Backing Bean loaded Twice!?

I have a Serialized backing bean that loads itself in the constructor based off of a request parameter... the problem is that after an action method is called the bean reloads and no longer has access to the parameters! Is there a clean way of persisting that information without hidden feilds? What's going on here? Here's my java code:

package com.loomis.jsf.backingbean;
 
import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.Date;
 
import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 
import com.loomis.dao.PersonDAO;
import com.loomis.dao.ProjectDAO;
import com.loomis.jsf.backingbean.util.BackingBeanUtil;
import com.loomis.person.InvolvedPerson;
 
@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class ProjectSaverBackingBean extends ProjectBackingBean implements Serializable{
static private Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(ProjectSaverBackingBean.class);

public ProjectSaverBackingBean() {
String dbIdAsString = BackingBeanUtil.getParameter("dbId");
if(dbIdAsString != null) {
ProjectDAO projDao = new ProjectDAO();
int dbId = Integer.valueOf(dbIdAsString);
int requesterId = BackingBeanUtil.getUser().getId();
InvolvedPerson requester = (new PersonDAO()).getInvolvedPerson(requesterId, dbId);

if ("leader".equals(requester.getRoleDesc())) {
logger.debug("Loading a project (id: " + dbId + ") for save.jsf");
projDao.copy(projDao.getProject(dbId), this);
} else {
logger.warn("A user (id: " + requesterId + ") has atempted to load " +
"a project (id: " + dbId + ") that he/she is not leading!");
}
}
}

public String save() {
Date currentDate = new Date(); 
PersonDAO pDao = new PersonDAO();
int userId = BackingBeanUtil.getUser().getId();
int leaderId = getLeaderId();

setLastModified(currentDate);
setLastModifier(userId);

if (null == getId()) {
setCreationDate(currentDate);
setCreator(userId);
}

for  (Integer assignee : getAssignees()) {
if (null != assignee) {

if (!assignee.equals(leaderId)) {
addPerson(pDao.createInvolvedPerson("developer", assignee));
}
}
}

(new ProjectDAO()).save(this); // by this time getId() returns null

return "projectGrid";
}

public Integer getCategory() {
return getCategoryId();
}

public Integer getPhase() {
return getPhaseId();
}

public Integer getStatus() {
return getStatusId();
}
 
}

Note: projDao.copy(projDao.getProject(dbId), this) asigns the id

Any help would be endlessly appreciated. Thank you for atleast reading this,
-D.P.

[ May 05, 2006: Message edited by: Daniel Prene ]

Oh, and session scope is NOT AN OPTION.

t:saveState