Ever struggled to get SMEs or team members fully engaged? Let’s talk about what works and what doesn’t when motivating contributors who are hard to reach. Share your success stories, creative tactics, and lessons learned for building collaboration and accountability. Together, we’ll explore ways to turn reluctant participants into active partners in proposal success.

Because we know proposal professionals spend all day writing and reviewing, this session is designed to be low-pressure and high-validation. Whether you want to unmute and share a 60-second horror story, quietly drop your thoughts into the chat, or just nod along in agreement while eating your lunch, this forum is for you. Come for the shared validation, stay for the sanity-saving workarounds and best practices shared by your MidSouth peers. Let's talk about what's actually happening in the trenches!

Heading to the APMP Bid & Proposal Conference (BPC) in Denver, or thinking about it? Join APMP MidSouth for an informal Coffee Talk designed to help you make the most of the conference before you arrive.

This member‑driven discussion will cover what to realistically expect at BPC Denver, how to prioritize sessions and networking in a fast‑paced environment, and practical tips to avoid common first‑timer (and repeat‑attendee) pitfalls. We’ll also share how MidSouth is showing up at BPC, where to find your chapter, and ways to plug in while you’re there.

Whether this is your first BPC or your fifth, come ready for honest insights, real talk, and shared lessons learned.

Grab your coffee and bring your questions.

APMP certifications are a powerful way to demonstrate expertise, commitment, and professional growth—but knowing where to start (or what’s next) can be challenging. This session provides a practical overview of APMP’s Signature Certifications—Foundation, Practitioner, and Professional—as well as an introduction to Micro-Certifications and how they complement the broader credential framework.

Participants will gain insight into certification requirements, preparation strategies, and how to align credentials with career progression and organizational value. Designed for both early-career and experienced proposal professionals, this webinar encourages open discussion, shared experiences, and real-world guidance.

If you’re considering certification or simply want to better understand how APMP credentials support professional development, this session will help you make informed decisions.

Ever hit that “now what?” wall right after kickoff? This session dives into content planning as your proposal team’s secret weapon — turning RFP requirements into a clear, strategic roadmap before anyone starts drafting. It’s all about getting alignment fast, locking in ownership + compliance early, and weaving in win themes from the start — so the whole process feels cleaner, quicker, and way more confident heading into proposal reviews. 

Presenter: Rosalia Pettinato-Einhorn, CF APMP 
Proposal Manager | Woolpert

Rosalia is a proposal marketing professional with six years of experience helping A/E firms win public- and private-sector work. An APMP Certified Foundation (CF) professional, she enjoys blending strategy, storytelling, and design to create proposals that are both compliant and compelling. She holds degrees in Business Marketing and Visual Communications / Graphic Design, bringing a well-rounded, creative approach to proposal development.

Outside of work, Rosalia loves cooking Italian food and unwinding on long walks with her German Shepherd, Eiffel—usually her favorite way to recharge after a deadline.

Join us for a practical discussion on Past Performance Questionnaires (PPQs)! How do you select the strongest references, handle CPARS, and ensure compliance? Share your strategies for managing PPQs under tight deadlines and learn what others do to make this process smooth and stress-free. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or new to PPQs, bring your tips and questions—because strong past performance can make all the difference in a win

From the beginning of time, Proposal Managers have suffered from the job creep of capture responsibilities outside of their expertise and job role. While proposal and capture roles are distinct in theory, we often find that we are expected to connect strategy to execution, translate customer insight into win themes, and keep everyone aligned — all while hitting proposal deadlines.

This webinar is for Proposal Managers who find themselves wearing the capture hat — sometimes reluctantly, sometimes by necessity. We’ll talk candidly about what capture activities actually matter to proposal success, which ones you can realistically handle, and where you should stop trying to do it all yourself. Grounded in APMP best practices but firmly rooted in real-world experience, this session offers practical guidance for turning capture insight into stronger proposals, delegating effectively, and protecting both proposal quality and your own sanity.

If you’ve ever thought, “This isn’t technically my job… but someone has to do it,” this webinar is for you.

Grab your favorite brew and join fellow APMP members for a relaxed conversation on Shipley’s color team process. Do you swear by Pink, Red, and Gold reviews—or have your own twist? Maybe you skip them altogether! This is your chance to share what works for you, learn from others, and pick up fresh ideas to strengthen proposal quality. Bring your stories, questions, and best practices—because great proposals start with great collaboration.

Join us for an open conversation focused on YOU, our members! This is your chance to share ideas, voice your priorities, and help shape the future of our chapter. We’ll discuss what matters most to you and explore ways to turn your input into meaningful programs and benefits. Your participation is key to creating a chapter that reflects your needs and aspirations. Come ready to speak up and make an impact!

