(empo-tymshft) Guilty by association (APMP)

I saw the tweet on Friday afternoon:

I just ousted @empoprises as the mayor of Hilton Hotel on @foursquare!

That led me to look back at some blog posts that I wrote last October, back when I became the mayor of the Hilton Hotel in Costa Mesa. And, naturally, I ended up looking at my Thursday 10:00 pm post, (empo-tymshft) On post-acquisition reorganizations. This post started off in a generic way, but eventually became personal, as I talked about my own job change that resulted from a post-acquisition reorganization.

To catch most of you up, I was a proposal writer for several years before I became a product manager. After my division was acquired, combined with another division, and reorganized, I ended up back in proposals after a nearly ten-year absence.

Two items merit comment at this time. First, you may remember that I said the following back in October:

And frankly, this is a VERY interesting time to be in proposals again...

This is still true, but not for the reasons that I was thinking of back in October. Without giving away any corporate secrets, let's just say that my presence in the proposals department has given me a number of opportunities that I wouldn't have had otherwise.

And I've also resurrected an old association. Back in 1999, at the encouragement of my then-Proposal Manager, I joined the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP), and attended its annual conference down in San Diego. By the next year, however, when I had become a product manager, I let my APMP membership lapse. So now that I was back in proposals, I sent an e-mail to the APMP with the following subject line:

Can you reinstate an APMP membership from the last millennium?

Guess what? They could. They had retained all of my membership information from ten years ago, and I just had to update a few things (and, of course, pay the membership fee), but I am now again a member of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals.

Here's what they say about themselves - an executive summary, if you will:

About APMP
Our mission is to advance the arts, sciences, and technology of new business acquisition and to promote the professionalism of those engaged in those pursuits.

Through association and education, we provide our members access to tools, methods, processes, innovations, talent and specialized expertise that can directly improve the ability to acquire new business and to sustain growth and competitiveness in a dynamic and demanding marketplace.

Our membership is growing rapidly into an internationally recognized association with membership and corporate sponsors from a diverse range of disciplines and industries. Our members are committed to the pursuit of proposal excellence. Our journey has been one of promoting the professionalism of our members and shaping the future of the proposal profession in the United States and throughout the world.

Now this doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to Orlando - I probably won't - but it's good to be back in the APMP.

But Gordon W., your mayorship at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort is safe - at least from me.