New Challenges, New Experiences

Hi everyone. My name is Deva and I’m currently in my final semester of my Mass Communications degree. This will be my first blog post for the unit.

Last year, I completed my placement at WA Water Polo. Being a person that doesn’t really play much sport and having no prior knowledge on water polo, I figured that doing an internship with a sports organisation would present a good challenge for me. Unlike AFL or rugby, Water Polo in Australia isn’t a particularly big sport and has a smaller fan following compared to some of the others. WA Water Polo is a small not-for-profit sporting organisation that is the peak body for the sport in WA. The organisation consists of a small team of 2 full time staff, the CEO and the Competition and Development Manager. I knew that working in a small organisation would be highly challenging and a good learning experience at the same time. At WA Water Polo, a member in the committee handles the media and public relations and there is currently no dedicated communications/public relations department. As such, on occasion, the full time staffs at the organisation also handle certain aspects of communications. On my first day, I was briefed about the current communications and public relations policies and was tasked to help out and further develop certain areas within them. Tasks included carrying out basic communications needs for the organisation such as creating a Facebook page for updates to more challenging activities that involved helping to draft out a sponsorship proposal for tournaments and creating a newsletter. Besides media related tasks, I was also asked to be involved in planning and executing upcoming events for WA Water Polo. I felt that the opportunities that were presented to me at WA Water Polo covered several different aspects in public relations and communications and even areas beyond those. I also learned more about the sport itself and even got several opportunities to interact with staff members from other sporting organisations to learn and understand how they operate at a state level.  Most importantly, I learnt that despite the lack of knowledge or experience in a particular area, it is always important to have a positive learning attitude and be willing to put in as much effort as possible.