Write an appropriate proposalinternal, solicited sales, or unsolicited salesbased on the information contained in one of the following two articles. Assume that your or your prospective customers company or community faces a problem similar to one discussed in one of these articles. Use as much of the information in the article as you need, and add any details of your own that you think are necessary. This exercise can be done as an individual or a collaborative assignment. Depending upon the scenario you choose, your proposal may be an inside or an outside communication. You will need to format the proposal as appropriate to the situation. Please read page 524 to page 526.
A. Multiuse Campuses: A Plan That Works
Gaylord Community School in Gaylord, Michigan, is a bustling center of activity from the first light of dawn to well after dusk. People of all ages come and go until late into the eve-ning for a multitude of activities that include attending classes and meetings, catching up with friends, getting a flu shot, and seeing a play. Thats because in addition to a high school, the campus also includes senior and day-care centers, classrooms for adult education, an audi-torium for the performing arts, a community health care site, and even a space that can be booked for weddings and other special occasions.
In Big Lake, Minnesota, elementary, middle, and high school buildings are all situated on one centrally located campus that makes up the entire Big Lake School District. Also in-cluded in this innovative layout are a state-of-the-art theater, a community resource center, and a multipurpose athletic arena, all of which are used extensively by the entire community.
Both the Gaylord and Big Lake schools are models of a growing movement toward mul-tiuse community campuses that serve as anchor[s] in the civic life of our nation, according to U.S. Secretary of Education RichardW.Riley. I recently had the pleasure of visiting Secre-tary Riley in his office. Also present were AARP President Joe Perkins and National Retired Teachers Association Director Annette Norsman, both of whom are involved in many facets of education and lifelong learning.
We discussed many things, including our concerns about the current increase in the number of students caused by the Baby Boom echo (children of the Boomers) and how that population is going to further stress the already crumbling infrastructure of Ameri-can schools. We also talked about the need for resourcesto employ more teachers, bring technology into the classroom, strengthen educational curriculum and opportunities for all agesand the pressing need to build and renovate schools. That led to a discussion about the necessity and benefit of involving the whole community in the design and use of new school facilities.
I always thought that it was a shame that the majority of schools are used only a third of the day, three fourths of the year, by only a fifth of the population. Considering that there will be more school construction over the next decade than at any time since the 1950s, it just makes sense to consider the intergenerational and community benefits of multiuse spaces, benefits that include everything from establishing better learning environments to getting more bang for the tax buck.
There are many additional bonuses for multiuse educational complexes: They create an exciting community hub, bring life and culture to a central area, and revitalize and nourish the neighborhood in which they are located.
Its a win-win situation for everyone involved.
B. Self-Illuminating Exit Signs
The Marine Corps Development and Education Center (MCDEC), Quantico, Virginia, sub-mitted a project recently, to replace incandescent illumination exit signs with self- illuminating exit signs for a cost of $97,238. The first-year savings were anticipated to be about $37,171 with an anticipated payback time of 2.6yearsmaking this an excellent way to save money.
The primary benefit of these self-illuminating exit signs is that virtually all operation and maintenance expense is eliminated for the life of the device, normally from 10 to 12years. Power failures or other disturbances will not cause them to go out. In new construction, expensive electrical circuits can be totally eliminated. In retrofits, the release of a dedicated circuit for other use may be of considerable benefit. Initial total cost of installing circuits and conventional devices approximately equals the cost of the self-illuminating signs. Installation labor and expense for the self-illuminating signs is about that of hanging a picture.
The amount of electricity saved varies and depends on whether your existing fixtures are fluorescent (13 to 26watts) or incandescent (50 to 100watts). Multiply the number of fixtures wattage/fixture hours operated/day days/year = kWh/year savings. For example, assume:
400 incandescent fixtures
$0.10/kWh
0.04 kW/fixture
24 hours/day, 365 days/year operation
400 0.04 24 365 = 140,160 kWh/year
140,160 $0.10 = $14,016/year for electricity
Now add in savings achieved from reducing labor to change bulbs; avoiding bulb material, stocking, and storage costs; avoiding transportation costs involved in bulb changes; and reus-ing existing bulbs.
The above savings can be significant. For the MCDEC Quantico project, estimates of bulb change interval and savings were 700hours (29days) and $13,512/ year when all factors were considered.
The cost of a self-illuminating sign depends on whether one or two faces are illumi-nated primarily and varies between different suppliers. Single-face prices will likely be $200 to $250 while double-face prices may be $450 to $500. The contractor at Quantico found bet-ter prices than these ranges indicate. The labor cost should be about $10per sign.
If you can use an exit-sign system with high dependability, no maintenance, and zero operations cost in your retrofit or new construction projects, try a self-illuminating exit-sign system in your economic analysis today. Isolite signs, by Safety Light Corp., are listed as FSC (Fire Safety Code) Group 99, PartIV, SectionA, Class 9905 signs and are available through GSA contract. Contact Gerald Harnett, Safety Light Corp., P.O. Box266, Green-belt, MD 20070 for more information.
