A relaxing end to a busy internship

Hi everyone!

Here is my (overdue) blog post about the last quarter of my internship at the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR).

My final few days were really relaxing compared to the rest of my internship. I finalised my assigned stories for The Chronicle publication (due to be published early October-can't wait!) and continued to do the media monitoring. After that, I was assigned to proofread the 2014 annual report before it got published and printed.

Proofreading the annual report took up the rest of my internship as there was hundreds of pages to go through and each division within the Department kept making changes to it, meaning that I had to go through it several times. Since each division wrote their own section, there were inconsistencies in terms of the spelling, language, acronyms, grammar etc. which I had to look out for and correct.

My last day of the internship was on the 12th September and it was really fun! I attended the Pie Lunch (which is where members from different divisions within the Department get together for lunch at the local restaurant every Friday) and we shared funny and inspirational stories over good food. When we got back to the office, my supervisor went through the DSR's communications policies with me to help prepare for the PR internship report. Afterwards, the communications team surprised me with a delicious cake for a goodbye afternoon tea.

I am really going to miss the communications team. I have done a few work experiences before but I have definitely learnt the most from this experience. 

(Goodbye DSR-Thank you for everything!)

Thank you so much for reading my blog posts over the past few months! I hope that you learnt something valuable from my posts.

I wish you guys all the very best for the future!

-Michelle

Feature stories and meetings mark the 3/4 milestone

Hi everyone!

I am now 15 days into my internship and since my last blog entry, I have been more involved in the meetings happening at DSR. I really enjoy these as I get to witness what goes on behind the scenes in planning a new initiative and how communications play a huge part in it, such as the Outdoors October initiative. At the Outdoors October meeting, I got to see how they plan out their events, PR strategy and campaigns, social media strategy and media strategy (which I can't disclose much due to the confidentiality).

I also got to participate in the divisional meeting. Since the communications division falls under the policy division, both the communications and policy divisions meet once a month and go around the table to update everyone on what they have been working on. It was really interesting to see how communications integrate everything together (I wish I could elaborate more but can't due to confidentiality once again).

Another thing that also happens once a month is the entire DSR staff meeting. At this meeting, everyone within the department and in their regional offices (via webcam) gets together and hears the latest significant updates. It was a pretty short meeting compared to the weekly team meetings and the monthly divisional meetings.

I also finalised writing and editing the four stories I was assigned to for the Chronicle publication. Through this experience, I got to learn and receive plenty of feedback about writing feature stories, how to make lead paragraphs attractive and how to tailor general news to a specific audience. I also learnt that if somebody is too busy to give a quote, it is best to make one up for them and get their approval.

An ironic thing I experienced was that even though next week will be my last week at the DSR, my orientation training was scheduled last week. It was here where I got to meet two other interns (one from ECU and one from Notre Dame) who were also completing their placements at the DSR but in different divisions. The orientation training also gave me an insight into my second major, Human Resource Management.

I am still doing the media monitoring every time when I come in and over the past few weeks, I have come to appreciate how important it is. At the last communications team meeting, they were discussing new ideas on how to improve media monitoring, especially in regards to effectively monitoring and clipping regional news. 

I am going to be pretty sad when I finish my internship with the DSR. I have been learning so much and got to meet amazing people along the way.

Well, that's all for now! Till next time when I write my final blog post to reflect my final day at DSR!

Michelle

Halfway there and getting into the technical side

Hi everyone!

I just reached over the halfway mark in my internship at the Department of Sport and Recreation and have been learning so much more since my last blog entry, particularly in relation to writing.

One of the DSR's biggest events, the Sport and Recreation Industry Awards, happened recently and I have been spending some time assisting with the preparation for the event, including creating PowerPoint presentations, setting up, helping with the participation certificates etc. The event itself was absolutely beautiful as it was a breakfast event held at Kings Park with stunning views! I also learnt a bit more about media relations here. DSR invited the media to this event just so the media could enjoy it as one of the guests-they didn't invite the media as an opportunity to be featured in the press. This helps strengthen the relationship between DSR and the media.

 (Full house at the Sport and Recreation Industry Awards)

(View from the venue at the Sport and Recreation Industry Awards)

I have also been writing more media releases lately, in which Ara (my supervisor) gives me detailed feedback after each one. I enjoyed this process as it helped improve my writing immensely (something I always thought of as one of my weaknesses), especially on how to cut down and simplify my writing.

I have also been attending the weekly team review meetings, which is a relaxed gathering where each member updates the rest of the team on the tasks they have for the week. This can vary from the utilisation of social media to new events to media campaigns to new videos.

One of the newest tasks I have been given is interviewing and writing stories for The Chronicle. The Chronicle is a state-wide newsletter about Aboriginal sport and recreation activities throughout Western Australia. I absolutely love this task, as I get to hear first-hand about how sport and active recreation is greatly benefitting the community. I was very lucky to interview the mother of an amazing young WA softball player, and the mother was very happy to hear that we would be doing a story on her daughter's wonderful accomplishments.

I cannot wait to see what the second-half of this internship will bring me. Till next time!

Michelle

Kicking it off at the Department of Sport and Recreation

Two weeks ago, I started my internship at the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR). Before I started, I was feeling kind of anxious as I had no idea what to expect. But my anxieties were laid to rest on my first day, as everyone I met in the Department were so friendly and welcoming. The communications team (where I will be placed with over the coming weeks) is quite small, but they are all especially friendly, close and funny.

The past few weeks have been crazy, and I am learning so much. Amazingly, half of the stuff I have learnt is about filming and photography, which perfectly complements PR. This is due to the fact that my table is right next to the filming crew, so they sometimes take me to different events that they are filming at, such as the NAIDOC Netball Carnival, and I get to see what goes on behind-the-scenes in making a video. 

I have participated in the following PR-related tasks so far: media monitoring, writing a media release, proof-reading the reports about their different programs (which gave me a good insight into what the DSR does), and attending their event planning meetings, one of their media events and one of their media ops.

The media event I went to was about the announcement of DSR's new online planning tool for sports clubs. Not a lot of media attended this, as I believe that it had little news value to them. But it was interesting to note that the media, who did attend the event, were only interested in asking questions about the new Sports Stadium at Burswood-this was a completely different topic to what the media event was for. As my boss told me later on, this kind of thing happens quite often. 

The media op contrasted to the media event. The media op was about the State government injecting $7.2 million into 47 State sporting associations. It focused on inviting the media to the NIB sports stadium, where around 10 young athletes from local sporting clubs and the Sport and Recreation minister, Terry Waldron, would be there for the media to take photos and ask questions. Unlike the media event, the media op was more focused on the topic. The West Australian published the resulting story: https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/24468553/7-2m-kicked-in-to-sports-clubs/

(Behind the scenes of getting the right photo)

Every week, the DSR has a performance review meeting with all the different divisions within the department. What I found really refreshing was that, instead of using technology, they used an old-fashion pinboard, pieces of paper and coloured markers to keep track of what each division was up to. I really enjoyed the performance review meetings, as I got to see how the communications team contributed to the overall success of the Department.  

I look forward to seeing what else the DSR experience will bring me in the next few weeks.