Application Strategies : Packaging Your Application
From OnBoard
- Newsletter of the BCG
Printer Friendly
Kay Haviland Freilich , "Packaging Your Application," OnBoard 8
(May 2002): 10-11.
The work is done! You've prepared all the materials needed
for your BCG application. The papers for each requirement
are sitting in neat stacks around your work area. But now
what? How do you assemble those papers to submit to the
judges? What can you do to speed the review process? After
all the time you've spent preparing your portfolio, you
need to consider just a few more points before sending
your application to the BCG office.
Two pounds—Why?
An application to BCG is expected to be a collection of quality
work. Quantity is not one of the criteria. One reason the two-pound
weight was suggested for a portfolio was to encourage applicants
to focus on the quality of their work. Sheer numbers of
photocopied documents accompanying a report do not necessarily
define the report as one of quality. A brief report that
solves a problem, uses a variety of sources, and is well-written
can show far more skills than the report that simply traces
a family through the census, with appropriate copies, or
includes many photocopies from a published work or pension.
By carefully selecting the components of a portfolio most
if not all submissions can meet the suggested size and
demostrate the research skills of the applicant at the
same time.
At the other end of the process, the two-pound size also
allows the judges to devote quality time to reviewing an
application. Judges remember their own application and
want to offer new candidates a review that is both thorough
and thoughtful. Obviously it takes longer to review an
application that weighs six pounds than one that weighs
two pounds. Like everyone else, judges can only find twenty-four
hours in a day, and all are busy. Remember, too, that judges
are not compensated for the time they spend reviewing a
portfolio.
Judges do recognize that in a few instances a portfolio
needs to exceed the two-pound size. But making considered
choices of the materials to submit can make these applications
the exception rather than the rule. As just one example,
the family for a compiled genealogy need not include one
hundred or more descendants to be traced.
Suggestions from the Judges
As part of gathering information for this article, all current
judges were asked for any comments about packaging applications.
Their comments should be of help to all applicants, whether
they are preparing a new portfolio or a renewal.
- Read the directions. Always good advice in
any endeavor, judges recommended carefully reviewing
the directions for assembling and mailing a portfolio
that appear in the BCG Application Guide.
- Choose a notebook or binder carefully. The
notebook or binder that holds your portfolio should hold
it securely while allowing three judges to look carefully
at every page. Very often pages slip out of a clamp binder
and the judge is faced with returning everything to the
binder—hopefully in order. Clamps, whether at the
top or side, often cover material the judges want to
read. If pages have to be released from the clamp, the
danger again exists that pages will be misfiled when
returned to the clamp. Flexible vinyl notebooks, which
should be used with dividers for each part of the application,
were recommended.
- Make double-sided copies. Most judges felt
it was acceptable to use double-sided copies for many
parts of the application, especially the biographical
sections. Some felt that client reports should be submitted
exactly as they were sent to the client. Others noted
it was certainly appropriate to use double-sided copies
for material that first appeared that way, such as excerpts
from a book or journal.
- Reduce the size of copies. Most judges felt
it was acceptable to use letter-size rather than legal-size
paper for copies included in a portfolio, even if the
orignal copy was the larger size. Since this change is
a departure from the instructions to send an exact copy
of client reports, judges suggested adding an expanatory
note at the beginning of the report. Among the times
the smaller copy size is especially appropriate are when
those several pages of a military pension are part of
a report. Folding up the extra three inches of paper
on those larger adds unneccesary bulk to a portfolio.
- Use plastic sleeves for documents. Opinions
were divided on the plastic sleeves that many applicants
use. Those who favored the use of sleeves felt clients
would much prefer to receive documents in the sleeve
as opposed to documents that had been three-hole punched
for a notebook. The opposition mentioned the tendency
of many applicants to include more then one piece of
paper in each sleeve. Having to remove the pages, read
them, and then return them to the sleeve in correct order
negates the value of protecting the documents.
The Ideal Package
The ideal portfolio is placed in a flexible three-ring notebook
with tab dividers for each section. It will fit into a
single standard (12x15 1/2 inches) Tyvek envelope available
from the Postal Service for priority mail and requires
only the standard two-pound Priority Mail postage charge.
Such a package can include a good sampling of the candidate's
work and not require excessive review time. It is easy
to mail to and from the BCG office and the various judges.
It is easy to see all the pages and keep them in order.
Such a package may make you look like a stronger applicant
and will facilitate each judge's review of your application.
Kay Haviland Freilich,
CG
This article was originally published in OnBoard,
BCG's educational newsletter and is protected by copyright.
Individuals may download and print copies for their personal
study. Educators are granted permission to provide copies
to their students as long as BCG, OnBoard, and the
appropriate author are credited as the source of the material.
Republication elsewhere is not permitted.
|
