Daunting yet interesting

Hi everyone,

I have had a bit of trouble getting my blog posts started. I set up my own blog instead of joining the PR Blog, silly me!

However I wanted to update you on the daunting and wonderful times I had on my placement at Diabetes WA in Subiaco.

I recently completed my PR393 Placement and began to think about all the situations I had been through. One of my first thoughts was the first day, it was like any other day in a new environment, learning what DWA does and how everything works. It was all about doing the simple things first. I was taken on a tour by my supervisor Kate, I was shown around the place and was introduced to new faces in the organisation. The faces I got to remember were the employees in community relations department that I saw nearly everyday. I was also introduced to the educators and dieticians in the office.

I started off the morning by attending an employee meeting for the ' Diabetes Matters' spring edition magazine. This magazine is for DWA members only. The staff explained how the magazine works to me. Kate, was checking what was needed to be done and what stories, recipes and updates were needed as well. I felt it gave me an insight of what DWA does and how I could start to learn about the not-for-profit organisation.

After the meeting, I was asked to do simple yet tedious tasks of creating banners and flyers for another work colleague to use during National Diabetes Week which was 3 weeks away at the time. I was given the DWA colour reference sheet, so I knew what specific colours and fonts are used for DWA logos and banners. I am not really a design sort of person and it was a bit daunting as I have never designed anything close to being used for any type of organisation. I am also quite unfamiliar with the design tools on Microsoft Publisher or Microsoft Word, which made it a tad harder.

I found I had to ask my supervisor many questions on how to do things, as she might have assumed I knew how to do them. Internal communication or employee communication is very important at this point as it played a major part in the task I was allocated. For example, if I hadnt asked my supervisor how to do something, it may have turned out wrong and there would be a lot of time wasted in that circumstance which wouldn't be productive at all.

Internal communication is vital in a public relations role as it is all about communication and how the media coordinator send the message out or how they communicate it to the other employees or members.

Something that caught my eye which may be random but interesting, was a piece of information on the bottom of each computer screen. A reminder from 'Draw the Line' campaign which is run by the WA Government Department of Health on how West Australian adults should draw the line on unhealthy weigh gain. It is supported by the health promotion division of DWA . It said "Get up and talk to your colleagues instead of sending emails," it reminded me to get up and speak to my supervisor. This was useful as it allowed us to take time off the computers, have a rest or just to increase face to face employee communication in the workplace.

Regarding my recent challenges, I would be a bit more prepared beforehand with these design tools and applications, in order to get things done easily and quickly. Otherwise, I would always ask if I didn't know something as it can get thinges done faster as well.

Until the next post on my experiences at DWA, happy blogging!