Volunteer / Student Placement

I have discovered that there are some similarities and difference to what volunteers and placement students are expecting when entering an agency. Since they expect different things there are different aspects that should be considered when managing them.

Volunteers:

• Given small tasks to learn about the agency when first starting out.
• Come in to specfically help the organization in which they volunteer.
• Few responsibilities.
• Will do any task to help out.
• Like to be shown appreciation.
• Do not come with the expectation to learn anything, but are pleasantly surprised if they do.

Placement Students:

• Given small tasks to learn learn about the agency when first starting out, then moves on to more advanced tasks.
• Come to the organization to gain experiences.
• Given many responsibilities, with little training.
• Appreciates being given tasks that will help them learn a new skill.
• Likes to be shown appreciation.

It has come to my notice that organizations could be great at managing volunteers and struggle when  managing placement student.

I'm Dreading It.

Its that season again, and I'm dreading it....

No, I don't really mean Christmas, I like Christmas. What I am dreading is the packaging that comes on the presents. Christmas morning for me is a frenzy of excited kids, wrapping paper, candy and......twist ties.

I don't know who is in charge of putting twist ties on all Polly Pockets, My Little Ponies, Littlest Pet Shops and Barbies, but they will be the death of me. I spend Christmas morning frantically trying to get boxes open and get the 6 million twist ties off the toys so they can actually play with them. While I try to do this their excitement level is going through the roof and could blow at any moment.

Its torture. Its torture of me who is ready to go mental if that last darn tie will not get of this second. Its torture for them because they just want to touch it without a box firmly attached. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE whoever is in charge of the packaging of toys, get rid of the twist ties!!!! Save us from he madness. Having girls is hard enough you don't have to torture us by having every toy they could ever want firmly attached to its package by twist ties

Thank You,

That One Kid

Have you ever met that one kid? The one that needs you more than the others? You know.....that kid who won't take a chance and run onto the soccer field. That kid who won't speak a word. That kid who cries when their mother leaves them.

As a person who actively coaches and leads programs, I've met that kid. I've met that kid dozens of times. Each time a little different. I love getting that kid.

Some kids need recreational programs they just don't know it yet. I really enjoy helping them to see how great programs are. You can make them see by being caring, compassionate and patient.

I have one great example I would like to share. A few years ago I had a little girl who was just starting soccer on my team. She was pretty shy and wasn't so sure about starting soccer. The first day I let her check it out. She's only 4, she has time to figure this out. She played the drills with some encouragement. She especially loved a game where you kick the ball at your coach, if you hit them you scream out and animal name and the coach needs to pretend to be that animal and chase you. She never kicked the ball herself but i could see her thinking about it.

But when it came to game time she wasn't interested. She wanted to sit on the blanket and be invisible. Near the game I had her come on  the field after offering my hand. She ran about with me not going into the play, but staying to the side with me. After a few games I was thinking shes doing great shes participating in practices and she happy on the field with my hand. She had even been coaxed to kick the play during game play a few times. She even won little soccer ball patches I had given out for passing and being a team player. She never did display them on her jersey. I thought by the end of the season she would be running around and doing it all herself.

Well to my surprise she wasn't. I was also surprised when her parents thanked me at the end of the year for teaching their daughter so much. She had apparently become much more confident over the summer and was showing everyone her soccer patches. I was reminded that when it comes to kids I coach I don't set the level for success. Each child recognizes success in their own way.

Food Bank Flash Mob

For the fall food drive this year my local food bank requested that we create, manage and present a flash mob. The idea was to have an exciting way to draw attention to the fall food drive. Unfortunately my classmates and I had heard that dirty word before. We had literally just completed a flash mob days before with mixed reviews. I'm not going to lie I was less than impressed that I was going to have another flash mob on my resume, and this time it was for marks.

As an attempt at not being negative I attempted to keep a low profile. But I'm sure you know how those types of things go. First they pick an awesome song, then they get you to dance, then they remind you that you are an over achiever and want the marks. Lets face it they had me at the awesome song.

A couple of my classmates were brilliant at choreographing a dance to go along with the song "Help!" by the Beatles. Things were looking promising. Contact list were being made, locations were set, date was sat, dance practices were full and we had people to film it. We even had a pretty good start on a "How-to" guide on flash mobs.

We had decided to present at three different grocery stores in the area so that our message would reach future. Our timing was pretty good and the enthusiasm was high. Everyone was pumped and ready to do it. You're waiting for the but aren't you? You are correct, there is a but.

