5 November 1994

Dr. Prudence James, Director
State Historic Preservation Office of Iowa
2323 Capitol Street
Des Moines, Iowa 52202

Dear Pru,

I was pleased to get your call last Thursday, not only because it was a pleasure to hear from you, but also because I so rarely receive a call from a potential client with such good news about her organization. I congratulate you on your success; never before has Iowa's State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) enjoyed such success. Not only did you apply for funding for the most major projects ever (16), but you received at least 80% funding on 100% of the projects, which translates to a record $10.8 million to fund needed preservation projects. After our two meetings last week, and the initial research I've undertaken, I can only see your present situation as a sign of wonderful opportunities in the long run, although I understand the frustrations you are facing until your new wealth in grant money begins pouring in at the beginning of the new year. While the situation is one all of us involved in preservation work face yearly, your situation is particularly complex because your unprecedented success in receiving grants for next year has left you scrambling to prepare for 16 major projects with no available money until January to provide the sort of support you need.

I've spent the last week compiling research and considering the solutions you've suggested for remedying the short-term inefficiencies you face. Your options include instituting flex-time, leasing hardware, and hiring temporary support staff. Whether implemented individually or in some combination, these options should help alleviate your present inefficiencies. Our concern, then, is to find the solution to your problem that will expeditiously answer the short-term inefficiencies you face while responding to the needs of your permanent staff without overburdening them by disrupting your day-to-day operations. With those issues in mind, I submit this proposal, which details Architectural Preservation Consulting's understanding of Iowa SHPO's current situation, our methodology for analyzing the available options and helping you choose the most appropriate solution, our qualifications for carrying out the analysis we propose, and the benefits we believe you will enjoy from working with APC during this exciting and challenging time in your organization's history.

During the ten years you've been with Iowa SHPO, the organization has experienced unprecedented growth. The year you and I were hired, in 1984, Iowa's SHPO office had fallen to 41 among the 50 states in total dollars of public funding and private grant acquisitions (Figure 1). When you were hired, the organization's Board of Directors set a goal--that we would be ranked 30 or higher among all states by 1989. At that time, you suggested privately to me that that goal was a modest one, that in a state with Iowa's population and resources we should be ranked between 28 and 23 every year. Your five year goal, you confided, was a rank of 25 by 1989. You exceeded that goal and gave much of the credit to your staff, whom you energized and encouraged throughout those first five years of growing pains. You built a cohesive team during those difficult years, and the 100% success rate for this 1995 funding proposals is a testament to Iowa SHPO's staff hard work and team spirit.

Under your guidance, Iowa SHPO's history of concern for employees has translated into employee loyalty. During your tenure as Director, only two employees have moved to other positions, and both of us have maintained close ties to Iowa SHPO: as a city planner in Iowa City, Karen Williams continues to work with Iowa SHPO, most recently establishing a Riverside State Historic District. APC worked with Karen and Iowa SHPO on that project. As partner in APC, I've worked with Iowa SHPO on at least one major project each year since I left, and am especially excited that we will both be involved in next year's National Trust project to establish a National Historic District in Mason City's Rock Crest/Rock Glen neighborhoods. I have to think that the National Trust's interest in the area was sparked by the article we co-authored for Preservation News while I was still at Iowa SHPO, but I know it has been your aggressive lobbying for state action to protect this endangered neighborhood that forced the Board of Directors to approach the National Trust for a joint venture. The project is close to the hearts of all of us at APC, and we're pleased to be beginning it in the company of friends. Because I've remained so close to the organization, I've enjoyed celebrating your phenomenal success this year, but I share your concern that the success must not be at the cost of your loyal employees.

You quite strongly expressed your concerns about employee morale and waning team spirit during our last two meetings, and my research since then suggests your concerns are justified. My close ties with Iowa SHPO have allowed me to speak frankly to several of the professional staff, and they simply reiterated your concern for a quick solution to the inefficiencies caused by the disproportionate growth of professional staff without needed support staff and equipment (Figures 2 and 3).

