End of an era

This morning Ed Sheeran, a huge supporter of The Big Issue performed a free concert on Sunrise, which provided the vendors with an opportunity to sell magazines. I went along to help with this and ensure promotional copies were handed out and that vendors didn’t run out of magazines. This event ran smoothly as we met vendors at Martin Place and had already packed the appropriate copies to be handed out. Back in the office, I was wrapping up the vendor profile approved copies and finalising photos to be taken in the following week as my time has come to an end.

The past four weeks have been extremely eye opening not only in experiencing how PR functions in a large social enterprise, but also in terms of the people I have met and the type of clients involved.  Before this internship, I never really considered how the function of PR could ever relate to homelessness. It is refreshing to have experienced a different side to PR and not just the corporate or profit focused companies. It is insightful to see how organisations use resources and utilise PR activities in the not-for-profit sector.

A few things I have learnt: PR requires a high level of social skills in order to get what you need. I realise the importance of working as a team to each achieve your individual tasks. I also learnt that I need to constantly ask myself: How does your position help make a difference in the organisation and help with progress.

In the end I managed to finish the vendor of the month project initially assigned - although the end product was improvised with a few vendors being unavailable. The other projects I completed were also insightful in regards to public relations in a not-for-profit organisation. I've learnt a lot over the past few weeks and look forward to expanding my knowledge and exposure in the future.

Kate

My Big Issue

The last week has been more challenging! I was required to conduct informal interviews with the vendors to gain information for their profiles to be published in the South Sydney Herald newspaper, which proved to be more difficult than I imagined. So far, I have been drafting up profiles with the information I’ve got and editing after each interview. There are still a few to go before I will be able to have the drafts approved and also photographs need to be taken to accompany the copy. I also discovered that one of the vendors set to appear in the project has moved to Brisbane no longer being a relevant for the local paper. In the same day, another vendor informed me they were no longer interested which also posed an issue as the project was now 2 vendors down. In the end this did not matter and I improvised with the ones that were till on board. I'm starting to realise the importance of time-management and organisation when things don't go as you plan! 

Tropfest was a success although in the end the flyer I had made wasn’t used, as there was a change of plans and the competition it was supposed to promote was no longer being held. I helped out by allocating pitches to vendors and interacting with the public to promote The Big Issue. This involved handing out information packs to the public. In terms of the promotional material and from a marketing perspective it was interesting to see that generally, the public was more inclined to take the canvas bag that was heavier and bulkier over a plastic one with only paper inside. 

That's it for now!

Kate

PR adventure interstate

 On Monday I commenced my internship at The Big Issue in Sydney, which I will be undertaking for the duration of four consecutive weeks. By the end of the first week, I had been given all relevant information on the social enterprise by the marketing officer and was also assigned my major project for the month by my supervisor and State operations manager.

For those of you who are not familiar with The Big Issue, it is a social enterprise, which sells magazines to vendors for $3, who then re-sell at $6 and keep the profit. They also have a women’s subscription, street soccer and Big Issue classroom – all with similar aims at helping marginalised or homeless individuals to positively improve their lives.

In collaboration with local newspaper The South Sydney Herald – The Big Issue has been given an opportunity to feature a Vendor of the month profile in each publication. My task was to liaise with the editor of the newspaper and determine exactly what was required for these vendor profiles. The next step was to gather information already available on the vendors and seek information, which was not already available through previous interviews with the vendors. So, the first step was research. This involved going through the archives and finding previously published vendor profiles and documenting, which vendors were in what issue. For the project, there were ten vendors selected based on newspaper distribution in their pitch area.

The idea of this project is so that as each month approaches, The Big Issue staff can forward the vendor of the month information to the South Sydney Herald. By having it all in advance, operations can run smoothly throughout the year. The extra media coverage will benefit both the vendors and the bottom line of the company by having increased sales from increased media coverage in the suburbs.

In relation to PR theory I have already been exposed to project management, archiving, spreadsheets, and testing my organisational skills.

