Interesting times...

Hi everyone,

I have completed my first five days of 393 placement at the CBH Group and things are going smoothly so far. I am not the first person to do this unit at the CBH Group. In fact, I have had some welcomed direction from Sarah McArdle who did this unit last year.

Working in the Corporate Affairs department for the CBH Group is actually pretty exciting because of the current changes within the company. The C.E.O is retiring and a successor has just been appointed by the board of Directors. So as you can imagine our department is being hit with calls from various media from all over Australia and even some international media outlets are getting on board for the story. I have observed the chaos that can go on when significant events occur in a workplace.

The team here is well structured and is experienced within the grain industry. Events are being organised for the outgoing C.E.O and media kits are being fired off to the appropriate media outlets for the new C.E.O elect to do interviews and make comments. The Media Advisor has not got off the phone for about two weeks now as she is constantly receiving media enquires.

The end of the 2008/09 Western Australian grain harvest has brought a few crisis situations as well. The two I can note right now are:
- The Esperance Terminal was jammed with ships looking to load grain last Friday 29th January – Some local media got wind and blamed CBH for the delays.

- A large grain supplier in the wheat belt is complaining to the country papers about the grain prices – What he does not seem to get is that CBH does not set the grain prices… the world market does. We have to deal with these people everyday and I can really appreciate the role of good public relations within this workplace.

So far I have:
- Researched and written five articles for a bi-monthly newsletter;

- Constructed a Power-point presentation for the Directors to use in promoting an issue that will be voted on at the Annual General Meeting;

- Set up a number of reports for the strategic research manager; and

- Aided in writing a number of media releases.

The experience so far has been eye opening and has given me an idea of what is involved in public relations practise in the real world. I look forward to the rest of my time here at the CBH Group.