Though after five years with Iowa SHPO you had achieved a ratio of both computers and support staff to professional staff that equaled typical ratios at the top 15 SHPOs across the nation, by 1994 the addition of new professional staff quickly distorted that balance. While this imbalance would not be so serious if you were still in the bottom ten state preservation organizations, if you wish to remain competitive with the big states, your growing professional staff must have access to the support vehicles--either personnel or machine--that will allow them to work efficiently.

When it became clear in January of 1994 that the professional staff had to augmented to take immediate advantage of the newly available increase in private sector funding, you acted quickly and on a tight budget to hire enough professional staff to research and write Iowa SHPO's record number of grant applications. The gamble paid off--perhaps better than you could have anticipated, and now you are left with a large professional staff increasingly frustrated by their inability to efficiently undertake their preliminary research on multimillion dollar projects because nearly half their work hours are spent on duties that support staff could and should easily undertake were they not already so overburdened. This is a perfect example of the problem you face: the support staff are overworked and feel pressured to put in overtime, and the professional staff are unable to do large (and the most important) portions of their jobs because they spend valuable time waiting in line to do things like use a Xerox machine so they can file project proposals. In many cases, however, access to computer support is so severely limited that they must fill their time with these other duties. Several members of the professional staff shared information about their typical daily activities with me. Figure 4 reflects the amount of time the professional staff spends on duties that in most organizations would be fulfilled, at least in part, by support staff. Not only does morale suffer when support staff works overtime and professional staff members do support staff duties, both practices are expensive--too expensive to continue.

You recognized the problems you faced immediately upon receiving the "good news" from the last four of your funding sources in late September. When you began gearing up to organize 16 major projects with January 1, 1995 start dates, you paused to draw up a list of options to help relieve the double encumbrance of staff overwork and equipment overuse while on a tightly restricted budget. To remedy the problems you face, we must work quickly to assess the three options you've suggested: leasing computers, hiring temporary employees, instituting flex-time, or some combination of those options. Moreover, once we've assessed those options and chosen the combination that will best meet your needs, we must have the data available to immediately implement the options you choose. Each day this problem continues costs you money, and could potentially cost you the services of loyal employees. As we move quickly to give you the valuable insight you need to develop and implement a plan to answer your most important concern--an urgent solution to inefficiencies that will respond directly to low employee morale, we will need to examine the following questions:

• What are the essential needs your professional staff faces in order to eliminate the current inefficiencies and keep you competitive for available funds nationwide?
• Which options can be implemented immediately so that Iowa SHPO can quickly and efficiently begin the all-important preliminary research necessary to carry out multimillion dollar preservation projects?
• Which options are the most cost-effective during Iowa SHPO's short-term money crunch?
• What are the most feasible options for unburdening overloaded support staff?
• How can we make those options acceptable to your all staff, and help rebuild crumbling moral and ebbing team spirit?

Your situation is complex because all these questions are inherently connected, and you need a consulting firm that can address them not only individually, but can see the ways they are inter-related and can evaluate all facets of your needs while assessing the best possible solution for each individual at Iowa SHPO and the organization overall.

Although you've expressed the need for insight into the best solution to your immediate problem, you've also been quite clear in your articulation of the of the need to solve the problem immediately--if not yesterday. Therefore, you don't just need insight into the best solution for your problem, you need a consulting firm to focus on the best option(s) that you can implement immediately to give your organization quick relief from the burdens and frustrations it faces. Given these crucial goals, you need a consulting firm that understands the special needs of your organization and can focus on systematically evaluating each option and combination of options to provide you with a solution that is cost-effective, acceptable to your valued employees, non-disruptive to your already busy staff, and most importantly, immediately implement able.

Our objectives then, are to not only supply you with quick insight into a solution, but provide you with a plan based on extensive data evaluating each of the available options in order to hurry implementation of your solution. We are confident of our ability to do this because of our intimate familiarity with your organizational structure and staff, and our connections in the larger historic preservation community. After spending this week talking with you and considering your needs, my colleagues and I at APC have designed a methodology that will not only expediently provide a plan to solve Iowa SHPO's problems, but in addition, will analyze the situation thoroughly enough that you can confidently implement your solution immediately.