I feel I’ve settled in nicely and have a few events to look forward to in the coming weeks!

Kate

social media, accountability, and speed.

Hey guys!

I'm back with my third blog post on my placement with zero2hero. Things have been getting busier, with two months to go before zero2hero day, our flagship event. 

On the social media front, I've been asked to write up a strategy for z2h's new Pinterest account, then create and manage it. Ironically, given in my last blog post I mentioned how I was struggling with it! It fascinates me how social media platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram were primarily created for everyday users, but that businesses have started using these platforms and navigating them successfully. I've spent some time looking through Pinterest accounts trying to figure out what makes the popular ones so popular, and how to structure my boards. The function of our Pinterest wouldn't be to gain 'repins', but to have all our ambassadors' videos, committee pictures, and 'Everyday Heroes' in one place for easy viewing and access. It's a timely reminder that organisations need to be quick in identifying upcoming social media trends and platforms and figure out how to utilise these for their organisation's benefit. I never thought a charity could really utilise such a creative space like Pinterest, but Headspace (http://pinterest.com/headspaceaus/) has successfully done it! 

zero2hero is currently working on getting a working Board together, and setting itself up with a proper charity status. One thing that interests me is the transition from a small, informally set-up organisation into a more accountable one. Suddenly, little details matter and everyone has to start realising that anything they do under the 'zero2hero' brand has to be documented, legally covered, and fit in with our mission and vision. For example, our founder has been meeting families and students and counselling them under the z2h name, and at a recent board meeting, it was pointed out that she probably shouldn't be doing this as it opens us to legal liability (as she is not a trained counsellor, nor does z2h offer counselling services). Becoming legitimate is hard work, and will probably result in even more restructuring! Ashlee is used to working with everything in her head, but we're slowly making the transition to putting everything on paper and ensuring everything is properly documented. z2h has never really been accountable to anyone, and the shift has required more boring but essential paperwork. 

Lastly, the WA Youth Awards were presented last weekend, and our founder won in the 'Educate' category. I was in the middle of class when I got a call that I had to write up a press release about the award and send it off. This made me panic a little, as I had a full day of class! I found a quiet spot on campus, rushed to write it in the fifteen minutes that I had, and sent it out to our media contacts. I then spent the rest of the day fielding calls from journalists in between my commitments. It was a good reminder that PR rarely happens within the 9-5, and that timeliness is key. Despite the pressure, it still remains one of my favourite things about the profession. 

I hope everyone else is enjoying your placements! :D 

Tumblr: my new best friend

By now it's been drilled into all of our brains that social media is the foundations of a successful organisation, and a particularly effective tool for institutions or organisations in the not-for-profit sector. Across my degree in PR, I have learnt about the restrictions that the not-for-profit industry faces regarding financial resources, and now I am seeing this first hand. Just recently, Colosoul is implementing a strong focus on social media to create a stronger brand image of Colosoul and all the departments under Colosoul. Each publication or brand under the Colosoul Group will be getting a PR person to manage this, which I think is a very successful move for a not-for-profit, youth group. Because we all know how important and effective social media is, and are quite good at using it, being Gen Y, this blog will be about my role at Colosoul over the last week or so. 

My task is to create a consistent social media presence for the brand under Colosoul, called Bird On A Wire. BOW was created by Tricia with the aim to bring awareness about the illegal sex trafficking of women all over the world, in a somewhat interesting and quirky way. From this brand comes artwork, songs, poetry and events to raise money for other organisations that support awareness of illegal sex trafficking. I literally got shovelled all the information about this brand on my very first day of prac, and told I was to be in charge of the whole social media plan and maintenance of it.

