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

A fly on the wall at staff meetings

Staff weekly meetings may sound boring to some but this is where I have learnt some of the most valuable things about PR practice while interning at the PMH Foundation. Monday morning meetings have given me a broader perspective and greater insight into the organisation’s ethos, team dynamics and values. They have also brought to the surface many issues, ideas and concerns that play a part in bringing the team closer together and more in tune with each other and the vision and mission of the organisation. I have had time to think over a lot of different things that have come up in the meetings and in broad terms (so some information remains confidential) I wanted to outline some of the PR theory I have seen being used in practice.

Communication and Conflict Resolution - Employee Relations

At a staff meeting one person raised the concern that something had caused a shift in the team dynamic. Instead of feeling a sense of teamwork this particular thing had caused a sense of competition to overwhelm the way people went about their work. I thought this was an interesting point raised and as a team they felt they had to step back and assess whether this concern was affecting the organisation as a whole. The matter was fixed fairly easily because the meeting allowed people to voice their opinions and find a solution that suited everyone and bring things back to the values of the organisation. I think this was an example of good employee relations at the PMH Foundation and showed good communication within and across its teams of people. Staff are able to inform each other of important announcements and keep them updated with new developments during weekly meetings and through an email system. Informal things like ANZAC cookie competitions, nachos and pizza days are also lovely lunchtime ideas that build community and a sense of goodwill among co-workers. According to PR theory we have learned, service and quality are built through loyal and motivated employees. I think the relationships and communication developed in a mix of formal and informal ways are a key part to achieving this (I found this online tutorial had some pretty interesting things to say on this and many other aspects of PR if you are interested http://www.edvencomm.net/pr.pdf ).

Public Awareness - Marketing in PR

In my last staff meeting we discussed one of the main issues the Foundation is facing, which I outlined in my first blog post. Basically, there is continual confusion and lack of public awareness of the separate identity of the hospital and the Foundation. In addressing this concern, the marketing and communications team came up with a variety of new strategies to raise public awareness, manage the organisation’s image and provide more ways for target publics to be involved with the Foundation. I learnt a lot just by listening to the input from different team members about this particular issue. Ideas, which will be implemented to address different target publics, included giving out PMH Foundation bravery awards and Stitches stickers to kids in hospital, sponsored tea breaks for staff courtesy of the Foundation and a TV commercial to position the Foundation as the key fundraising body of the hospital (look out for it on TV soon!!). Social networking sites like Facebook will also be key to establishing a separate (and more personal) identity for the Foundation. I will be interested to see how all of these tactics help to build awareness and a strong identity for the Foundation in the future.

These are only a couple of aspects of PR that I have gained valuable insight into at staff meetings. I sometimes have to smile to myself when I think of how much of what is discussed relates directly to the things I have learnt about strategic PR in all of my units! Always good to see how theory is applied in the real world of PR in practical ways.