1/27/2010 Post

For your blog, choose one of these to pontificat about: 1. funding our own education, 2. presentation methods, 3. finding your organization to represent.

3. I know what kind of work interests me and what kind of grants I'd like to go for. However, the types of grants are so large and have so much competition that it seems unlikely that a small organization with a need for a grant writer would able to even begin to apply for them. The example for nuclear modeling and simulation in my presentation is exactly what I'm talking about. This subject interests me to no end...I'd love to get in on working on the grant for this, however, it seems that those who are actively seeking are universities and research companies like AREVA or Bechtel with large staffs full of proposal writers and no need for outside help.

However, another possibility would be to seek small R&D businesses that focus on military weaponary. I used to work for a company like that and we were on the receiving end of a SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant, DARPA grant, and a Navy Research grant. Perhaps I could approach my former superiors and see if they need some help going after grants they have their eye one...or maybe I could even help a business seeking their very first grant for start up funds...that seems rewarding.

I also want to get involved with my community and the grant I saw on rebuilding main streets would be perfect for Dothan, AL...now, I only need to get information on who in the city I might need to contact to get that going...maybe a developer? maybe a city commissioner? I don't know...and when I don't know I tend to get stuck in inertia.

1/13/2010 Post

What problems do you want to work to solve? Be as descriptive and complete as possible, and perhaps relay the mission statements of the organizations you are thinking about writing on behalf of here.

I don't know that I want to work towards solving a problem...and if I do, I haven't even begun to truly think about it. Ultimately I guess my main point to proposal writing would be to get business start up money for myself and those close to me...so that ellipsis was about 30 minutes of trying to think of something else to blog to no avail. So I'll stop here, because anything else would be disingenuous.