It was easy to pick up straight away that there was not a lot of consistency across the different platforms that BOW already existed on, and this was definitely a weakness. Nor were there very recent updates (the latest blog post was 6 months old!). Tricia also mentioned to me that she was thinking of changing her blog format to something more up-to-date and easy to maintain. It was currently using the Blogger format (which we use here!). I did my research and found that Tumblr. offers a very 'user-friendly' way to blog, and found many advantages in using this format. For example; utilising tags to connect with the stakeholders interested in the same areas, more suited to the younger target audience, the ability to reblog or be reblogged etc. I have never used Tumblr before, so I did my research on it to become familiar with how it works. I moved everything from the old blog page it's 'new home' on Tumblr which was an excruciating task as there were 76 blog posts to move, some which included more than one image as well as the text! Although this is complete, my job will never be finished. I will need to continually update and check everything that is going on across all platforms, to keep the social media presence for BOW relevant and appealing. 

Check out the blog if you have a spare minute! 

Bird On A Wire Tumblr

That's all for now, 

Holly 

The PR Journeyman: Ready, Set, Go!

Greetings fellow students!

For those who don't know me, my name is Blade Shaw and I'm currently in my final year of a Bachelor of Commerce - majoring in Public Relations. For a little insight to my background, I've had some previous experience acting within PR/Communications roles in two different businesses - Morris Computers and Pro Used Pty Ltd, both which are heavily interlinked with the IT industry.

As a student, I've just come off 2 years running on the Public Relations Student Chapter serving as both Secretary and Vice President respectively over 2011/2012. It was my decision at the end of the year to step down and concentrate on my final year, and PR Professional Practice was one of the many units I knew would require my full attention.

Over the University break, as I'm sure most of us did - I looked long and hard for an internship which I thought would best fit my interests, and contacted a number of organisations respectively. Luckily, I was contacted by Volunteering WA - who were very forthcoming and were quite interested in getting me on board after our initial contact.

Before I commenced my placement, I went into the offices and sat down with Felicity Stevens who is the IT Support Officer at VWA - and also a member of the services team of which I'm currently working as a part of. Our meeting went quite well, and after she had guided me through a run-down of the tasks that the service team required me to perform, and that they thought would best suit my skill set.

I started on the 25th of March, and immediately was set to task learning the ins and outs of the organisation so that I would have a significant amount of background knowledge to work off. My first thoughts immediately alerted me to start jotting down ideas in regards to social media, website content, promotional ideas - whatever appeared not to be on offer through their current communications, I was looking to establish a strategy to create it or improve upon their existing practices.

So far, I've still been trying to find my feet at the end of my second week - however it appears I'm slowly beginning to pick up some pretty good momentum, and VWA have been quite open to allowing me to take a great deal of creative licence with the ideas I have for their organisation. At the start of next week, I will be sending out a brief to a number of different University clubs regarding an exciting new service that VWA will be offering.

I will also be conducting some filming for their YouTube channel, documenting some of the exciting new features of their upcoming service.It's been my luck that I have been blessed with a number of very talented personal contacts at my disposal, and will be joined by Zak Norris - a Murdoch Screen Product student who recently was awarded 1st place in Reach Out's Film Crew competition. His winning video can be found on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aJWE42n-LZ0

Thanks everyone for reading my first post, I'm really glad to have been able to share some insight into my first week at the Volunteering WA office. Please continue to check back with my blog entries, as I continue to document my experiences over the course of my placement.

Blade Shaw
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Confessions Of A 'Volly'

So these first few weeks at Colosoul have absolutely flown by; I can't believe how quickly things happen at this organisation. The work place at Colosoul is such a fast paced environment, thanks to all the hard working vollies (volunteers). Already, I have helped at an event, begun planning a social media strategy, transformed a pre-existing blog and made it more current and appealing, and helped in discussions of another upcoming event. All in the life of a volly I say!

For those of you not familiar with Colosoul; it is a not-for-profit media and arts organisation which aims to support and enhance the experience of youth and to bring Perth communities together so everyone is involved. Tricia Ray is the founder of this fantastic organisation, and I believe it is thanks to her that there are so many opportunities for Perth youth to kick-start their careers by offering them first-hard experience in their industry of expertise. Not only in the area of public relations, but also from across all other areas such as fashion, graphic design, event management, music, writing, photography and many more.

