Why Baachu Scribble Is Ceasing APMP Certification ATO Activities?
As of July 7, 2022, Baachu Scribble is no longer an APMP Approved Training Organisation (ATO).
I started this education journey of teaching, learning and growing on March 7, 2019 and I am ceasing the APMP ATO operations based on legal letter I received from Rick Harris and APMP Board of Directors 8th June 2022.
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ISSUE RAISED
- Baachu has sent out advertising, to APMP members and the proposal and bid
management community, encouraging APMP members to consider Baachu’s
certifications as “cheaper alternative” to APMP’s certifications. This is not only offering
products that directly compete with APMP’s, but explicitly advertising them as
alternatives to APMP, and denigrating APMP’s brand. - Baachu has set up its own, fee-based proposal management community, outside of
APMP, which, whether intentional or not, acts as a competitor/alternative to APMP; and - This action was brought to the Board’s attention by several Board members, and in the opinion
of the APMP Board, these actions, along with other, less direct, actions and claims, showed a
pattern of behavior, which the APMP Board of Directors believed was counter to the mission of
APMP and the loyalty requirements (specifically, to support and augment APMP’s reach and
certifications, as opposed to drawing away from APMP’s reach and competing with its
certifications), and thus against the spirit of the ATO program.
THE WHY ?
I joined the ATO program under the guidance of Charlie Divine and Tony Birch to serve and support bid and proposal professionals who could not access face-to-face training and those hailing from emerging economies who could not access or afford the learning resources they deserved. As you know, Our mission is to “Democratise Bidding Knowledge”. Now the question. Did we achieve all that we set out to do?
In three years, I (and my team) brought smiles to 1500 professionals from 31 countries in successfully achieving APMP Foundation, Practitioner and Capture Practitioner certification. Our APMP students span from English speaking Countries USA, UK, Canada, Australia, South and India, and we also took the APMP Brand globally with students in Kenya, Pakistan, Croatia, Mexico, Egypt, Korea, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, Japan, Netherlands, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Denmark, Ghana and many more. We were happy and proud that our resources and APMP certification training was accessed by professionals all around the globe.
When I started out APMP ATO, many bid and proposal professionals in emerging economies were not aware of APMP and those who were aware were hesitant about getting certified – $400 for exam fees, $160 for membership fees is a lot of money. We have many students who save $50 a month towards APMP Fees. The launch of our Proposal Specialist certification was (and still is) a pathway to APMP Foundation certification.
Even though the course was introduced in 2019, my team and I never encouraged it as alternative to APMP. Proposal Specialist course was given little to zero promotion in our weekly newsletters and LinkedIn social media page posts in the past 2 years. In fact, Proposal Specialist course appeared in the Baachu Scribble official LinkedIn page only three times since its launch, Vs APMP which had 500+ Posts. The lack of advertising and promotion meant the course page received 193 views as compared to our actively promoted page, APMP Live Workshops, which received 2500+ views in the last two months alone.
Promoting Cheaper Alternative Fun Fact
Outside Office hours recordings, we posted 55 videos in our Baachu Scribble youtube channel of which 1 video was about Proposal Specialist and 54 was related to APMP. In Baachu Scribble LinkedIn, there are 3 posts related to Proposal Specialist Certification compared to the 500+ posts on APMP Training and Certification!
Proposal Specialist was not the only action we took to reach out to people about APMP. We created low-cost APMP programmes, accessible APMP free resources and introduced yearly Scribble Scholarships to PROMOTE APMP CERTIFICATIONS Not Scribble Certifications….
Here is a quick look at our journey…

Through these 3 years, my team and I were flag bearers of APMP, dedicated our time and effort to create easy, fun and digestible resources for anything and everything related to APMP Certification and training.
Our Foundation, Practitioner and Capture Practitioner online training courses contained:
- 130+ plus Video Lessons
- Over 1000+ APMP Sample Questions to Practice
- 1000+ Pages Study Guide
- 54 You Tube videos (80,000+ views)
- 10 hours of APMP Teaching podcast audio lessons (3000+ downloads)
- 300+ hours documenting APMP People Stories
- 1000 + slides covering key APMP syllabus pointers as “Pass Cards”
And much more…
As per APMP Board of Directors letter enforcing us to remove all APMP-created/copyrighted content or content derived from APMP for all Baachu trainings and certifications, we have removed our APMP Free and Low Cost Training Resources (listed above) for all new users
Competing or Enabling APMP Fun Fact
Past 2.5 years, our APMP Team (3 FTE) invested over 6200 hours creating content, awareness and delivering training resources serving the APMP community – podcasts, webinars, live workshops, online & free course creation and student experience. RESULT -1500+ SUCCESSFUL APMP CERTIFIED PROFESSIONALS

I personally conducted live Foundation and Practitioner workshops every month and trained/tutored professionals 20 hours a month. I am proud of the fact that we were STILL THE ONLY ATO (till the time we ceased operations) TO HAVE 100% SUCCESS RECORD IN ALL FORMS OF APMP CERTIFICATIONS . From recorded videos, study guides, pass cards, sample test, podcast, live workshops, quiz challenges, course completion certificates, nudge emails etc our study resources was designed carefully to support and motivate people with all abilities.
