Here's where a small shop has its advantages.  I tell faculty that if
they bring me into the loop on a grant application several weeks in
advance, I'll rearrange my life as needed to stay as late as necessary
the day their proposal is submitted.  (And then I'll leave really early
the next day, which I can probably do because at our institution
submissions come in spurts with a nice lull in between.)

In my one year at this job, I've only had two occasions of faculty
bringing me into a proposal process at the last minute, and both were
sub-awards where they didn't realize that someone "official" from our
college actually had to provide information to the primary institution.
In both cases, the work needed at my end was minimal, and the folks at
the primary institution were the ones stuck with the actual submission.

It's not that people are necessarily wonderful about coming to me early
in the process.  I make a practice of hanging out at faculty meetings
and lectures and have even shown up in a class to hear a guest speaker.
It's often at these sorts of occasions that a professor suddenly
announces "I should probably be talking to you, because I'm in the
process of writing a proposal for a grant."

I know I'm going to have some crazy days at the office, but the ability
to forecast those days and plan for them is something that makes this
job a pleasure.  Those whose grant volume is higher probably don't have
this luxury.  We receive about $3 million per year.

Landy

__________________________
Landy C. Johnson, MPA, Ph.D.
Director of Grant Development
Assumption College, Alumni Hall 024
500 Salisbury St.
Worcester, MA  01609-1296
(508)767-7666
xxxxxx@assumption.edu

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