When is a refresh unwinnable?
When the evaluation is a price-only down-select against incumbents who already have the rates and the evidence library. When the category weights sit outside what you do. When the buyer has said they are not adding names. When the only honest answer to question 4 is that you are bidding to stay visible. Visibility is not a strategy.
You can still lodge a conforming bid. You will still lose. Public evaluators will score it. That is not a reason to write one. Fit and winnability are different questions. This page is the second, on a seat you already hold.
How do you see it in an hour?
Weights, incumbent field, whether prior work on this panel can be used by firms that did not hold it, the rate file, the deed’s remaining life. If those facts say you cannot win, stop. Do not spend the week making the loss prettier. See evaluation criteria and wired for the incumbent.
An hour is enough when you read for those facts, not for the methodology chapter.
When is dropping the seat the call?
When the only work on it fails the three axes. When the refresh week is a week you need for a bid that is a bid. When the reporting and insurance of membership cost more than the call-offs you would take. A trophy is not a channel. It is a museum piece with a renewal date.
Some deeds treat a no-response as a drop. Read that clause. A written decline can be required. How to say no-bid still holds. Then stop talking.
What if we might still get call-offs without refreshing?
Then the refresh is a different decision from the seat you already have. Score the refresh as a new bid. Do not let residual call-offs smuggle a yes. Residual work that fails capacity or risk is still a no when it arrives. Membership is not a standing yes.
Triage the pile with the sibling page. This page is the one that looks like a yes because you are already on, and is not.