New Begginings and Final Thoughts

So I have completed my internship and I can’t help but feel both excited and sad. Most of all I feel grateful that I got to work in such a great organization where I have learned so much. There are also some lessons which I have taken away from my experience which I would love to share.

Firstly, it was lovely to be apart of the small team of five at the Blue Room. Everyone was friendly and supportive, and I was lucky to be included in a number of Blue Room traditions, such as Cake Fridays and enjoying a few rounds of Trivial Pursuit (honestly, what more could you want from internship!)

I have been able to be involved in a number of great tasks and initiatives, such as fundraising campaigns, sustainability programs, media release writing, social media management and event planning. I have also gotten a taste of the necessary, yet not as fun tasks such as database and CRM management, media monitoring, brochure distribution and a few other jobs which I’m sure all interns are familiar with (coffee runs, licking envelopes, all though I didn’t mind!)

Managing the publicity for a small organisation with a tight budget has a number of challenges, which is something I have come to learn first-hand at my internship.

Working at The Blue Room Theatre, a small, independent theatre in Northbridge, I am constantly amazed at how they are able to achieve such great coverage and promotional material on a small budget. A lot of our time is spent brainstorming creative ideas, including a Hawaiian-wedding-themed season launch (which was a lot of fun to be part of!), then brainstorming ways to pull this off while spending as little as possible.

Because of this tight budget, both the marketing a public relations responsibilities are combined within the organisation. Therefore, a challenge of mine was to differentiate between the two and to determine exactly how PR can impact an organisation.

The most crucial tasks which I have been involved in, including media relations, social media management, sponsorship, website development and event management, can be considered to be PR roles. Furthermore, the success of the organisation is largely dependent on these tasks being carried out effectively.

My experience has allowed me to see first hand just how valuable PR is to The Blue Room, and I would be extremely interested to discover how this can change in larger organisations, something I hopefully can find out in my future career.

Guess who is a finalist in the Community Services Excellence Awards 2014?

Angelhands Inc. has been nominated for the Community Services Excellence Awards 2014 and has been selected as a finalist in the Volunteer Based Category. The event is an alliance between the Department of Local Government Communities and the WA Council of Social Service. The awards is held once in every two years. Here is a media statement from the government on the awards:  Government Media Statement .

A midst our crazy time planning the launch of our new fundraising campaign, this announcement has made our hard work seem like it is all worth it. In my previous post I emphasized how much in need of funding we were. If we are to win this award it would give us a much needed boost to our finances. Apart from the possible enhancement in the financial area, the awards has brought more awareness to our organization and the work that we do and my supervisor has said that, “any recognition that serves to raise awareness around the work of angelhands and the unique needs of people affected by crime in our society is truly appreciated.” Which is very true, the more awareness we gain the more our work is recognized by the public.

Seeing that angelhands was mentioned in the media statement from the government website I've decided to cash in on it. I worked on a media release for my supervisor to send out to her media contacts and surprised myself and my supervisor by producing one within 30 minutes. I never thought that I would be able to write one up in that span of time. I guess all that practice from my PR Techniques class has finally paid off and i couldn't be anymore prouder of myself.

There has also been an update and a slight change on our fundraising campaign 100K in 100 Days, upon further discussion with the board; my supervisor, the angelhand’s Director has decided that 100 thousand dollars is slightly beyond what we can reach and that 50 thousand is a more attainable target amount. Especially seeing that funding is needed immediately within a short amount of time. So now we are working towards the 50K in 50 Days campaign which is essentially due to be launched in the month of May. The campaign is well under way and I have been working closely with my supervisor and past year examples to help guide me in this journey. This is all very exciting, not wanting to sound like a cliché but I have just once again been reminded of the reasons as to why I fell in love with PR in the first place.

Till Later,

Anastasia Arasu

15483214
Bentley Campus