Learn how to prepare, organize, structure, and edit basic proposals and requests. All too often, fire service personnel rely on informal verbal requests to acquire the things they need. In this era of diminishing budgets, the need to construct convincing requests and proposals has become more apparent. Participants will learn a basic proposal format to help simplify the proposal and request-writing process and will become familiar with elements of persuasion that strengthen the process. Lessons learned in this session could be applied to simple station requests, budget requests, policy change requests, or to more formal requests for equipment, staffing, support, etc.
This seminar shows that the likelihood of getting what you need is directly linked to how clearly, correctly, completely, and convincingly you state your case in writing. Participants can take the proposal material back to their firehouses and instruct other firefighters on how to use the format to bring higher quality requests to their departments and boards.
Length of Session: 3.5 – 4 hours
Resources for attendees:
- Participants receive a handout that can serve as a long-term reference, both for the content covered in class and with a list of resources that allow them to continue building on the lessons learned.
- Sample template for constructing persuasive proposals and requests
