The First Glimpse...

Walking between classes on campus yesterday I stumbled across a poster that I had been involved in creating!
It was very rewarding to see the blurbs that I had written looking very pretty and professional in the real world! Although I had previously seen a soft copy of the poster, seeing it large and in public, presented for all to see was a great feeling!
I had done blurbs for a series of five posters advertising the various volunteer programs that CV! run, so over the last two days I have seen all of them dotted around campus. It's nice to see that your hard work as an intern is actually being used and isn't just a waste of time!

You can check out some of the posters via the Curtin Volunteers! Facebook page if you would like: www.facebook.com/pages/Curtin-Volunteers/156834335340

 

I'm just over my half way mark at Curtin Voltuneers! and am still thoroughly enjoying my time there.
I'm well underway in planning my allocated event (Cheers for Volunteers!- the organisation's final social event for the semester), however the realities of just how intricate event planning really is is starting to sink in!

Every possible scenario must be considered along with a variety of social and ethical isues that need to be thought of when planning a social event with guests from a wide variety of demographics.
I have decided on themeing the event as a short film festival, which is proving to be a lot more time consuming than first thought!

Not only is planning the event quite involved, it is also tedious. As I am an intern all of my ideas and plans have to approved prior to me going full steam ahead which delays the planning process as managment have higher priortites than deciding between a selection of themes and venues! Of course I understand that you can't simply give an intern control of the event organising reins and organise an event that could go horribly wrong without guidance! I cannot wait, however, to be working in the real world of PR and to be given a bit more freedom when planning events!

I truely have learnt a lot about what it is like to work within a small team, where even though the marketing department are classified as "marketing", at least half of the tasks that they complete are essentially public relations processes and projects. It is amazing how many organisations don't classify the work that there marketing department are doing as PR!

Newsletters: are they right for your organistion?

This week at CV! was all about redirecting and streamlining the organisation’s newsletter. Management thought that the newsletter was too much of a reproduction of the website and so we spent a large portion of the day brainstorming new and creative ways to make the newsletter exciting and relevant.

Newsletters are taught at university as one of the main forms of communication between an organisation and its stakeholders, however this tool is not always right for every organisation.

It is important to analyse whether or not a newsletter will actually be read by an organisations stakeholders or is even  a necessary portal of communication.

Once a clear direction and purpose for the newsletter was established, it was much easier to develop the content and streamline all of the information within the newsletter to ensure that it wasn’t mirroring the same information that members can receive by going onto the website.

It is so important that newsletters remain relevant and can hold the readers attention, otherwise its production (which I now understand is extremely time consuming) is pointless.

It’s easy to see how organisation’s external communications can easily become sidetracked and take an undesired direction without some structure!

 

Another thing to take away from interning at CV! this week is the time that planning takes. Without proper planning, marketing collateral is not as effective as it could be and this planning can take days and days of brainstorming to perfect!

Some ways in which we have made our newsletter more interesting and interactive now include:

-          A “Fun Facts” section

-          Images of members and a “call to action” for members to find more pictures on CV!’s Facebook Page

-          Volunteer Interviews and personal accounts

With the first newsletter going out next week, I’m hoping the changes will be well received by the newsletters readership!

Not For Profit: Giving back to the community

Hi everyone,

My name is Jayde and I have recently started an internship at Curtin Volunteers! as the Communications Officer.

I always love working for Not For Profit organisations as I feel that it is an opportunity to give back to the community whilst utilizing and improving your skill set. This is one of the reasons why i chose to do my placement at Curtin Volunteers! I have worked in Not For Profit organisations before and even though the money is not as competitive as the corporate or private sector, I always find it more rewarding.
I'm hoping that this placement will be the same!

My role in the organisation is to streamline all communication and messages that leave the organisation. This includes monitoring social media, writing and editing content for the website and newsletters and writing media releases.

The role of communications officer was only introduced to Curtin Volunteers! at the beginning of this year which means that previously all of the communication leaving the organisation was anything but uniform and promoting a consistent message!

In my first week I went through and edited the website. This was a time consuming, but essential task! The content that was on the website was written by an array of different people, all with differing writing styles and idea's on what is appropriate grammar and spelling!

It was amazing to see how differently a website is portrayed to its audience when it is written be a single person, in a uniform style. You can check out the new website content at www.cv.curtin.edu.au

I'm finding it extremely fascinating to see how the organisation works as it is purely student/volunteer run (except for three paid positions). Due to a lack of funds they cannot employ as many people as they would like in order for things to run as effectively as possible but the amount that they do with such little resources is incredible!

I am really enjoying my placement so far and feel that i have a lot of ideas and suggestions to help improve the organisation!

Looking forward to any feedback or comments!

Jayde