A primary concern for any park, playground, or golf course is the safety of the citizens who frequent them. Citizens are more likely to frequent parks where there is the convenience and security of intercom systems available to them on a regular basis. This is a quick how-to guide for a citizen to create a Fund Request Proposal to submit and improve security.
Often, the citizen is tempted to suggest the installation of phone booths, since it is easier to obtain budget funds for telephone lines than budget funds for wireless systems. This is a mistake, as it can lead to those phone booths being used for drug trafficking. Intercom systems that link directly to a security center or central hub can meet the same needs as a phone system without drawing nasty crowds to isolated areas.
1. Obtain the proposal requirements from the City Council. All organizations have some rules about how they want proposals to be presented to them. Some even have formats for how they should look. You can often find this information on their website or by giving a quick call to their front desk. Some require specific items of information and others have no requirements other than that the proposal be typed and on 8 ½ by 11 sheets of paper. Make sure you know your requirements come first! This is an unsolicited proposal that you are creating, so please pay attention to that section of the instructions.
2. Make a map of your park or golf course. Define the terrain and where people congregate the most. Is there an older system? Is it still working or does that old system need to be replaced? Get the specs of the old system to see if it can integrate with today’s newer technology. You can request the older system specifications and park layout from the town hall. Consider the more remote areas you want to include in the system. More and more cities are going “green”, some of the newer technology supports this with solar powered wireless phone booths. Determine if each of the areas has AC available or if solar is best suited to the needs and goals of the park.
3. Define the level and type of events: Take a look at your trails, golf courses, playgrounds, baseball fields, soccer fields, maintenance buildings, tennis courts, basketball courts, parking lots, visitor rest areas, and concession stands. Does everyone need wireless call box stations? How far is one intercom station from the next? How reliable is your ground crew and how much of your equipment “walks” or breaks down on a regular basis? Does your staff need a combination of wired and wireless call box intercom system? Do they need a portable two-way radio to communicate with the intercoms? A golf event requires cordless phones and phone booths, while soccer matches on 3 fields near the concession stand will probably only need phone booths. Consider how many of the wireless intercom system units will be outdoors and subject to weather.
4. Creating Your Funding Proposal Hardware List – At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of what your communication system needs are. Now you need an expert to help you choose the right intercom system parts to create an integrated system. You need to include them in your proposal. A good site to visit is http://www.intercomsonline.com. They have a variety of different wired and wireless intercom systems to choose from. They also have a strong customer support system that can help you develop a smooth intercom communication system. You can use a prepared invoice and product data sheets as part of your hardware quote request.
5. Create your Construction List for the Financing Proposal: Using the information you obtained from the sales representative, see how many modifications you need to make to the park or golf course. Do you need to remove the entire old system or just a part? Do you need to erect a pole to mount any units on it? How fast does this have to happen? How long do they have to complete the job? What special equipment will they need to provide? Who is responsible for cleaning up and removing any debris or old hardware? Will it require little or no modification to your facility? If there are significant modifications, you’ll need to call a few local construction companies and get estimates. Make sure they are certified to work in parks, playgrounds, and golf courses. Ask them to look at your permits and get copies of those permits!
6. Create your labor schedules for your financing proposal: Using the information from your construction estimates, create a quick organizational chart for your project. This can be very simple. It should include a project manager, a health and safety inspector, and who the construction team is. Most of the time, the construction/installation company can provide you with all the names and their jobs.
7. Create Your Timeline Your Financing Proposal: Using information from your construction estimates, create a quick milestone timeline for your project. Most of the time, your construction team can provide the bulk of this document as well. You should check to make sure it includes things like start date, meetings, purchase date, delivery dates for different hardware, old hardware removal, new hardware installation, safety inspections, permit testing, and finally operations. Be sure to list the start and end dates for each item and who is responsible for seeing that each action takes place.
8. Create your Funding Proposal Justification – This can be very short and simple. If you’ve done your homework, the end result is set; you don’t need to refer to it except once or twice. It should show how the safety and efficiency of city parks will be improved by installing a new system or upgrading the old one. This is simply a set of statistics or photos of old, unusable equipment. This is probably what prompted the request in the first place.
9. Create a Funding Proposal Package: This doesn’t need to be too elaborate either. Fund approval committees like proposals that are sharp and well presented, short and sweet. Don’t use the “whammy” factor by overloading them with junk. Use this general format, but check with your local council for special proposal requirements.
Cover letter (who are you, why are you concerned, why are you proposing this as a citizen)
Cover (title, date, subject, who is sending, who is being sent to)
table of Contents
Justification
Labour
timeline
General budget
Supporting documents: hardware costs (invoice and product spec sheets), construction estimates
Now it’s your turn to present it. Remember to emphasize your security as a primary concern for wanting to install this.