Corbin and Associates Writing and Consulting
Helping organizations manage and communicate more effectively
Picture of Gary
Photo by Zone V
Gary Corbin Ph.D, Principal

Office:
1818 NE 50th Avenue
Portland, OR  97213
(503) 281-3780
gary AT garycorbinwriting.com
  Corbin and Associates Writing and Consulting, a certified Emerging Small Business in the State of Oregon, specializes in high-quality technical and business writing and analysis that is clean, crisp, well-organized, and easy to read – and you get it fast. What takes some writers weeks takes us days, and same-day turnaround is not unusual. We crunch numbers, graph it, and write it up in clear, precise English.

We also do Organizational Consulting such as strategic planning, team-building, business process evaluation and redesign, financial analysis, and project management, on a project or fill-in basis.

Management Consulting

  • Strategic Planning
    Aligning business missions and practices
  • Team Building
    Creating a more unified, productive workforce
  • Financial Analysis
    Forecasting, modeling, benchmarking

Technical Writing

  • Proposals and bids
    Let us help you win that contract!
  • Business Plans and Reports
    Operations manuals, Annual reports, etc.
  • Technical Manuals
    How-to’s, User guides, product documentation
  • Research
    Finding and documenting answers to your questions

Our associates add skills and staff power to help us help you succeed:
    In our IGS partnership, we're helping state agencies in ten service areas, including:
  • Team building/retreats
  • Communications
  • Business Analysis and Process Improvement
  • Strategic Planning, Performance Measures
  • Facilitation and Training

    • Check ORPIN Contract number PS-NON-IT3156-5 or ORPIN Number 102-7020-5 to use our services on this contract - with a simple task order!

Strategic Planning

The most successful organizations are those which have a clear understanding of their mission, have established long-term goals, and have aligned their short-term objectives and business practices with their long-term plans. Let us help you like we have these clients:

  • US National Response Center, Washington, DC
  • City of Portland, Oregon, Bureaus of Parks, Transportation, and Information Technology
  • Oregon Forest Resources Institute
  • City of Keizer, OR

Team Building and Training

A team that plays and learns well together, works well together. That makes them more productive and strengthens your organization. Just ask Intel Corporation and the City of Portland Water Bureau, our latest clients in this area.

Business Process Analysis

We can help you realign your business practices with your strategic goals, as we have for the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles, the Portland Office of Transportation, and Oregon Public Employees Retirement System recently.

Financial Analysis

Concerned about your financial future? Let us help you sort it out. We can forecast revenues and expenses, model workflows, and help you establish performance benchmarks so you can measure your progress. Take a look at some of our past work:

  • City of Portland Office of Transportation 5-year financial forecasts for 2002-07 2003-08, and 2005-10
  • Portland pavement funding scenarios (2005)

Proposals and Bids

The best company doesn’t always win in competitive bids; but the best proposal usually does. An investment in your competitive bidding capabilities could make the difference for you. We know the game; we know what evaluators look for, and we can help you structure your proposal to best represent your capabilities.

Bid proposals for clients are proprietary, so we can’t show you those, but here’s proof that we know the game from the inside:  an RFP Gary wrote and, as project manager, evaluated responses to (and the structured forms the bidders filled out).

Business Plans and Reports

Not everyone can keep a technical writing staff on board year-round, but it doesn’t mean you don’t need technical documents written for your business. We can help you get it done without pulling your staff from performing their key business functions. Here are some examples of our work for others:

  • Oregon Department of Transportation - Road User Fee Program - 2007 Report to the Legislature
  • City of Portland Office of Transportation 2004 Annual Report
  • US National Response Center Business Plan

Technical Documents
  • Computer system user and technical documentation for several systems from 1985 – 2003
  • Draft By-Laws for a proposed Portland Transportation Board

Research

Sometimes you just need something figured out – and quickly. But you don’t have the resources in-house to get it done. We can help. Here are some examples of work we’ve done:

  • Halton, Ontario - Asset Management Best Practices
  • A study of the advisability of transferring ownership of the Willamette River Bridges from Multnomah County to the City of Portland (see the excerpt here)
  • The feasibility of implementing Leaf Removal Fees (2002) in Portland
  • Ph.D. dissertation, “Agenda-setting and Acid Rain,” Indiana University Press, 1988

About Gary

Gary earned his B.A. in Political Science and Economics at Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!) and his Ph.D. at Indiana University (Go Hoosiers!), writing his dissertation on the politics of acid rain (1988). He worked on farms, construction, and in food service jobs to earn his way through, so he knows the meaning of hard work. He interned with Argonne National Laboratory on assignment in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Analysis before joining the consulting firm of Applied Management Sciences in Silver Spring, MD. He moved to Highland Technologies, Inc., specialists in document image management systems, managing projects and developing Oracle database systems before moving to Portland to work for PDOT.

Contact us

Let us help you manage and communicate more effectively. Call (503) 281-3780 or email us.