Because it is so important to keep your staff involved in the solution to this problem, our methods will focus on their wants and needs in this situation. After five years of working exclusively with historic preservation groups in both the public and private sectors, we are familiar with the feast-or-famine nature of work that relies heavily on grants money for funding. Needless to say, we're also familiar with the frustrations of employees who work in these situations and know the importance of diffusing their frustrations by helping them feel part of the solution without burdening them further. After carefully considering your situation, needs, and the objectives of this needs assessment, we've developed a methodology and timetable that will enable us to concurrently complete both qualitative and quantitative analysis and research into which option or options will best solve your short term problem with inefficiency by allowing us to implement a plan immediately. We've divided our study into two sections--internal and external, though each has a quantitative and qualitative component.

Internal: How we will operate at Iowa SHPO
Whenever an organization is faced with external consultants, tensions can build. Because we are familiar with your organizational culture, we will avoid that tension. Moreover, your willingness to bring in outside people to solve the problem that your employees would be far too taxed to handle in as much depth as is necessary shows your concern for your staff. We will attempt to reinforce that concern by taking as little of your employees time as possible, while still giving them the opportunity to be as involved as they are able outside the workplace. It's been our experience, both at Iowa SHPO and at other similar preservation organizations, that employees want to be involved and have an excellent awareness of the problems facing their organizations. Particularly in the public sector, however, employees tend to have "tunnel vision," an awareness of only the problems (and solutions) that impact them personally. Therefore, we've found that both surveys and interviews are important in helping develop a total picture of how possible solutions would effect not just individuals or departments, but the organization as a whole.

External: How we will analyze external options
Because we have extensive connections in the historic preservation community, locally in Story/Polk counties, throughout the state, and nationwide, we already know what we need to do to provide you with the most complete analysis of your external options. We'll need to do three things externally: investigate temporary agencies, investigate hardware leasing options, and investigate the payroll realities involved in introducing flex-time options among state employees.

The Report: How we will present Iowa SHPO's possible solutions
After collecting and analyzing both internal and external data, APC will compose a comprehensive report for Iowa SHPO. This report will identify your best solution to the current inefficiencies you face: instituting flex-time, hiring temporary employees, leasing additional hardware or some combination of these options. In addition to providing these insights, the report will provide in-depth analysis of each option, identifying the resources best able to meet your specific needs, speeding plan development and subsequent implementation. Since we are uniquely able to work within your organizational culture in a non-disruptive way and have established connections and credentials within the larger preservation community, we will be able to expedite data collection and deliver our report very quickly: within two weeks.

The Timeline: How we will set a time frame for completing proposed tasks
We understand how important it is that you quickly identify a solution and implement a plan so that you can get back to business as usual—even if on a much larger scale than ever before. Since we work exclusively with historic preservation organizations, and this period between October 1 and December 31 is traditionally a downtime for all of us in the business, we have the time and resources to devote to your situation immediately.

Figure 5 represents specific activities and associated completion dates. You'll note we plan to be on-site only four days as we work to complete the survey. We want to avoid disrupting your employees. The follow -up interviews will be held away from the work place to facilitate open and honest dialogue. Because we want to work as quickly as possible for you, we will undertake many of these activities concurrently, analyzing data as they come in. We will update you on our findings as regularly as your busy schedule allows, though I am certain you'll want to schedule at least weekly meetings, as you have during our past consulting engagements.

Because we have such a history of closely working together, you are aware of our ability to quickly respond to your needs. In the past however, our associations have been primarily about the nuts-and-bolts aspects of preservation work--usually involving what happens in the field far more than what happens within the organization. We bring to this engagement the same expertise and network of connections we have accessed in finding cost effective solutions to field issues--the stone masons from Terre Haute we located to for finishing work in the Van Allen building, for example. We also have wide experience working within organizational structures. This year alone we have completed three needs assessment engagement dealing with the internal operations of preservation organizations. In all of these cases, APC was engaged to examine an urgent concern threatening employee morale.