Let's gather together and unpack all the amazing things you can do with MS Copilot.  Whether you are a super-user or brand new to the Copilot world, you will leave this chat with tools to turn Copilot into your personal intern, assistant, and SME!

Most losing proposals don’t fail on strategy, they fail on execution. This session exposes the most common mistakes made in proposal responses and provides clear, practical methods to avoid them. Participants will learn how to tighten clarity, sharpen compliance, elevate storytelling, and align more directly with evaluator expectations. You will leave with tools you can apply immediately to produce stronger, more competitive proposals in 2026 and beyond.

Presented by Rachael Towle

This session introduces a strategic framework for crafting compelling and compliant win themes that resonate with evaluators and clearly communicate value in federal proposals. Using a “WIN Theme Formula,” attendees will learn how to identify customer hot buttons, align discriminators to evaluation criteria, and weave win themes consistently throughout proposal sections. Designed for proposal professionals at all experience levels, this session breaks down the process into a repeatable, easy-to-apply method that improves clarity, compliance, and competitiveness. Participants will leave with actionable techniques to elevate the persuasive power of their proposals.

Learning Objectives:
1. Define What Makes a WIN Theme Effective: Learn the characteristics of a strong win theme and how they differ from simple benefit statements.
2. Apply the WIN Theme Formula: Understand how to use a repeatable formula to connect features, benefits, and customer-focused outcomes to evaluation factors.
3. Craft WIN Themes Collaboratively: Explore techniques to extract discriminators and win themes from SMEs and capture teams.
4. Integrate WIN Themes Across the Proposal: Learn how to ensure win themes are consistently reflected in executive summaries, introductions, and throughout technical and management volumes.
5. Evaluate and Strengthen WIN Themes: Gain tools to assess the strength of a win theme and revise it for clarity, compliance, and impact.

Target Audience:

This session is designed for proposal managers, writers, capture professionals, and solution architects involved in federal proposal development. Whether you’re new to win themes or looking to refine your process, this session offers practical strategies to sharpen your competitive edge.

Speaker:
Adelicia Phillips is a seasoned proposal manager and business development professional with nearly 15 years of experience in compliance program development, business development, process improvement, and strategic proposal development. She currently resides in Fairhope, Alabama with her husband, daughter, and two dogs named Dolly and Jasper. Adelicia holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) and is highly proficient in proposal best practices, including Shipley. Her leadership and expertise continue to drive the chapter's success and growth.

A trending topic in Proposal Management, Knowledge Management (KM) is crucial for business development in 2025. KM, in short, is a standardized methodology for delivering the right information to the right people at the right time and in the right format to win new business. In this APMP MidSouth presentation, learn how to maximize the value of your proposal content, lessons learned, best practices, customer-related knowledge, and deal-crafting expertise. We will discuss the integration of technology and KM, cultural change and knowledge sharing, tacit versus explicit knowledge, and effective strategies to cope with rapid information growth.

Caroline McLaughlin is a Knowledge Manager with a passion for transforming information chaos into clarity. With a background as a reference librarian and proposal coordinator, she specializes in designing digital repositories that ensure no draft, resource, or insight is ever lost. Caroline is a Microsoft Office Specialist Expert with BA in English from the University of North Florida and an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of South Carolina, with additional graduate studies in Information Architecture from Florida State University. At Professional Contract Services, Inc. (PCSI), she leads knowledge initiatives for the BD wing of a $250M Government contractor.

For May's monthly meeting, we will be hosting an open forum to discuss the annual APMP Bid & Proposal Con, which will be hosted in Nashville on May 18-21 this year. 

In this discussion, we'll talk about how we can help you make the most of your time at BPC and allow newcomers to ask questions so that all of our members feel welcome and ready to take advantage of the conference.

Julie Patel fell into the world of proposals 10 years ago and never looked back. She has managed proposals in a variety of markets and industries, including infrastructure, strategic consulting, and health and human services. Currently the proposal director for Woolpert, Inc., a global architecture/engineering/geospatial firm, Julie oversees a team of talented professionals who work closely with their markets and each other to develop high-quality proposals that stay ahead of the competition.

Many of us are Type-A personalities, but that doesn’t mean we are always organized. Work gets busy, emails stack up, and a good cleaning may be in order.  Whether you need tips to be better organized or have tips to help others, we want to hear from you!
We will also share the latest from APMP for BPC 2025.  We are expecting more information from APMP before the end of this week and want to make sure we keep the flow of information down to our members as well.
During the last 15 minutes of our meeting, we will randomly choose one member from the meeting to receive a $25 gift card.