My work made it onto the website!

Hi bloggers, 

So I’m a little more than half way through my internship with Volleyball WA, and for majority of this period I have been supervised by the Competitions and Event Coordinator, Irene Alonso. However Irene was required to complete refereeing in Sydney this week, therefore for a few days I was required to work with Marty Suan the Participations and Development Coordinator. I feel the sudden change in authority assisted my understanding in building relationships with people and accepting and even adapting to different attitudes and behaviours. This assisted my understanding of the basis of Public Relation which is building relationship with stakeholders and publics, which is outlined continuously in ever Public Relations unit even in third year. This experience is a stepping stone in helping me in the workforce with employee relations and general stakeholder relationships. 

As I have assisted Irene in the organisation and development of events throughout the month of March, Marty suggested I write the summary of four main beach volleyball events which occurred in March. I was required to produce this summary within the time frame of an hour in which he had taken to go to a meeting. In this moment I reflected on Public Relations Techniques and the time constraints that were given in class in which to produce material. The nature of a summary is to be succinct and clear and address the key success factors of each event. Therefore utilising writing techniques acquired throughout my studies and specifically through Public Relations Techniques were of the upmost of importance. When Marty had returned he read the summary and required a minor change, he then gave me the approval to upload it to the website. I uploaded it to the website inputting photos from the events, however in order to obtain the photos of the champions of the events I was required to call the event onsite coordinator Gareth Bowen, and organised for him to email through the photographs. With all the necessary materials I uploaded the summary to the website (click on title of this blog to be directed to the website and my summary). 

Overall through this experience I have learnt to work well internally with diverse characters and work within temporal constraints. 

Thank you for reading 

Monique Power

17731708 

Curtin University, Bentley 

92.9 & Channel 9 Play Volleyball Featuring A Brewery

Hi Bloggers, 

On the 26th of February whilst interning at Volleyball WA I was required to assist in carrying out a minor corporate Volleyball event. This event saw the likes of employees from 92.9, Matso’s Brewery, APN Outdoors and Channel 9. The success of Volleyball WA’s efforts last year with these corporates encouraged the reoccurrence of the event. 

My role in the event was assisting the organising and planning a few days in advance. This consisted of preparing the fixtures including the times teams would be playing, the different pools of teams as well as the court teams were required to be on. In relation to this I had enquired about the need for an event run sheet for the afternoon. Therefore applying my knowledge of organising events from what I had learnt in the units I have studied. The absence of a run sheet was a new outcome for me, as the fixtures played a similar role of an event run sheet, displaying the times of the games and who would be playing. Also conversing with Marty Suan the participations coordinator, the event was only run over a course of 3 hours and therefore additional information to the games being played was not necessary. 

The morning of the event I was involved in the physical set up. We utilised the permanent courts located at the Volleyball WA office space in West Perth, therefore making set up more convenient. Setting up the volleyball courts included putting up signage, tents and barriers for the courts. All barriers and tents displayed signage, this was emphasised as a large focal point. As I have learnt with studying Public Relations as a unit, the relationships we build with our stakeholders are of the upmost importance. Therefore maintaining and managing these relationships should be constantly taken into consideration. Conversing with Irene (Competitions and Events Coordinator) and Marty their sponsors and publics are extremely important. A major sponsor for the organisation is Alcohol. Think Again, and to demonstrate the strong relationship with this organisation a lot of thought was put into the placement and amount of signage utilised. The volleyball barriers displayed the logo of Alcohol. Think Again as well as two tents set up on the outskirts of the courts. Signage for 92.9 was set up on the fence line of the courts to emphasis and communicate the relationship between the two organisations. 

As I have learnt throughout my course of study risk and crisis management have always been a point of focus. Volleyball WA also realise the importance of risk management as I have identified throughout my internship but mainly witnessed at this corporate event. The organisation have a risk management policy on their website accessible to the public. This displays risk management matrices and displays examples of many possible risks. During the setting up and execution of the event my attention was drawn to multiple risk mitigation tactics utilised. With a sport event, Volleyball WA realise the need for First Aid, therefore allowing the event to occur only in the circumstances of an employee attending equipped with First Aid. Also having a First Aid kit accessible to attendees and staff. Water and sunscreen were placed in multiple locations around the courts, under the tents and around the venue, making these resources easily accessible to all. When setting up the nets I was shown the proper manner in which to the place the antennas on the volleyball net, in case of one falling it would fall straight down and not onto a player. 

During the event I was emerged in the experience and calculated the winners for each set, determining who was eligible for the grand final and lastly the winner of the event. 

Thank you for Reading 

Monique Power 

17731708 

Curtin University, Bentley