That we are well connected in the historic preservation world made us able to work quickly and effectively to pinpoint problems and implement solutions to the immediate problems facing these organizations. As you have indicated, declining employee morale is usually a symptom of a larger problem. In every case we were involved in this year, the presence of an outside consulting firm eased the morale problems immediately--often weeks before actual implementation of a plan had dealt with the underlying problem. Just knowing you have addressed the problem in a way that will not further burden your employees, but will actively encourage their feedback seems shows them a solution to their difficulties is at hand. Because of APC's familiarity with your people and organization, Iowa SHPO employees will feel especially reassured that you are dealing with both their individual and organizational concerns. In appendix A you will find complete vitae of our team members

Please turn to Appendix B. for a brief listing of our expenses. Once you have approved our methods of investigation, we will submit a more detailed account of costs. There are several cost related issues you might wish to note, however. Because we will be able to complete this engagement in two weeks, you'll find our costs are more than competitive, in spite of the fact that our unique position with you and the larger preservation community will provide you with a complete and detailed analysis of your options. In fact, the analysis will be so complete, that you can move confidently to quickly implement a plan based on the data and analysis we provide. In addition, we continue as policy to waive 20% of our usual fee when working for a not-for-profit organization.

Because we understand your situation and have the qualifications necessary to research and analyze your options, the report we deliver in two weeks will be comprehensive in scope and thorough in detail. Our exhaustive research methods and expert analysis will provide you with sound insight to help you choose the best possible option or options for dealing with your short term inefficiency problem. But that insight must be immediately put into action by implementing a plan that will ready you for the exciting challenges you and your staff face beginning in January. Iowa is the first midwestern state other than Illinois to break into the top fifteen states in SHPO grant acquisitions, and to met the demands of 16 major preservation projects and a dollar budget, you must act immediately to revitalize your worn out employees and rebuild the team spirit that got you where you are.

Benefits at the end of this engagement:
In addition to delivering a report that gives you accurate, objective insight, you can expect other benefits at the end of this engagement:

• renew goodwill among your employees. You have a challenging year ahead, and without a team effort, managing 16 major projects will be nearly impossible. The benefits of rebuilding your team by quickly responding to a difficult situation will make all the difference in the success you achieve in the upcoming year.
• improve employee morale. By bringing in an outside consultant who is objective, yet non-threatening to your employees, you reaffirm your concern for their happiness and well-being within your organization. Our focus on their wants and needs can boost flagging morale as they realize an end to their overwork and frustration is in sight.
• implement your plan with confidence. A plan so thoroughly researched and comprehensive in scope that you can immediately implement it with confidence in the results and begin to enjoy further benefits.

Benefits from implementing your plan:

• renew employee interest in SHPO success. When employees recognize that their own input has led to solving the problems they face, we notice a marked increase in the loyalty they feel toward their organization and their willingness to accept even difficult solutions to the problems they face.
• save money in the short-term. The cost of overtime for union wage support staff and under productivity in professional task areas (research, project development, and grants writing) of the professional staff are incredibly costly. Implementing a more efficient plan will save money in both the short and long term.
• save money in the long-term. The cost of training a single new employee, especially in such a highly specialized field, is far greater than any cost this consulting engagement would incur. By acting immediately to bring in an outside, but familiar consultant to ease the burdens on the staff, the organization itself becomes the beneficiary of employee goodwill. The loyalty your employees have always felt to the organization will be maintained, even as you continue to grow.
• speed preliminary research on major projects. Once we determine and implement the plan of action, you'll be able to begin working efficiently to not only plan the upcoming projects, but think in long-term strategies for maintaining your impressive level of success.
• maintain competitive position in grant acquisition. Without immediate implementation of a plan of a plan to deal with your inefficiencies, you will begin the new year behind on your project research, and as a result, begin the next proposal period under-prepared.

APC's close ties to Iowa SHPO have given us a stake in your success, both personally and professionally. Because it is so important to our success that you experience continuing success, we cannot help but be involved in what is happening within your organization. Iowa SHPO's successes impact all our local clients because of the complex ways in which the preservation moneys are often allocated, and the complex relationships within the preservation community as a whole. As always, we want to be part of helping you achieve your highest goals in whatever way we are able.

I feel we're the right people to help you as you face these difficult few months until January. I'm excited by the wonderful things that have been happening for you over these past few months, and would like to continue our working relationship into the next five years and beyond. I look forward to your response and invite you to contact me at home or work with any further questions or concerns regarding this proposal.

Sincerely yours,

Sarah Jefferson

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