I’m a bit behind when it comes to this blog as I’ve actually been at my current job (for which I’ve been allowed to carry out my professional placement) since late May and have been avoiding having to write a blog post since then haha. My role is Research Officer at The Hon John Day MLA’s electorate office in Kalamunda two days per week. (yes, it does take about 40 minutes to type out his proper title at the end of letters and releases haha). John is the Minister for Planning, Arts and Culture, and Science and Innovation, however the tasks I do in his electorate office relate to his role as the Member for Kalamunda. I work alongside his Electorate Officer, Nola, and during the week it is just the two of us in the office, except on Fridays when John is here too.
As the research officer it is my job to liaise with the local media – organise photo opportunities for events John attends, respond on behalf of John to letters written to the editor, and respond to stories in the various local papers (if there's a story about a local or group succeeding in some compacity, John will write them a letter of congratulations).
I’m also in charge of (and started) the monthly e-newsletter. The e-newsletter consists of a variety of ‘good news’ stories from the various media releases relating to the Kalamunda electorate that come to me via email from the respective MPs (stuff about seniors from the Minister for Seniors and Volunteering etc), wrap ups of events John has attended (and hopefully a nice photo) and a local issue that requires John’s response. The first e-newsletter’s main article related to hooning on the local Zig Zag road, and the second e-newsletter (due to be emailed out tomorrow!) focuses on the new Optus mobile phone tower in Gooseberry Hill. The pictures below are from the putting together of, and sending out of, the budget newsletter- which was sent out following the budget announcement (obviously ha) to every letterbox and PO Box in the Kalamunda electorate…..
The third area of my duties here (for which the phone tower is a great segue into) is responding to correspondence from people within the electorate. Every letter, email or phone call received relating to an issue is responded to with a signed letter. The Optus tower has been the hot topic over the past few weeks and yesterday was spent collaborating a written response with John, typing in the individual addresses of each person on the letter and the envelope and sending them out… all 800-odd of them! This is the me-eyed-view of me entering in the names of the people who contacted the office into our online feedback program..
And lastly- we do a lot of stuff for local community groups (Lion's Club, PROBUS, etc). We do photocopying, type up and print newsletters and other odd jobs. The picture below is the name tags I made for the Perth Hills Wine Associtation wine judging night. Fitting them in the name tag thingos took a bit of trial and error...
In regards to PR (and journalism, my other uni minor) I’ve found my studies have definitely helped me so far. Writing media releases for the papers, putting together budget newsletters and John’s e-newsletter, and the public relations skills required to deal with constituents (both happy and mad) have all stemmed from the skills I’ve learnt at uni.
Standby for further thrilling updates haha...
Niki Comparti
14296851
Curtin Bentley Campus
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