Jack-of-all-trades

When becoming an intern, I think most other PR students would agree with me that we tend to become a ‘Jack-of-all-trades’. We are asked to take on a number of tasks, work in different departments, and assist with different activities across the organisation.

In my second week of interning at the Western Australian Council of Social Service, this has become a reality for me in my placement.

1.     Briefing the directors.

In order to maintain clear lines of communication, it was the responsibility of my director to ensure that other departments were aware of the different projects happening in the Corporate Services department.  It was my responsibility to assist and edit a 4 page-briefing document to demonstrate the progress of our membership review. It simply outlined our goals and objectives for the review, a timeline of date, tasks to be completed, and a comprehensive discussion about the purpose of the review.

I will admit I have never edited a document so many times; it makes me wonder if I should have done this more often in some of my assignments throughout my time at university. It was then I came to the question as I worked on this smaller project. Why do we need to tell the others why not have a quick meeting or send a quick email and not worry? The two words that came to my mind ‘Internal Communications’.  I am sure that all PR students would have covered this in some stage of their Corporate, Consultancy, or International PR classes. Looking back and reading my notes from earlier PR units, I remembered taking note of this particular statement.

“Internal communications has become an increasing need and integral part of implementing effective public relations practice but also contributes to the success of an organisation (Johnston and Zawawi, 2009, 331).

I believe that is does contribute to the success of the organisation and how it can improve stakeholder relations both internally and externally. In WACOSS, it was important for the Corporate Services department to communicate with other departments about this significant project. It also showed that my director had the initiative and took the effort to allow other departments to have there say about the review, make suggestions and provide feedback about the review.

Many other organisations often forget to implement these ideas in their management plans and strategies. They often forget that employees and other departments are known as internal stakeholders and place a great deal of emphasis on how important internal stakeholders can be to an organisation. As well as making the employees and other internal stakeholders feel important and considered in the different projects taking place within an organisation. 

I managed to find an article about a few PR experts predicting the rise of Internal Communications in 2013. So, go on have a quick read?

It is quite interesting to see the different developments happening in the Public Relations Industry over this next year, hopefully when we are all entering the workforce!

2.     Australian Charities and Not for Profit Commission

WACOSS has been working closely with the ACNC to provide charities and not for profit organizations around Western Australia an opportunity to understand the laws and regulations that they need to abide by. There were 3 seminars that were held in Perth throughout the month of February. WACOSS asked me to help with these events and I was able to assist with 1 of these events. With over 100-150 representatives attending the event, you can imagine the stress and work it placed on WACOSS and the ACNC.

For the event, it was my job to assist with placing out handouts, workbooks, and evaluation sheets throughout the auditorium. I also assisted with people arriving at the event and working on the door. I was also asked to assist the two speakers of the event and guiding them in there PowerPoint presentation (which was extremely nerve racking).

For those of you who don’t know who the ACNC is here is a summary:

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) is the independent national regulator of charities. The ACNC has been set up to achieve the following objectives:

•  Maintain, protect and enhance public trust and confidence in the sector through increased accountability and transparency
• Support and sustain a robust, vibrant, independent and innovative not-for-profit sector
• Promote the reduction of unnecessary regulatory obligations on the sector

 It was interesting to see how the emergence of this new body of law could place the Not- for Profit industry under such pressure. The commission has now become the main regulartor for organisations to register themselves as Charities. It allows charities to use a 'report-once use often Framework' to abide by. The point of these events was to inform the charities and the Not- For-Profit what the Commission was here to do and how they can assist them with the emerging changes. It was also a tactic in developing relationships with the representatives because of the short term and long term workings that will need to occur over the next few years. 

For other students taking there placements in the Not- for-Profit sector, I would encourage you to view the website or ask some of your supervisors about the ACNC and if it has affected your organisation in any way.

Being a jack-of-all-trades allows us to understand the different areas of the organisations we are placed in. I look forward to blogging more about the different tasks I was assigned whilst on placement as I am sure there are many more to come.

See you all soon!

Carla Lo Presti

14283730

Bentley Campus

Welcome to WACOSS!

