Behind enemy lines???

Firstly, to those that have commented on UWA being the 'enemy', I must defend the institution! Whenever Jenni has introduced me to other staff members they have only had good things to say (for example "oh good! a real person!", I rather enjoyed hearing that one) Also, they have the river scenery, very pretty, sorry, but it's a fact.

Anyway, after two weeks of absence due to major timetable conflicts, I've finally hit the halfway mark with 10 days. Mind you, I'm going to be staying on until after Relay in October so I can carry through with the event properly. Getting back into the routine of things was a little hard, the amount of emails and information I had to catch up on was a little overbearing initially, but Jenni got me up to speed once I took a breath or two. I did appreciate the time we need to specifically dedicate to the position, I won't be missing a week again! The volunteer programs I'm helping coordinate are in full swing now - students are helping tutor children at Balga high school in two weeks; they have completed their orientation and everyone's really excited. The other program is for students needing help with their tax returns, so I'm basically just making the appointments and keeping everyone in contact, very basic time management.

Progress is being made for Relay as well. Logistics finally gave us some numbers to work with, so I started sending emails and making the phone calls for fencing, lighting, staging etc. Fingers crossed we'll get some sponsorship out of it (our signage ended up being completely donated so hopefully we can get a bit more from everyone else). I'll be spending next week (while Jenni is out of the office) going to the tenants of the UWA guild buildings asking for donations for the hampers being presented at Relay. Unfortunately, I'm playing the waiting game again.. the UWA communications man needs to get back to me about the process they use to get to the media, and waiting on contact lists from the Cancer Council so I can start sending out my media packs (which I'm pretty proud of, I felt like I had a few different angles for media releases and got the creativity flowing again).

I've been taking note of how the other Relays being held are promoting themselves though.. I dropped into Craigie Leisure Centre for some fitness times and noticed that they had brochures for the Relay being held at the Arena Joondalup. Right now our distribution has been focussed on lecture theatres and during the UWA common break (the recruitment boys have ideas for a FlashMob.. I may go for recording reasons but it's actually a GREAT way to get attention) but I'll be talking to Jenni about spreading the word to local businesses - more printing may need to be done! I know that the focus of the event, because its being held at UWA, are the students, but I don't want the team to lose sight of how community based the event is. Time to open up who our target markets are.. definitely more printing needed!