But, after the flash mobs things fell apart. Poor communication lead to letters to the media not getting out quickly, pictures only made it so far and the video took for ever to get back to us. With grabbing the medias attention we needed to be quick, but we lost momentum, fast. Our flash mob turned into a mess. If we were ever crazy enough to except an event request last minute we will need to be sure that we have a clear plan for what goes on far the event. If we would have had the time to properly plan, we would have possibly made a plan to get our information out faster. Hopefully we have also learned that communication is key.

We're not sure if we "Help!"ed anyone. All i know for sure is that I shutter a bit when I hear flash mobs mentioned.

Here is the unofficial Youtube video we posted, the one we had made wasn't much better....le sigh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_UczeAJxDc

How Much is That Little Doggy in the Window?

We all know the childhood song about the little doggy in the window. As children we all dreamed about that dog on the other side of the glass. But really who would fall for such a blatantly manipulative marketing strategy....you know other than an impressionable child.

Everyone....that who. There is a pet shop in Cambridge that does have little doggy's in the window. As i wandered past I causally mention to my friend beside me...." Hey, there's a puppy in that window...like the song....that's funny." I was expecting a equally nonchalant response in return.

But nope, my friend quickly turned and went back to oogle at the puppy. As he watched it play remembered good time gone with his old dogs and how it would be nice to have a new one. I was then taken into the pet shop to look at more puppy's wagging their tails in the back.

It only takes one....they got us. Although I was on to their tricks and wasn't sucked in by the puppies my companion was. And I think any reasonable person would choose accompanying a friend into a pet store rather than stand outside looking like you might be ready to make a coat out of puppies at any moment. Although we left the store with nothing I am seriously considering going back to buy a neat hamster cage. So congratulations pet store, you have good ideas for getting people to buy your products.

Santa Claus is coming to Cambridge. I'm not talking literally, that happened last week in the parade and quite frankly I try to avoid malls in December.

Anyway...Cambridge has come up with a fantastic idea, I just heard it on talk radio today. Instead of having citizens pay for parking infractions this year they are being given the chance o pay for their ticket in toys!!! I at first thought someone was pulling a prank. So i looked into it, and it true. If you receive a parking ticket in Cambridge between December 1-14th 2011 you can choose to submit toys of equal value instead.

I think its a great!! parking tickets are awful, they can ruin your day...then you have another task to deal with by having to pay for it...BAH HUMBUG!! Shopping for a toy for a child in need seems like a better use of time. This initiative almost makes me want to get out there and park for three hours in a two hour zone.

So if you live in Cambridge or plan to shop there feel free to park where ever and buy a few toys for some great kids....happy shopping.

To check out the specifics of this deal follow this link the the City of Cambridge Toys for Tickets. http://www.cambridge.ca/news.php?nid=352

Where is it?

The Z beside the Y is a Cambridge Youth Center that is very difficult to find despite the fact that it is as the title states beside the Y on Hespeler Road. So why is it hard to find? and why is it poor marketing?

This is an over head picture of the Z location that was obtained from the Z beside the Y website and slightly altered to show my point:

The Z is inconveniently placed behind another building that is for new Canadian services for the YMCA. The Z also has issues with its signage. It has a great big sign where I have placed a yellow rectangle on the map. The sign has an abstract logo that is hard to read and no indicators that the Z is behind the other building. When going along Hespeler Road from off the express way you cannot see the Z sign until you are almost past it. This is due to the fact that there is one tree (red circle) that needs to be trimmed so it is out of the way.


The Z is difficult to find due to its poor back lot location and ineffective signage.

The Canadian Cancer Society has a product called the Thing-a-ma-boob to raise awareness about the importance of frequent mammograms. The Thing-a-ma-boob looks like a beaded key chain. Each bead represents the lump size that on average is found during different types of examinations. The smallest bead is for women who get regular mammograms. The second is for  women at their first mammogram. The third is the most common found by a healthcare professional during a physical exam. And the fourth and largest is the lump found during a self breast examination.

The Thing-a-ma-boob is to actual size and gives a very good visual to people who may not be aware of the facts. I myself had no idea a lump could group so big without finding it during a self breast exam. I had thought to do  a self breast exam was all that was really needed to keep on top of my breast care.

The packaging is designed so that once a woman receives the Thing-a-ma-boob and understands the message she should then pass it onto a friend. There is a place for each person to sign that they have seen the Thing-a-ma-boob and recieves the information.

I think the Thing-a-ma-boob is a very innovative way to get women talking about a subject they don't want to talk about. Breast cancer is a serious illness that can be survived if found soon enough making the Thing-a-ma-boob a very useful prevention marketing tool.

