Every now and again, we feature an interview with one of your clients—people who read and evaluate your proposals—to get their perspective on the proposal process. This time around we interviewed Kevin Ball, P.E., Environmental Services Manager for the Naval Engineering Field Activity, Northwest. Mr. Ball has chaired many qualifications-based selection boards, including A/E, Design/Build

For this issue we interviewed Ome Almeda, Administrator, Support Services, for Valley Medical Center, Renton, WA. Ome routinely talks with, screens and hires design consultants as VMC continues to expand. How important is cost in selecting the winning firm? When I read a proposal, cost is a non-issue, initially. What is important is the quality