What I have found in the office is a real team environnment, which contributes to the many successful projects running under the Colosoul organisation. Everyone in the office, including Tricia Ray, are unpaid and volunteering for the organisation, which really creates this non-competitive environment. Being a volunteer for Colosoul, and any other organisation, is about everyone pitching in. I learnt this at the Lights Out Arts Festival event held at The Bakery last weekend. While it was the assigned project of only a few of the Colosoul team members, a great number more attended to help out in any way they could, to ensure the event was a smooth-running success. This is important to understand for any organisation; be it not-for-profit or not, as it is about creating or maintaining a positive awareness of the brand name.

All in all; my first few days at Colosoul have run smoothly (so far!) and I am excited to getting deep into my first project assigned to me; updating and creating a social media strategy/presence for Bird On A Wire (a project underneath the Colosoul name). Updates to come in my next blog.

Signing out,
Holly Broockmann
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"Give a dog a home"

Doing PR work for the Dogs’ Refuge Home in Shenton Park has been one of the most rewarding and fantastic opportunities I have ever been given as a budding Public Relations Professional. I’m actually an intern at Shine Communications but my boss Ruth Simpson volunteers at the Dogs’ Home by doing PR work there, free of charge. She has taken me under her wing and being an animal-lover myself, I’ve gladly taken over at the Dogs’ Home writing media releases and organizing other media opportunities.  

I’ve done what seams like over 100 media releases starring Molly, Cindy, Sammy, Toby, Moosh, Moet and Spunky - just to name a few - who are in desperate need for what we call, a ‘forever home’. Not only do I get to develop my writing skills, I actually really enjoy having the opportunity to give these dogs a voice of their own. Each dog has their own story to tell, whether it be a sad one or a happy-ending, so it has become my job to display these stories in a way that will make them heard.

I’ve managed to get at least two in every three media releases in the respective local papers which makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside for two reasons: one, the dog featured in the paper has been successfully advertised and will hopefully get a home soon, and two OH MY GOD MY STORIES ARE IN THE PAPER!!!! It’s a fantastic feeling to know that my media releases have been noticed by journalists and have been successfully chosen to appear in the paper.

The Western Suburbs Weekly (WSW) have been filming a ‘dog of the week’ segment and have been putting it up on their Facebook page every Thursday. This has become my responsibility to make sure everything runs smoothly. So every Tuesday afternoon I’ve been going down to the Dogs’ Home, where I meet with the volunteer and their chosen dog, run through the questions they might be asked and of course make sure they know the correct answers. Along with this, I also meet and introduce with the WSW crew, make sure they get the clip that they need and everything runs smoothly. All this responsibility makes me feel very important and superior – not bad for an intern!

I have not only developed a passion for helping these homeless dogs, but I have also become painfully aware of how this opportunity has been a fantastic start to my career as a PR professional. At first, the media releases would take me a good four hours to complete, now this time has been more than halved. The people I interview, whether they are volunteers or staff at the Dogs’ Home, or have recently adopted a dog, are lovely people who are kind-hearted and are very much willing to have a chat to me. Everyone involved at the Dogs’ Home are aware of every story that gets published which means my hard work does actually get noticed, which doesn’t normally happen with the unlucky interns! There has been nothing but positives coming from my time at the Dogs’ Refuge Home with Shine Communications and I hope there will be many more positive times ahead, I feel like I’m living every PR professional’s dream. 

Different chanllenging experiences through internship

How is everyone? I think most of you have finished with your placement? This week I have been putting a lot of effort on poster designing as The Global Good Foundation are going to celebrate its 5^th Birthday on the 3^rd November!

We went to see the venue and now it's my job to get the poster done so we can send it out as an invitation! 

We have decided that there will be a separate party for the kids, so visitors can bring their children along. This is the poster that I made for the kids party!

On a different subject, I had the opportunity to go to Parliament house with Tanya Dapagne, CEO of Global Good Foundation, to do a Minute of Noise with Members of Parliament on the steps of Parliament House. It aimed to let people know that it is ok to speak out about situations of domestic violence!