                                              This picture was taken from http://thingamaboob.ca/ November 19, 2011


To learn more about the Thing-a-ma-boob please go to the Canadian Cancer Society website:

http://thingamaboob.ca/

House Hippos

Every once in awhile I contemplate the realism of house hippos.

I know I shouldn't. I remember watching the commercial thinking it couldn't be true. But I was still contemplating "could it be true?" during the middle of the commercial. I know the commercial blatantly told me by the end that house hippos were not real. But I still thought about it a lot.

It was the first time I can remember being duped by TV. Well I should say knowingly duped. Watching the house hippo commercial was the first time that the idea that a commercial that seemed like a documentary could be lying to me.

So why was I duped? I'm putting it down to the fact that the commercial was set up like a documentary. It had the sappy music. I calm yet boring announcer. There was use of real animal footage. The big reason I didn't catch on was the fact that i was the demographic they were trying to protect. I was a little kid. I had no reason to question what i was seeing. I had no idea you could cut and replace pictures in videos with computers.

Concerned Children's Advertisers did a fantastic job getting peoples attention with that ad. I think many people still remember it. Parents took more care to explain what non truths were displayed on TV and children took more care to question it, It is important to remind people that what they see is not always true. Its also important to show them that deceit comes in different forms.

If the house hippo commercial hadn't been so successful many people like myself might not have had the wake up call that TV is not an accredited source. It told people to think about  and talk about what they are watching.

For those who would like to see the video you can find it here on youtube. 
  
Concerned Children's Advertisers

To be wanted, but not WANTED

To start with, I live in a TV free world. I don't listen to radio much. I almost never find time for the newspaper past the comics and the word search (which I will fight to the death for). I don't read magazines. I also have trained myself to ignore all pop-ups and side ads that may appear on my computer screen. In general this type of media reduced lifestyle works for me. It does not work well for me when I asked to write about marketing. My lower levels of media make it harder for me to comment on media. So I am scrapping from the bottom of the media barrel today......political election signs.

Most elections signs are pretty standard. They have the colour of the party with white lettering on a long rectangular sign. The candidates name is prominently displayed generally in the lower right area of the sign. A picture is also commonly added to the top left hand corner. We all recognize the signs and get the general gist of what they mean each election season weather we pay attention or not. The signs all have a similar layout so that when a person spots it they now instinctively what it is.

One councillor candidate in Wellington County he chose to mix things up a bit. Rather than having the standard layout and colouring he chose to stand out. At first sight his sign looks like an old WANTED sign. His campaign sign is vertical, yellow, with a black and white image in the center. The sign also has writing above and below the image. I have no idea what the mans name is, what ward he belongs too or what party. All I know is hes running for something and he has a beard and a shifty look in his eye. I commend this random politician for his attempt to draw attention to himself but I can't say his attempt was successful.

Flash Mob

Today I was part of a hoop flash mob in support of physical activity and community. So how did it go you wonder? It was a horrible failure, it was a great success. It all depends on who is asking.

Flash Mobs are neat because people appear somewhere unexpected. Seemly from nowhere, and do something amazing. Then they disappear as though it never happened. Our flash mob wasn't quite like that.

If you are a flash mob enthusiast I'm sorry to tell you we failed to make a truly awesome flash mob. We were as inconspicuous as the crazy man yelling in the street. We were as well timed as two year old children. We put on a performance worse than Finn singing "I'll Stand by You" in Glee. All in all it was chaotic and sloppy.

BUT: We did not do a  flash mob event for flash mob enthusiasts.

We did a flash mob for our community. We did a flash mob so we could play with hoola hoops and encourage others to do the same.

Our event was a great success. We had people young and old hoola hooping in Waterloo Town Square. Everyone was laughing, talking, experiencing. What else could we really ask for?

People forget the importance of community. To share experiences with people and to be connected. If only for 3 minutes people let their guards down and joined those around them in a fun activity. Maybe it encouraged people to talk or to laugh. Maybe they only mocked us. It doesn't really matter as long as we encouraged people to do it together.

Its hard to know just how successful we were since commuity cohesion means different things to different people. I think that my community benefited from our "flash mob" today, and I'm happy with that. 

My all time favorite moment of todays event was when two on duty police officers joined their neighbors in the childish activity of holla hooping. Its hard to take anyone too seriously when they have a holla hoop in their hands. I thought they sent a great message out by participating


That's all for now,

Jewellz

Participating for the team.