Jack-of-all-trades

When becoming an intern, I think most other PR students would agree with me that we tend to become a ‘Jack-of-all-trades’. We are asked to take on a number of tasks, work in different departments, and assist with different activities across the organisation.

In my second week of interning at the Western Australian Council of Social Service, this has become a reality for me in my placement.

1.     Briefing the directors.

In order to maintain clear lines of communication, it was the responsibility of my director to ensure that other departments were aware of the different projects happening in the Corporate Services department.  It was my responsibility to assist and edit a 4 page-briefing document to demonstrate the progress of our membership review. It simply outlined our goals and objectives for the review, a timeline of date, tasks to be completed, and a comprehensive discussion about the purpose of the review.

I will admit I have never edited a document so many times; it makes me wonder if I should have done this more often in some of my assignments throughout my time at university. It was then I came to the question as I worked on this smaller project. Why do we need to tell the others why not have a quick meeting or send a quick email and not worry? The two words that came to my mind ‘Internal Communications’.  I am sure that all PR students would have covered this in some stage of their Corporate, Consultancy, or International PR classes. Looking back and reading my notes from earlier PR units, I remembered taking note of this particular statement.

“Internal communications has become an increasing need and integral part of implementing effective public relations practice but also contributes to the success of an organisation (Johnston and Zawawi, 2009, 331).

I believe that is does contribute to the success of the organisation and how it can improve stakeholder relations both internally and externally. In WACOSS, it was important for the Corporate Services department to communicate with other departments about this significant project. It also showed that my director had the initiative and took the effort to allow other departments to have there say about the review, make suggestions and provide feedback about the review.

Many other organisations often forget to implement these ideas in their management plans and strategies. They often forget that employees and other departments are known as internal stakeholders and place a great deal of emphasis on how important internal stakeholders can be to an organisation. As well as making the employees and other internal stakeholders feel important and considered in the different projects taking place within an organisation. 

I managed to find an article about a few PR experts predicting the rise of Internal Communications in 2013. So, go on have a quick read?

It is quite interesting to see the different developments happening in the Public Relations Industry over this next year, hopefully when we are all entering the workforce!

2.     Australian Charities and Not for Profit Commission

WACOSS has been working closely with the ACNC to provide charities and not for profit organizations around Western Australia an opportunity to understand the laws and regulations that they need to abide by. There were 3 seminars that were held in Perth throughout the month of February. WACOSS asked me to help with these events and I was able to assist with 1 of these events. With over 100-150 representatives attending the event, you can imagine the stress and work it placed on WACOSS and the ACNC.

For the event, it was my job to assist with placing out handouts, workbooks, and evaluation sheets throughout the auditorium. I also assisted with people arriving at the event and working on the door. I was also asked to assist the two speakers of the event and guiding them in there PowerPoint presentation (which was extremely nerve racking).

For those of you who don’t know who the ACNC is here is a summary:

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) is the independent national regulator of charities. The ACNC has been set up to achieve the following objectives:

•  Maintain, protect and enhance public trust and confidence in the sector through increased accountability and transparency
• Support and sustain a robust, vibrant, independent and innovative not-for-profit sector
• Promote the reduction of unnecessary regulatory obligations on the sector

 It was interesting to see how the emergence of this new body of law could place the Not- for Profit industry under such pressure. The commission has now become the main regulartor for organisations to register themselves as Charities. It allows charities to use a 'report-once use often Framework' to abide by. The point of these events was to inform the charities and the Not- For-Profit what the Commission was here to do and how they can assist them with the emerging changes. It was also a tactic in developing relationships with the representatives because of the short term and long term workings that will need to occur over the next few years. 

For other students taking there placements in the Not- for-Profit sector, I would encourage you to view the website or ask some of your supervisors about the ACNC and if it has affected your organisation in any way.

Being a jack-of-all-trades allows us to understand the different areas of the organisations we are placed in. I look forward to blogging more about the different tasks I was assigned whilst on placement as I am sure there are many more to come.

See you all soon!

Carla Lo Presti

14283730

Bentley Campus