Hello everyone, my name is Carla Lo Presti and I am in my final semester and this is my final unit of my Marketing and Public Relations Degree. 

When asked by my unit coordinator to think of an industry that I could see myself working in, there was not one hesitant bone in body that suggested Not- for-profit. With careful persistence and courage I was determined enough to gain a placement at the Western Australian Council of Social Service. After a few phones calls and emails, I was lucky enough to begin my placement at WACOSS on the 31st January 2013. Here, I have been assisting the Membership and Communications Manager and the Director of Corporate Services with various projects.


My first day was a little daunting, being the new person and a student there is often a lot of pressure and expectations that are placed on us as we are expected to have more knowledge and experience just because we have degrees. I was firstly introduced to the other members of staff in which were all welcoming and wonderful people, I was given a tour of our workplace, and I was asked to sit with the Director of Corporate Services and the Membership and Communications manager for a briefing. My first day also consisted of my director and manager discussing what our first project would be and what my responsibilities would include. It was my job to firstly read various annual reports, read the constitution, and research the community sector in Western Australia and Australia. 


The first major project I was asked to work on included the membership review for 2012-2013. WACOSS maintains a long list of member organisations and individuals that look to WACOSS to assist them in working effectively with members of the community. The last membership review was conducted in 2009 in which included new research to be conducted, a survey and previous data comparisons to take place. It was my job to review the survey of 2009 and make suggestions of improvement that I thought would be appropriate in ensuring WACOSS could get the results they needed to make improve services they are providing to members. 

Later on that day, the Corporate Services department in which I was placed in, held there monthly meeting. Here each staff member was able to tell me what their positions were in the organisation and what they do in each of their specialized areas. With a new team being developed in corporate services it was evident that new processes, systems and ways of communication needed to be developed in order for the team to work effectively and collaboratively. I was able to suggest having staff activities at each meeting so that staff could get to know each other and work well together. This provided me with an insight into how important internal communications is when working in larger team. 


After my first day, I will not lie in saying that I was left shaking in my boots! I did question my skills and knowledge and wonder if what I had learned in my degree and through other work experience had taught everything I needed to know.It is a little confronting when entering a new organisation and learning a whole new world. But then I remembered it was only the first day and this placement will teach me more skills that will help me in my career in Public Relations.  

I look forward to viewing other blog posts and seeing the different placements my fellow students have experienced!

I hope you are all enjoying your placements! 

Until next time… Carla

Hand over Day...

Hi,

Excitement is brewing and I will say I am rather nervous. My supervisor left on holiday on June 1st, this meant that she had to hand over tasks to all of us in the office as she will be away for 5 weeks. Today the CEO Fiona Kalaf, took us out for lunch so we could have a proper de-briefing session, coffee and macaroons!

Melissa handed over to me the following:
. Social Media
. HBF Run Prizes
. HBF Run database log
. Media Monitors
. Stress Down Day
. Suicide Prevention Month
. BDSC - Wine Wall
           - EDM
           - Fashion Shoot
           - Social Media (Twitter Account) 

It seems like a lot but I am very excited to take over and be able to show Lifeline WA what I can do. Of course I still have a supervisor, Natalie Bird, Fundraising coordinator, I report to her and she tracks my progress. I am excited to be able to take on these tasks and really use what I have learnt, I will admit I though it weird at first for a company to hand over so many different jobs to a volunteer. I have realised that it must mean they think I have the skills necessary to be able uphold and do these jobs well. The one task I am looking forward to the most is Stress Down Day.

Stress Down Day is a National Lifeline initiative that all Lifeline networks get on board. Lifeline WA are taking this initiative and putting a spin on it. What they have asked me to do is put together a booklet of information using both Lifeline's information and my own research that ask for a call to action from corporate clients to fundraise for us. Within the booklet I must talk about where the donations go, how to donate, what stress does to the body, fun activities that work places can get involved in etc... I then have the privilege  of sending these to our corporate clients. Along with that I also must come up with an idea that the Lifeline WA offices can get involved in as well.

I look forward to posting about how I'm going on all these new tasks, till next time...

Regards,
Karla Cavalli