Bindoon backlash

 Agricultural show season has officially finished for BAJV, the fourth and final agricultural show was located at Bindoon, located 84km from Perth. Bindoon has always been an interesting area for the organisation, with a lot of activist groups rallying against the business and their future plans in Bindoon. Being told that Bindoon would be on the more interesting side in agricultural shows in comparison to all the other ones, made me a bit uneasy about having to help run the show on Saturday but I was reassured any questions could be directed to those with greater knowledge. Friday came, we drove an hour and a half up to Bindoon to set up the show, this show was different as I was in charge of set up, the tent was larger then the others giving us a lot more room to play around with! Set up was easier and quicker than I thought, as I knew exactly what I was doing, securing everything down we closed up and headed to our accommodation for the night. Saturday morning came and this meant show day! The show was very relaxed and had a good community and country feel about it. Everyone was very nice and was interested in what we did and what we had to offer to the community. The day was filled with questions and kids playing with the diggers in the bauxite pit. This is what I was in charge of for the day, we had a competition running to see who could get the biggest scoop of bauxite into an ice-cream container, I would then weight it and take their details if they wished to compete in the competition to win a family movie pass. Photos of the activity can be seen below. 4.30pm came and we got to pack up and head back to Perth for the final pack up at the warehouse, it was such a long day and I was exhausted after but it goes to show hard work really does pay off, as the day ran smoothly and was a lot of fun!

Although they have recently closed potential operations in Bindoon as it was seem uneconomic for the time, a lot of people were still interested in what the company was doing and where they saw themselves in the future in relation to adding to the economy and providing jobs.

It was a great experience to talk to all the locals and get a bit more of an understanding for what it is all about. And about what consumers and local communities want, they just want the correct information, and to be honest and open.

 

One Day of Positivity Treasure Hunt

After all our preparation and hard work the day of the Positivity Treasure hunt finally arrived. I was up bright and early to collect some bread rolls from Brumby’s for our sausage sizzle and made my way to the Swan Valley the location of the hunt.

My job leading up to the treasure hunt was to hand out flyers and promote the event, email day cares and invite them to the event as well as organising the stage and dance acts. Kristal and I were also in charge of scouting for volunteers and I managed to convince some of my friends to come along for the day.

After calling numerous amounts of stage companies asking for a in kind donation of stages and other equipment, I was unlucky in finding a stage as most companies did not want to make such a large donation.

On the day everything ran pretty smoothly and we were all really happy at how it turned out. It was really nice to see everyone joining in and I loved teaching the little kids about positivity as we handed out positivity show bags with tips about how to be positive.

We received some really good feedback from those who attended the event as well as some constructive criticism. After the treasure hunt my intern team and I reported to the office with our campaign manager Jessica and the owner of the AELC Tracey to compile a list of pros and cons of how we think the event went and what we could do better next time.

As a group we said that overall we thought the event ran smoothly, however we thought it was important to address some constructive criticism as we would like this event to be a yearly one make it as successful as possible.

We thought that we could have started organising and promoting the event a lot early than we did and maybe even using the money that we raised at the quiz night to publish an advertisement in the newspaper, to  make more people aware of the event and the campaign itself.

After arriving at the Swan Valley we realised that we had forgotten to put a finish time on the hunt instructions and some participants were unaware of what time it finished and arrived at locations after the activities were packed up.

Personally I would love to be involved even in a small way in the organisation of the event next year if it does continue as it was a great experience.