This was really a great opportunity for me to widen my horizons by seeing all the members of Parliament in action!

Tanya brought me to meet up with one of our providers who sponsored us with T-shirts at a really cheap price. Tanya said it is crucial for public relations to bargain, as well as keep a good network with our sponsors; it is really important to an organization, especially for a non-profit one.

Therefore, Tanya assigned me and another event management intern, to go and ask for sponsorship from local business as we are looking for vouchers or gifts for a raffle and auction. I found this task really difficult since shopkeepers were quick to refuse us on account of numerous people asking for the same thing every week.

We had been practicing a lot on how to approach and persuade them to donate some prizes for us. However, we didn't even have the chance to speak. This was quite demotivating.

I hope I will experience some success next week! Good luck everyone!

My FIRST event

It is exciting to get your first media release published for all to see, however for me that was also a moment of panic. The pop-up Style Exchange in Subiaco was going to be my first event that I have done on my own, for my intern company Pro Subi and for the general public. The first published article on the pop-up Style Exchange and the event was going ahead.

I’ll go back to where it all started with being asked to come up with some fresh ideas for Pro Subi’s pop-up initiatives. I took this task to heart, as events management is my idea of a dream job and I really wanted to show my creativity. I took a week to really fine tune some ideas before I pitched them to my supervisors. I was in shock when she loved them all and told me that I had a budget and to go ahead and implement them. I was so excited that my supervisor loved my ideas that the realization that I was now responsible for their success had not hit me yet.

My first task for the event was to secure a location for the event. Pro Subi has, in the past, done a lot of pop-up events in vacant locations in Subiaco that I thought that this would be a breeze, how wrong I was! Securing a location turned out to be the hardest task of them all. Getting hold of leasing agents was a task in itself and in the words of my wise supervisor “stalk, stalk, stalk!” was exactly what I had to do to get a hold of them. At what felt like the last minute, before having to throw in the towel, I had success and promotion could begin and all other decisions could be confirmed.

I had a lot of anxiety, as the days got closer to the event. Would my idea work? Would people show up? Would people enjoy it? What would my supervisors think of the work I had done? Overall it went great, I worked the event and had a great time seeing all my hard work pay off, and getting lots of first hand feedback from the public. I have learnt a lot from this event and how I would do things differently for future events, however I feel that it was a success and achieved the main goals that I had hoped it would.

Events are a great way to connect with audiences and learn about perceptions and opinions on how successful they feel the company is meeting their mission. I have learnt that the key to a successful event (and minimising anxiety) is organisation, even though there are parts that are out of your control the best cure for uncertainty is to be organised for everything within your control.

Working for the Little Guys

My PR placement has been with the small not-for-profit organisation Pro Subi that consists of 2 hard workingwomen who take on all the responsibilities of what is normally handled by an array of different departments within a large organisation.

When I first started with Pro Subi I was concerned that working with such a small organisation my exposure to variety in work and opportunities would be limited, compared with what those doing placement within larger organisations may get. However I feel that the opposite has been true.

In my time with Pro Subi I have been charged with keeping Facebook and the website up to date, writing press releases for various initiates and database entry. These are all things that I have heard all interns’ talk about, but an opportunity that I have been given, that I think is unique to my small organisation placement, is that of developing, organising and executing my own ideas.

Pro Subi has undertaken a series of pop-up performances that utilises vacant retail spaces in Subiaco, providing a variety of performances, galleries, stores and other exciting initiatives. The purpose of these events is to capatilise on the novelty factor, build foot traffic within Subiaco and develop the suburb as a “happening place.”

My job was to think outside the box and develop some events that would work with the Subiaco brand and create buzz. I created a calendar of events that work with what is happening in the economy, within Australia and ties in with other calendar and seasonal events. This has been an unbelievable opportunity that has led to me staying on with the organisation in to execute these events.

