The APS Request for Proposal (RFP) is a request from the GEM Data Team for a proposal from the National Team stating their intentions to complete the APS for that given year. The term RFP refers to the whole package distributed to teams, usually in February or March. It includes all the documents which teams need to submit in order to request approval for APS data collection as well as the documents they will need to conduct the surveys. It includes the following:

GEM APS Request for Proposal: A document stating the requirements for completing the questionnaire (discussed below).

GEM APS Questionnaire: English-language; National Teams are responsible for translating the questionnaire into their national language. The central GEM team has the core part of the questionnaire translated into several languages.

GEM APS Questionnaire question-by-question commentary: A detailed document which provides additional information to help the individual vendor conducting the survey interpret each question, understand the associated skip logic and obtain as full an answer as possible.

GEM APS Questionnaire Changes: A summary of changes to the structure and content of the questionnaire from the previous year. 

GEM APS Data Input Template: An SPSS template to be used to submit ALL APS data. 

GEM APS Variable Listing: A list of all the variables in the SPSS file, their meanings (Labels), an interpretation of the interviewee’s response (Code), and the actual response (Value). 

GEM APS Survey Report: An Excel workbook containing six worksheets:

• Methodology Overview: A request for details about the proposed methodology for conducting the interviews.

• APS Questionnaire: A listing of which optional questions are to be included in the team’s APS 

• Strata Definition and Fieldwork Report: Information on sample strata (if any) to be employed

• National Population Statistics: Most recent population statistics by age, gender, and (if required) sample strata.

• Weights: Information about survey vendor computed weights

• Education: Information about team-created education demographic variable