James

The past few weeks have been a great exercise of the many things we have learned throughout the semester in our class. We were fortunate enough to get a range of applications in from a pretty good selection of organizations throughout PG county. I think that many of us were relieved when Saturday came around and we saw the bounty of applications that we had feared might not come. Having a broad range of applicants has been great because we can really use the knowledge and viewpoints we have developed over the course of this class to debate and whittle down the list of applicants until we decide on who we want to interview and visit.

I think that having the panel speak has been a great asset for us. Several panel members cautioned us to not place too much weight on the application because some great organizations might not have the best writing while conversely terrible organizations could have really great writers. I think that advice has been instrumental in our decision to interview by phone a broad range of applicants to give everyone a chance to make their case. We received several applications that people weren't too crazy about due to poor writing or budget presentation but myself and many others feel we have nothing to lose by giving them a chance in a phone interview.

Site visits are another story as we have very limited time left in the course and many people have very busy schedules. I think that we need to be very careful in where we decide to visit as we should only explore the best options to be able to better decide amongst them. I don't think we should copy our plan with the phone interviews and give the underdogs a chance because I think that by that time they will have had ample opportunities to make their cases. I think that the site visits are too valuable as opportunities to distinguish between organizations doing really good, efficient work and those who aren't as invested in their work.