within Strategic Proposals; I’ve actually just proposed that we each also sign a copy of the code once a year as a reminder of good practice. I wonder whether others in the profession should do the same – or, at least, distribute a copy to colleagues who might not have seen it?
Posted by BJ on 26 January, 2010 under APMP & accreditation |
Strategic Proposals offers APMP Foundation Level Accreditation Exam Preparation Workshops (dare we refer to these as APMPFLAEPW?) on both sides of the Atlantic. Last year alone Jon and I have delivered 17 workshops, with a total of 142 participants*.
The exam is a pass/fail and scores aren’t revealed. That said, after each course, both Jon and I review the scores, calculate the average score for the group, etc.
An interesting aspect to the scores is that, very consistently, the person with the least amount of experience receives one of the lower scores and the person with the most experience tends to have one of the highest scores. Average scores tend to range from 55-65 (candidates must answer 42 out of the 75 questions correctly to pass.). The passing rate for those attending the workshop is very high (98% in the US) and those who have not passed the exam, from my perspective as the facilitator clearly did not have the understanding of proposals required to answer the questions.
I know this seems like common sense and I guess it is. I point this out to demonstrate that the exam does do a good job of testing a candidates understanding of the basic knowledge of proposal that someone with over a year of experience would have.
*Did you know that the number of people who achieved APMP Foundation Level accreditation this year is 54% higher than last year? Did you know that, to date, more than 1350 people are APMP accredited? At this rate, by the next annual conference (June, 2010, a majority of the members of APMP will have some level of accreditation. Will you be one of them or will you be playing catch up?
Posted by Jon on 18 January, 2010 under APMP & accreditation, Processes & best practice |
Whilst presenting an APMP Foundation Level training course to a group before Christmas, I found myself getting frustrated by the negative spin that the examiners take on the “Learning review” process. What’s the point, according to the syllabus, of a lessons learnt process? It’s to “recognize systemic process issues and drive their resolution”; the aim is “to do better next time”.
It struck me that whoever developed this section of APMP’s competency framework must have had some pretty bad personal experiences running proposals. If the learning review is so negative – working from the assumption that so much went on that was wrong, that so many things need to be corrected – then it’s no wonder that it can be hard to secure people’s open, frank participation in the process. The working assumption underlying the “white review” would appear to be that the proposal team has just endured a soul-destroying journey into the valley of despair – and the inevitable risk is that those who do participate in the learning process will approach the exercise feeling defensive, confrontational and negative.
No, a learning review should be framed in a positive way. Look to celebrate what went well on the bid – those things you’d do again; the things that worked; the things you’d want other teams to try on their next proposal effort. And then – without attributing blame – look at what the team would have done differently (with the benefit of hindsight, even), or would want to approach in a different way the next time around. After all, even the most successful bids aren’t all plain sailing – and so many unsuccessful teams do so much cool stuff without quite getting across the finishing line in first place.
Posted by Jon on 29 April, 2009 under APMP & accreditation |
Good news for those of you contemplating taking the APMP Foundation Level exam, especially in the UK!
Since the pricing of the exam is set in US dollars, and sterling has been weak, APMP announced immediately before Christmas that the price for those taking the exam in the UK would increase by over 30% from 1January 2009.
Needless to say, as a member of the APMP Accreditation Steering Committee, I immediately wrote a note protesting against the rise, and a meeting of the full committee was called as a result. Following that, I’m pleased to say that the exam fees for APMP members have been reduced from 1 April. The sterling rate’s come down from £300 to £250; the dollar fee has also been cut from $450 to $400.
It’s taken some clever negotiating by chief examiner Cathy Day to sort out the reduction – as well as financial contributions towards the price reduction from APMP, APM Group (who administer the exam) and the Approved Training Organisations (such as our own company, Strategic Proposals). Our thanks to Cathy for all of her efforts. But I have to say I’m feeling rather pleased that I challenged the price rises in the first place, when everyone else seemed to be going along with them so merrily.
