Final Reflections- Next Stop:The real World

This week was my last week at WACOSS and I couldn’t be any more grateful for my time here. 10 weeks has flown by and I’m happy to say that although at times I have felt overwhelmed by my workload, I have enjoyed every minute of my time here.

Completing my internship at a not-for-profit has been a very rewarding experience for me. Not only have I had the opportunity to work with people who have extensive experience in the not-for-profit sector, but I have also met many government ministers and directors of not-for-profits in WA. This networking has provided me with numerous contacts who generously offered I contact them if I am looking for any similar work in the future.  This networking came directly from my work in event management at WACOSS and has helped me gain my first contacts within the industry. 

I have also gained an understanding of the role Public Relations plays in an organization. Particularly the role of PR at WACOSS is substantially different to the role of PR in a consultancy, or multimillion dollar company such as Woodside. The PR work I have completed at my placement is also very different to any strategies I have worked on at Uni. At WACOSS the main form of PR is that of stakeholder engagement, managing the internal communications of the organization, and building relationships with both members, and others in the Social Service industry. This work in stakeholder engagement is in turned linked to the funding WACOSS receives from the government. Having a strong, well perceived organization with a large support base creates favorable circumstances when applying for government funding.  This idea of funding is one that is not an issue in other organisations; however, it is a strong factor when considering PR efforts in a not-for-profit. Taking this Angle into consideration when approaching my PR work here has proved to be challenging, yet also a great learning experience.

At WACOSS PR is not the core function of the organisation, it works as a supporting role to the policy teams who work on social issues in WA. I found this to be a good learning experience in the way of me gaining knowledge across a range of areas. As well as understanding the PR dept of WACOSS, I have also gained knowledge into the sector as a whole and how PR can help the individual departments to achieve their own objectives, despite the fact they were not directly PR related.

My student placement at WACOSS has cemented my love of public relations and proved to me that the industry is definitely something I want to pursue once graduating. More importantly it has taught me that the relationships I form now will be with me throughout my career and making a good first impression can be an invaluable starting point. I have learnt a range of new skills from my time at WACOSS and can’t wait to get in to the industry and learn even more. Although I have loved working in a not-for-profit , the next area I wish to pursue is consultancy.

I hope everyone has enjoyed their placements

Good luck!

Bri

Event Planning-It's not all glitz and glamour!

The last 3 weeks of my Internship I have spent 99% of my time working on event management/planning. The annual Pre-budget submission and AGM is an extremely important event on the WACOSS calendar, however with only 3 weeks to go until the event there was very little organised. With so much to organise in a short amount of time, My director relied on me to work with the Communications officer to ensure that everything was ready for the day. This included a range of tasks including drafting invites, promotional flyers, Agendas, as well as general event tasks such as catering and venue set-up.

My first task was to finalise the list of stakeholders and public figures to be invited to the event. It seemed like a simple task, but I soon realised just how important the stakeholders of WACOSS were and how vital it was that none were missed.  The list ranged from head of government departments, to Ministers, to CEO’s of prominent WA not-for profits such as Red Cross and St Vincent De Paul. As I made my way through the list updating contact details for all the stakeholders all I could think was wow. There were a lot of influential people on this list,  It made me realise the importance of the event I was going to be working on. It also made me realise how important WACOSS and its activities actually were, To have regular contact with government ministers is something many not-for-profits would strive for. WACOSS is extremely lucky to have such a strong network of support with its stakeholders to say the least.

These Stakeholders remained at the back of my mind for every task I completed for the pre-budget submission and AGM. These were important people; therefore everything had to be absolutely perfect. Having the task of creating the promotional flyers and invite meant I had to somehow master InDesign within a few days. In the office all promotional items are made on InDesign, and when comparing the results with Word documents I can understand why. The professionalism and creativity of InDesign documents definitely trumps Word. Although it took me countless Google searches and YouTube videos I managed to create both an invite and promotional flyer that met the design and content elements sought after by the Director. Particularly In the field of PR where presentation is of high importance, learning to use InDesign Is a skill I will definitely take from my internship and use in the future. 

The lead up to the event was hectic to say the least, my job was to make sure that not one thing was overlooked. Name badges, Catering, registration lists, Banners, Promo materials, Task lists, VIP bios, you name it. It was all my responsibility. When I was first told I was working on event planning for the AGM I didn’t for a second think that there would be so many different aspects to cover. By sitting down with the Communications manager and writing down exactly what needed to be done I realised that there is A LOT of work that goes in to running a successful event. It was definitely good to step back and see all the tiny things you have to consider for an event to run smoothly.

 Most young PR students percieve event planning  to be desirable career, full of glitz and glamour.  My experience has taught me that it is far from that.  However, having the opportunity to work on an event, and be in the same room as so many influential members of the not-for-profit sectior has been an invaluable experience. My main lesson learnt from this is Organisation is they key to success. A successful event will be planned, monitored and executed following a well detailed plan that provides clear direction.

So would I consider working in an events based role in the future? yes. I loved being able to see everything come together, the weeks planning was definitely worth the end result.

Technology: WIll it make or break your organisation?

19th September 2013

Think back to the days where Facebook and Twitter didn't exist, and the internet was a resource that only few people had access to 24/7. How did we find out information about businesses or events? How did businesses communicate with their stakeholders? Fast forward 10 years and we live in a world where people practically live their lives through the internet, Without it most people would describe themselves as feeling "lost". So how can an organisation position themselves keep up to date with the ever evolving world of the internet? This is what my organisation and I were finding out this week.

