Proposals

Proposal letters are used to address many forms of audiences.  The one thing that these audiences will have in common is that they will have some general authority over a procedure, project, plan. or situation.  The purpose of a proposal is to promote an agenda regarding the body of work that the audience has control over.  A strong proposal will be able to influence this audience to consider you or your suggestions for future implementation.  This could include improvements to a city park, reworking company safety policy for better efficiency, or higher quality meals from a school/university cafeteria. Anyone who submits a proposal to an audience must be ready to persuade that audience to buy into the content to his or her proposal.  Furthermore, a proposal should be adaptable for adjustments.  By this I mean that the proposal should have room for tweaking to the audiences specific needs before an agreement is made.  The proposal should be complete before it is submitted, however the submitter should anticipate potential changes that the audience may want to make at the last minute.

In 2009, two friends and I submitted a proposal to the Chesaning City Parks Committee.  Our proposal was unsolicited, and addressed the installation of an eighteen hole disc golf course in Showboat Park.  The course would be complete with  eighteen baskets with two placements for each hole, long and short tee boxes for each hole, and proper signage to aide navigation around the course.  Our proposal included a time frame, background information about the game, benefits for the local economy, and paperwork outlining the exact cost of material beforehand.  The labor would be provided by local clubs and the total project would be complete within two weeks.  In the end, our proposal was declined, and in 2011 the city installed a nine hole course without the guidance of experienced players.  Because the city decided to use its park maintenance crew instead of knowledgeable players, it remains the most underplayed and poorly designed course in Saginaw County.

In my personal opinion, our proposal was the ultimate proposal.  It had all the key elements of a successful proposal such as cost, time frame, economical impact, social impact, design, testimonial from other city park committees, and growth trends of the game itself.  In the end, I believe that our proposal was more than the committee was ready to hear.  Due to the fact that it was unsolicited, the city was not necessarily looking to expand on the functionality of its park.  Several years later, the idea had  found its way to the park's budget.  Unfortunately the installation was done in house.