"Stalking" for the Greater Good of Jazz

Hey Everyone!

So now that the big jazz event has been completed it's time to start getting prepared for next year. 2013 is going to be an amazing, jazzy, eventful, and busy year for WAYJO as it celebrates its 30th Anniversary!

As part of its anniversary WAYJO is hoping to encourage alumni to get involved in all aspects of its celebrations. For the projects we are undertaking WAYJO would love to showcase the success of past members and encourage many to get involved by attending and even performing at numerous events. Encouraging alumni to get involved will help strengthen and re-establish strong relationships.  

My job is to find WAYJO alumni that have been disconnected from the organisation. However it seems that information recording past WAYJO members has been lost! You can imagine the problems this has given me. 

So in order to find these "lost" alumni I have taken to the very useful and efficient resource called Google. I must admit the idea of Google "stalking" people was not something I would ever think I would be doing at WAYJO but hey it's for the greater good of jazz! But don't worry I use the word stalking very loosely; it's more searching through past WAYJO events and performances, looking through jazz sites, and reading through jazz musician bio's and other information. After determining if they are past members I then strategically search for ways in which to communicate with them, which has proved very tricky. Did you know that not many people are open to posting their details online for everyone to see? I definitely will still not post my details online but please past WAYJO members, just this once!

I can’t wait until I begin communicating with the alumni as due to my “stalking” I’ve learnt who the alumni are, what they’re doing, and what they’re about; this will be very rewarding in building strong relations with alumni. You could call this a silver lining.

I'm not sure my tutors really prepared me to find specific people within the public from scratch. However, I hope for the sake of all future and current PR students that they never have to learn or go through this process.

Bye for now,

Christina.

A Toe Tapping Start to Work Experience

Hello!

So I've finally decided to write my first blog about my internship at the one and only Western Australia Jazz Youth Orchestra (WAYJO). WAYJO is a not-for-profit organisation that provides unique opportunities for the top jazz musicians in WA. It's a very tough organisation to get into but once accepted students are rewarded with career-defining experiences including touring, training, recording and performing with world-class guest artists.

As this is my first work experience position I had no idea what to expect! As soon as I walked in I felt very comfortable and ready to get to work! I work in a small office with about four other ladies all of whom are very kind and facilitating.

WAYJO at the moment is very busy as its due to celebrate its 40th anniversary next year! This means gaining sponsor and alumni support is even more important as they plan for the numerous events and programs in the next coming months. This is wonderful for me as there's a lot for me to do!

Due to WAYJO being a not-for-profit organisation I've been given a variety of tasks. These tasks include; creating a media contact list, updating and adding to sponsor and school contact lists, written an editorial on an upcoming jazz artist, designed event flyer's, contributed to the format of the new website, created a list of free web event listing sites, published WAYJO event details to event listing websites, and resolved returned emails.

I'm very much appreciative of my unit coordinators as they've always covered material that is associated with non-for-profit organisations. It is only now I understand the true differences of PR roles in profit and non-for-profit organisations that I've been taught throughout my degree. The skills I've learnt from my PR units have been vital in my role at WAYJO and additionally give me the confidence to attack the new tasks assigned.

So far I have learnt so much and have really enjoyed my placement! I'm looking forward to learning and experiencing more at WAYJO! 

Bye for now,

Christina