On Tuesday afternoon I sat in on a meeting with web designers from Vivid Communications, and the Director and Communications manager at WACOSS. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a software upgrade for the WACOSS webpage to a newer version, However the meeting seemed to cover much more than a software upgrade. They started with a presentation of how people use the internet today compared to 10 years ago, showing progression every 2-3 years. Whilst desktops were once the main source of use for the internet, this slowly progressed to laptops, and now Tablets and smartphones account for more than 75% of internet use. This definitely is something that i wouldn't have predicted 10 years ago.

I'm no computer/technology guru, and to me I didn't think that people using their phones over a laptop would really make much difference to the way an organisation runs their website. I was wrong! Running a website on software any more than 2 years old means that your website is not compatible for mobile phones. It still loads, but it becomes one of those websites that the whole screen is squeezed on to the tiny screen of a mobile, and as such users need to zoom in 10 times to read a few words of a paragraph.  When I come across one of these websites on my phone it becomes so annoying to navigate that I give up and don't bother. With WACOSS's website currently running on software from 2009, their webpage is currently not compatible with mobiles. For a webpage that is used primarily for informational purposes, easy navigation is a feature that WACOSS definitely needs. If finding information becomes too difficult, potential members will leave the webpage and look no further. This is a situation no organisation wants to find themselves in. This also raises the idea of the value of a first impression. Is it worth investing money in becoming more mobile compatible so that members, potential members and other stakeholders  have a positive first impression and experience of the WACOSS website? As a PR student I say definitely yes, An organisations web presence can largely affect the success of ones organisation. Particularly WACOSS must acknowledge that communication mediums are changing, and therefore keeping in line with these changes is of their best interest.

Whilst the meeting carried on and topics including content creation and the ease of design were discussed, the idea of mobiles being the main source of information was the main idea that stood out to me.The discussion of whether a software upgrade was suitable for the company came back to the idea of cost.  As a not-for-profit organisation, WACOSS is extremely careful with their expenditure and use most money to fund member based initiatives and policy developments. The Communications officer believed the software added value to WACOSS as an organisation and kept them on track with trends.. The director needed more convincing as to why the software will help improve WACOSS's online presence and ability to communicate their ideas with their target audiences.

This ultimately lead me to think how the internet, technology  and progression into smartphones has impacted businesses and organisations. With a significant amount of communication now being done online, what will happen with organisations that fail to keep up? With technology continuously improving, will it be the smaller organisations that simply cant afford to support such changes? Or will they find a way to keep their presence online regardless.

We now live in a era where Mobiles and the internet rule the world.  As PR and communication professionals we must understand what this means for us and how we can tailor or communication to best suit these needs in the future.

It's all about moving forward!

Welcome to WACOSS

6th September 2013

Hi everyone!

This week i started my placement at the West Australian Council of Social Services, commonly known as WACOSS. All I can say is wow! no amount of study could have prepared me for the crazy work environment i was about to step foot in. When i was looking for a placement i was really drawn to not-for-profits. After weeks of emailing numerous charities and not-for-profit organisations in WA , my friend who interned at WACOSS in the past highly recommended i contact them. After looking through their website and seeing what they do i decided that WACOSS seemed like a great opportunity. I emailed the Director, had an interview and here i am 2 weeks later, at the end of my first week on the job.

I started my week by meeting everyone in the office, Directors, policy managers, finance assistants and program support officers. Everyone was so friendly it helped to settle my nerves a little. In my interview  with the director I was told that I would be working alongside the membership and communications officer, Carly, However she wasn't in on the day so I didn't get to meet her until I started. When we met we sat down for an hour and went through the plan for my placement and had a chat about what i wanted to gain from this whole experience. My plan for the next 10 weeks covers a lot of areas! They have planned to have me working on rewriting promo materials, membership acquisition campaigns, website management, social media, as well as assisting in event organisation and management. It seems pretty daunting to have so much to do in such a short time, but i'm excited at the range of different things i'll be working on.

I did a lot of reading on the WACOSS website before i started and was kind of nervous that no matter how much i read i still didn't fully understand what they did. So when Carly (the communications manager) gave me a stack of books including the annual report, membership booklet, and Strategic mission amongst others, I was more than happy to spend the bulk of my first day reading every last sentence. From reading the materials I was able to understand that WACOSS themselves were not a charity, however, they represent hundreds of WA not-for-profit organisations and work to try and improve the social policy that affects disadvantaged people in WA. Overall I really support what WACOSS stands for and I'm interested to see exactly what i'll be doing in the weeks to come.

With no time to mess around I got straight into evaluating all of WACOSS's promotional materials. This includes the webpage, membership booklet, and membership letters. Carly told me straight out " they're crap, change whatever you want".  With that she gave me everything I needed and left me for the day to pick apart their materials and write down my ideas and recommendations.

Now that I have finished my first 2 days I will admit that I am excited but somewhat nervous as to what is to come. Walking in to a new place I was very intimidated, and questioned whether i knew enough to be going in to the real world and working. However,   I already feel like i'm surrounded by people who will teach me a lot and help me take my first step in to the real communications industry. At the end of the day I know everything I learn at my internship will help me at some stage in my future career. Now that I have survived the first week I definitely have more confidence in myself and am less hesitant to share my ideas with my colleagues.

I hope everyones placements are going well! I look forward to reading about everyones experiences.

Good luck

Bri

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