From my experiences I have learnt that there are greater opportunities for skill development and professional growth within the smaller organisations, which I believe is due to the limited resources that they have to work with.

I am someone who is looking to going into the resource sector to take advantage of the financial opportunities, as well as the quality training for which the big companies have a reputation. However due to my experiences with Pro Subi, and also attending the Public Relations Student Chapter PR in Mining event where I got to talk with professionals working in my chosen industry I have come to realize that any experience that I gain is worthwhile. I am now not going to just focus on going for the big companies as the smaller ones have a lot to offer and teach me.

A Late beginning with angelhands Inc

Hi Fellow PR393 Students!

I’m finally writing my first blog post since this is basically only my second week into my placement. It has been difficult for me to find an internship as I started out late and most of the organizations that I called already have a student intern with them. Though I have yet to regret my decisions as I am fairly please with my placement with angelhands.

There were quite a few obstacles I had to pass before I found my placement with angelhands. Some of which was as mentioned above as many organization have already taken in a student placement and then I came across Water Polo WA and got in contact with the person in charged. Because they have just got a student that would be interning with them this semester, they have referred me to the Melville Water Polo WA with my main focus being The 2012 Tom Hoad Cup which takes place at the end of the year. I was so excited to start with them but it was most likely impossible as the final report is due in mid November and if I decided to go on, I would not have gotten very much experience as they only need me most in the months of November and December. Plus I would not have been able to finish my report in time by the due date. So I continued looking and got referred to angelhands by another not-for-profit organization and that is how I got to this point.

I know there are only 5 weeks of classes left so it is going to be a challenge with how much I will be able to accomplish when working in the public relations sector at angelhands. But I am willing to put in the time and effort to learn as much as I can from them and experience first hand in a real life job in PR. So I have decided to come in 3 days a week, every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to get as much time in as I can manage.

 Angelhands is basically a not-for-profit organization that helps traumatized victim of crimes. This could include individuals or families who have been affected either by homicide or by serious personal violence. In addition, there is only one paid staff within the organization while the rest are either volunteers or student interns just like me. This is definitely not like a usual PR internship one would look for and that it why I am so excited to learn about how their organization operates and everything else that comes with it.

Because of my short placement with the organization, my supervisor has got me to get straight to work; though my first day was quite breezy. I went to the National Health Awareness Day where there were many other not-for-profit organizations just like angelhands. My job for the day was to check out all the different organizations at their stalls and look at the type of marketing and promoting strategies that they have incorporated. The point of this was to gather information on how angelhands can improve to become more creative in the future. I also listened to how my supervisor and volunteers of angel hands spoke to the people and I tried speaking to them myself but I definitely was not ready for such a huge leap though talking to other not-for-profit organization’s staff members was quite interesting as they not only share their promoting tricks but what the organization means to them and why they chose stick by it. The experience that I have acquired on that day totally intrigued me. I just could not believe the stories I was hearing, as I never knew how one’s life could be so terrifying.

Overall the first day on my internship was very much a chilled out day as I ended at 2.30pm. But I must say, it got me thinking and wondering what I would be assigned to do for the PR side of things. I’m glad that I have chosen this organization as my placement for PR Professional Practice 393.

Till the next post then (:

<3 Deanna C.

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

Not-for-profits… even for The Profits

When most people think of not-for-profits they think of the ill and the disadvantaged and helping cure a disease or improving quality of life, however my new role is one that challenges this traditional thinking. The members and recipients of the not-for-profit organisation Pro Subi are the businesses of the Subiaco CBD, which varies from bars and cafes, to bookshops and clothing stores. You may ask why these stores need the help, can they not market themselves and handle their own Public Relations. The answer is ‘yes’ they can, however due to increased competition for the decreasing disposable income, the importance of marketing Subiaco as a strong, united brand has bought about the necessity for the work of Pro Subi.