This was not all…we compiled a list of Free APMP resources accessible to any interested student. This included over 20 plus articles on important topics, our 5-part Scribble Talk APMP Teaching podcast episodes, sample quizzes and insight videos answering questions, doubts and queries.
Over these years, we have given over $70,000 Scribble Scholarships INCLUDING Bruce Farrell Scholarships and provided additional discounts and offers to students from developing countries and many APMP Chapters.
If you wonder why Baachu Scribble dont sponsor any events but provide scholarships to students, it comes from my personal APMP journey – my exam, training and membership was funded by Tony Birch and late Howard Nutt. I am merely giving back what I received!
I collaborated with industry leaders and experts over the last year and created an weekly series of Office Hours webinars, where anyone can learn from the best of the best for free. Scribble website is already updated with APMP CEUs method and has been motivating current students, Scribble alumni as well as event attendees to maintain and add CEUs by joining our webinars and courses.
Scribble Talk podcast which began in 2020, shares the human stories of experts, leaders and professionals of the bid and proposal industry. 156 out of the 158 guests interviewed are APMP Fellows, Founding Members, APMP Chapter members and 40 under 40 Awardees,. With a total of 16000+ downloads, the podcast listeners are in 81 countries and continue to make APMP stories accessible to everyone in the world free of cost. It is important to note that one of the permanent questions during the interview was about their encounter, experience and contributions to APMP, and the answer reached thousands of listeners across the world!
When APMP conducted in-person conferences, webinars and Chapter actions, Affinity Groups and countless other outreach programmes, my team and I have always been an active supporters and have promoted them. We even transcribed all the APMP online conference lectures into bite size articles.
I personally attended 5 APMP Bid Cons and was always been a mascot of APMP events including latest Dallas conference– spoke in 20+ APMP Bid Con, Webinar and APMP Chapter events. I was open to, and maintained, professional as well as personal relationships with fellow bid professionals including APMP Fellows and Directors.
Creating scholarships and APMP campaigns in support and promoting several of the veteran bid professionals, Baachu Scribble has always been one of the greatest supporters of APMP. Having said that, its a privilege to be considered a competitor to APMP by the board, Thank you!
I am proud, happy and blessed to have been given this opportunity to support 1500+ professionals certification journey. I want to take the time to thank Charlie Divine and Tony Birch again for their support and encouragement.
The many hours that went into making learning easy, quick and fun, are worth it when we read the success stories, all the kind words and reviews from our students below.
Thank you to every single one of you for trusting us with your successful certification journey..
Reflecting the past month, Yes it was super tough. I had to remind myself – It's now more important than ever to Remain Positive, Stay Strong and Build Your Future Self. I feel really blessed to have interacted with over 3000+ friends. during this 3 years Yes, when we feel supported, provide opportunities to listen and share journeys, we build the strength to get through the crisis together and move forward boldly. It was evident, from personal messages, emails and recent social posts, the love and support showered on me proved that I did touch few hearts.
Education is my passion. I got into education to do something not to be somebody. As a first generation graduate from a village outside Coimbatore, India, I know education then and now is a privilege to many.
Quoting my favourite line as an entrepreneur- “Do not expect the world to be fair and do not give up even though you still have to prove yourself even after years of experience. If the person before you had thought of giving up at this point, the world would not have changed. Your life is going to be hard, so accept that and do it since you are doing it for the next generation”
I know how this difficult the choice is. I am grateful for the support I received from many Scribble friends during this past month. Its hard in one way but not on the other. I will continue to contribute to Business Winning Community. I sincerely believe you will be there with us on the next part of our journey – SCRIBBLE 20.
Again thank you for all the love and support. If you are Scribble Student – I want to hear from you. Please do share your experience and memories with us below in the comment section
I believe – Some people come into your life exactly the right moment and give you what you need and vanish. We hope we were like that for you 🙂
Remember – It’s curiosity, adaptability, drive and a lot of kindness that help us to make a difference in people’s lives. Stay Kind!
To more fond memories, experiences and of course learning…
Lots of love
Baskar Sundaram & Team Scribble
We admire YOU.
We’re thankful for YOU.
Our brand is focused on building confidence, seeking purpose and making an impact.
We believe in our relationships – our friends and partners. We thrive to do our best.
These beliefs inform everything we do at Baachu. It’s our culture and our content.
Baachu APMP Journey - Flip Book
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