It’s proposal time again. Each year, as the late weeks of summer wind down two things happen with the world of government spending; an accounting is done of how much funding is left in the budget to spend on current fiscal year projects and eyes begin looking into the next year’s allocation to spend some more. This prompts a flury of acronym laden contract taskers and other stuff I don’t understand. What I do understand and have come to accept is that while other folks are relaxing during these dog days of summer, my husband is cranking into high gear, working on proposals to win some of these contracts which are the meat and potatoes of the “beltway bandits”.
I know television paints an exciting picture of deals being made at lavish cocktail parties, on an exclusive golf course or five star restaurants. From my perspective, I see teams of dedicated people, working extended hours and weekends, never far from their Blackberries, recruiting, reviewing resumes, crunching numbers and finally packaging proposals to be sent to other teams for review before submission. As for the drinks and sumptuous food, generally it’s pizza or subs. All of this work is time sensitive – did I mention there are deadlines involved? Most contracts seem to either wither and die or are born on October 1st of any given year.
For my part, I have put aside any complaints I’ve had in the past of Dave’s long hours at the office. God knows he wouldn’t be there unless he had to be. Gone are the days of the complaining wife, at least for today………………..