Despite the uniqueness of the beneficiaries of Pro Subi the challenges and rewards of the work are the same. The two employees that run Pro Subi have a passion for what they do, work tirelessly through lunch breaks and battle against limited budgets with high expectations.  I have already experienced the reward of the work that Pro Subi does, as it feels like a community with people interacting and expressing their thanks for the work we do for them not only on an individual level but for the benefits for Subiaco as the brand.

My first jobs in the first few days was database entry, and editing and updating the database, which seems to be the first jobs of many interns and upon assignment is followed by an apology for the tedious nature of the job. I would like to pass on this piece of advice to my fellow PR interns is that database work may not require a tertiary education but do not underestimate its importance. Throughout my time in work experiences I have come to learn the value of this “tedious” jobs, as not only is the database worth a lot of money but also in most cases can lead to the success or failure of events and initiatives.  

Now 8 days into my internship and I can reassuringly tell you that having completed working on the database I have moved on to further utilising my PR skills.

Observing the wild world of not-for-profit organistions.

Hi everyone!

My name is Prue Kraft and I am doing my placement at the Association for the  Blind of WA - Guide Dogs WA (Guide Dogs) in the Community Relations department. I have just finished my third day at my placement and already I appreciate the importance and benefits of this placement unit! I know we heard it all in the modules, unit outline and even from other students, but this unit has got to be THE MOST USEFUL experience for me as a budding Public Relations Practitioner.

During my first few days at the Guide Dogs it became very obvious that in this not-for-profit organisation, and I'd assume not-for-profit organisations in general, very few people do a huge mass of work, and staff within the team are thinnly spread between mutiple tasks. But what I did notice in this environment is that everyone is always more than happy to help out where ever they can and get involved in projects to help lighten the load. Further, everyone within the team is very considerate of one another, always making sure everyone has taken their lunch break etc. I think this contributes to the warm, friendly and inclusive atmosphere that exists within this team environment. Not to mention the Association's retired Guide Dog, Gidgie, who hangs out in our office and is always up for a cuddle or two!

Understanding the environment and nature of not-for-profit organisations really enabled me to see the bigger picture behind every task I do while on prac. For example, I spent most of my first day stuffing 500 quarterly Guide Dog News newsletters in envelopes to be distributed to their stakeholders. While the team were apologetic for giving me the task and reassured me that my time on prac wont consist entirely of stufifng envelopes, I was more than happy to help as I knew that 1. this was a vital part of their communications plan and 2. I was freeing up half a day of work for the team to do other equally important work.

My second day on prac saw me delve right into public relations at the Guide Dogs.  First off, I interviewed the Director of Corporate Development on an event he is taking part in. I then had to write the article up based on this interview to go on to the Association's website. At this point the advice of many of my tutors came rushing back to me, with one statement ringingly loudly: "ATTENTION TO DETAIL". While I have written many press releases in my time at uni, it was only now that I fully understood this! I needed this article to be complete, interesting, accurate, and most of all, fit within the style and tone of the rest of the organisation. With these points in mind, it took me longer than usual to write my article, but the hard work payed off because it went straight up onto the Association website!! This was probably the best feeling ... EVER! Compliments from the team and the Director also made me feel pretty happy with myself!

So, if there is anything I have learnt on my first week of prac, it would have to be one of two things. 1. ATTENTION TO DETAIL! and 2. Listen to what tutors say, they really do know what they are talking about!!!

The world from inside a bear suit...

Loads of Work Behind the Scenes
One of the joys of working with an organisation that specialises in children is that there are a lot of fun activities you end up getting involved in. One of the biggest annual events put on by the PMH Foundation is ‘Wear a Bear Day’, which takes months of preparation. I definitely have a new appreciation for the work that goes into organising something like this! Next time you go to the shops and see a pen or badge at the counter to support some non-for-profit group, buy it!! Seriously, so much work goes into getting stuff out there!

The Value of Volunteers (and Social Media)

I have also come to appreciate how valuable volunteers are, without them organisations like the PMH Foundation cannot function effectively. Despite how much they are needed, to find people who are willing to help out is a huge challenge. I spent the week leading up to the big day hassling all my friends into volunteering to wear the bear suit and go out during the week to fill money tins with the Nova ‘Casanovas’ (check out pictures at http://www.novafm.com.au/gallery/wear-bear-day).  Some friends didn’t need convincing however. They were born to ‘be the bear’ (this is where Facebook events come in handy...social media definitely has a place in PR). There is nothing like enthusiastic volunteers, non-for-profit groups thrive on these kinds of people!

The Big Bear Day
Finally the big day came and it was my time to shine. I was in the city by 7am sweating it out in the bear suit while the other volunteers were freezing around me, literally shaking tins. I think I filled two tins in the time everyone else filled one…no one can resist giving money to a giant cuddly bear. I decided to milk the opportunity and bring out the best of my acting skills for the occasion. If dancing and getting down on one knee to beg for money doesn’t work, a ‘crying’ bear does. I felt like I had been in a sauna for hours but it was worth it just to see people’s reaction when they saw a big bear face peering in at them through café windows. Other volunteers were selling merchandise from a marquee and gave out balloons to the children. The Nova team were also there pumping music out the back of their Ute, which helped to draw crowds of people.

Lessons Learnt

In the city alone we managed to raise around $15,000 but plenty more came in later with the help of shopping centres and other partner stores who helped to sell merchandise. From the experience I learnt the value of volunteers and also partnerships with other organisations like Nova, food outlets and shopping centres. You really have to be able to sell your ‘cause’ well to inspire people to get involved and be enthusiastic about it. You need to be proactive and passionate about it yourself. Events requiring a lot of work before, during and after, involve a lot of teamwork and good communication skills as well. I will take all of these lessons with me into future PR practices, along with my amazing mascot-wearing abilities.

Note to aspiring mascot wearers: Don’t cross any streets while in your costume…you have no peripheral vision whatsoever.

Taking a break from actually being IN the "Stitches the Bear" suit

PR at PMH?...Nooooo the PMH Foundation!

I had not really considered the existence of a PR body working for a hospital – let alone an entire foundation dedicated to it – until I started my placement at the Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.

Wanting to find work placement in the non-for-profit sector, I was amazed at the variety of different organisations out there in our community that can be easily overlooked. Although Princess Margaret Hospital is well known in WA for its specialisation in children, since starting my placement I have quickly learnt that its separate Foundation is often forgotten or confused with the role of the hospital itself.

The PMH Foundation is the official fundraising body for the children’s hospital and has a critical role in providing funds for vital medical equipment and research, as well as implementing various projects. They are involved in so many exciting activities including annual events like the  Urban Decent (where people can fundraise to abseil down a city skyscraper…check out the fun we had earlier this year... http://www.urbandescent.com.au/tag/pmh/), Wear A Bear Day and even weekly visits into the hospital wards with their mascot ‘Stitches the Bear’. More information about everything can be found at http://www.pmhfoundation.com/ if anyone is interested.

Right from the first day working for the foundation I began to understand one of the main challenges it faces. As part of what has become my weekly task, I use a media monitoring website called www.mediaportal.com to search for coverage of the foundation and write up a media report about all the articles and other coverage that it has been mentioned in. Through this monthly report the media content can be analysed by the board as to whether there has been enough public awareness and activities generated to assist with fundraising objectives.

The problem, however, is that all too often the journalists and outsourced consultants who write the articles simply write PMH instead of mentioning the PMH Foundation specifically. The public are often confused as to where they can donate money because of this mix-up. It also makes it hard to monitor what the Foundation has actually been doing for the hospital. I also think the PMH Foundation and its staff work really hard to create a good public profile for the hospital and it is a pity that they often do not get the recognition they deserve. I have spoken with my coordinator about what they plan to do about the problem. She said that they have started to put a note on all the information they send through highlighting the importance of having the PMH Foundation specifically mentioned in media releases and articles. Whether that is going to be enough is another story. Maybe I should ask if any of you have a better idea of how to tackle this issue? I’m sure my team would be eagre to hear your suggestions!