Ashley's Blog

4.28.09

adh05 — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:03:11 +0000

Well i must admit that our event was a huge success. Everyone managed to pull their own weight in the project and it turned out GREAT. I know I had a lot of running around to do when we were filling the balloons, but everyone did a great job. When we were setting up, we were wondering how we could manage to get the banner on top of the arch but me and Maddie decided that we were going to hang it from the Holmes Hunter Building right by our table. There was a wedding in the Chapel that same day so I know some of the wedding party was a little skeptical about a water balloon fight being nearby. I think that Herty field was a great venue for the fight simply because it was an open area where people could run and grab balloons from different areas and really have a great time. Me and Ivey worked check in and it ran smoothly. I wrote receipts and peopl gave donations in various amounts. Ivey stamped people’s hands, put their names in the bag for the raffle and pointed them in the direction of the fight. We started the actual event around three or so and i think that people really enjoyed it. Though it was short and sweet, guests stayed around to help us clean the venue and ate popsicles. I think that overall this semester of planning the event turned out to be great because the closer that we got to the event, the more excited that everyone got about the event. I took pictures of the preparation over filling the balloons and packing everything up to take over to Herty field. I think that the fact that we made a lot of money to benefit the Kay Yow foundation. We managed to raise over seven hundred dollars to benefit a cause that is worthwhile.

This event helped me understand course material better by having a hands on approach to planning events. One thing that Corey stressed to us was to always get everything in writing so in reserving the venue, I had all the correspondence between me and Jody so that when Corey had questions, I could forward him the conversation that we had and let him know everything. Four things that I learned was to 1. get everything in writing 2. when budgeting, always cushion the budget for miscellaneous things 3. always have checks and balances with group responsibilities and 4. have a alternate venue just in case.

I think that I did a good job in helping others live good lives in leisure by following theoretical approaches to event management. Through promoting our event, I was able to help others come to and have a stress relieving time at the balloon fight. Through budgeting, we didn’t really spend much money on the actual event so all we really had to do was get things to raffle off for event participants. For auxilary services, I managed to get Herty Field reserved even though we had to get approval through Corey from the department.

This class helped me gained real life experiences because in the new position that I have, I will have to conduct college fairs for high school students and basically plan an event for a high school and keep in touch with many different institutions in order for them to have successful college fair. For next year’s students, i will say that they should definitely take the course but keep in mind that it is a huge time commitment. To improve next year’s course, there should definitely be more guidance and structure for the semester long projects. I had a good time doing the project but happy that it’s over.

4.14.09

adh05 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:44:36 +0000

This is our time to shine! We are so close to putting on what we all hope to be a
successful event. Do you think that you have done everything possible to
contribute to this event? If not, what else could have been done? Do you have
any concerns going into the weekend? If so, what are they?

I think we have done everything possible to contribute to this event. At first everyone was a little discouraged about the three on three tournament, but now it is as if everyone is stepping up to the plate and coming through for the event. Brittany has gotten donations from her sorority and Zach has come with donations as well. Today Maddie has gotten a $75 gift card from a store she worked at a while ago for a door prize. During our meeting today, me, Maddie, and Ivey made the banner for the event. Tomorrow, we plan on finalizing the logistics of the event. I plan to get a walk around of exactly where Herty field is. I personally have made announcements in my classes so that people will come as well as put up a facebook status about it. The only thing that I am concerned about is check in and everyone (as in the participants) actually getting there in time for the fight to start. I wouldn’t want someone to get there and the event has already started. One thing that Corey asked about was the safety of people who are walking by. We talked about possibly having warning signsso that innocent bystandards aren’t hit by flying water balloons. After the actual event, we plan to have popsicles for everyone in attendance. We managed to get boxes of 100 for about 3 dollars and some change at Walmart. We also plan to have signs pointing from the arch to the actual site so that everyone knows where to go to get ready for the event. Tomorrow we plan to get together and discuss logistics such as time to meet, when and where we’re blowing balloons up and things like that. It seems as though we are getting a lot of support from the event and it seems as though we are making a great profit already. Today in my interracial communication class, I mentioned the event to my class, and they had actually heard of Kay Yow. Today at our meeting, we actually discussed the earning potential of this event. Since the venue is free, the only thing that we are actually paying for is water balloons and supplies. We paid $3 each for popsicles instead of an actual meal and we are planning to make a huge profit. I think at the end of our day, we are comfortable with the event that we are putting out for the public to see and I think it actually shows in the work that we do. Sara Kate is supposed to get us shirts to wear for the event so that people know that we are the people who are actually putting on the event. All in all, we are excited and looking forward to Saturday!

Ashley

4.7.08

adh05 — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:15:50 +0000

So we turned in our event plan yesterday and we are off to making the Kay Yow Water Balloon fight against breast cancer a success. We divided up the work and Maddie took the initative to bind it for us and to make sure that Corey got it in his box. I was in charge of securing the venue. I made the reservation for Herty field and the woman who is over reservations called me and told me that since I am making the reservation in the name of a UGA department, whoever was over the event would need to call/email or contact her and let her know that it is alright for us to have our event in the name of the department. I emailed Corey and let him know what the lady said and he said that once he got our event plan, he would contact her acfterwards. I reminded him today that he needed to contact her so that we can have a definite venue for our event next Saturday. Tomorrow we have a meeting, and I’m sure in the next few days, we will be meeting more and more regularly. We have a lot to do and so little time to make this event a success. I think that the hardest parts will be preping for the actual event Saturday morning; filling the balloons, transporting them to Herty Field. I think that we will have a good turn out for our event since the weather is in the process of going from cold to warmer weather. We cut down a lot of costs last week because we eliminated buying t-shirts for ourselves as well as participants. Instead, we will get some free t-shirts through the Women’s B-Ball team and wear those to the event so that we can be easily identified. The rest of the money is going towards supplies and the popsicles that we will give to our participants. I know that the weather has been fluctuating lately, I just hope that we have pleasant weather on the day of our event. It seems as though we will once all the colder weather goes away. Tomorrow we will meet once again and finalize the majority of the plans that we have for next weeks event. I believe that we will be able to pull it off successfully. I think that once freshman head that there are unlimited balloons (until they run out of course), they will be some of the main supporters of our event besides our friends. We plan to target the freshman high rises this week and to market our event to them. I think since we are nearing the end of the semester, a lot of people are looking for ways to relieve the stress of final exams and projects for a few hours. I feel like our event is that outlet so that people can benefit a good cause and have a good time while they are doing it. That’s all for this week.

Ashley

Reflection 3.31.09

adh05 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:55:17 +0000

So here is the reflection question that Sara Kate gave us today:

We have changed our event and it is getting crunch time. What has to happen in order to make this a successful event and how hard are each of ya’ll willing to work? Are there changes that must be made to the event design plan? Please let me know what you think about the changes!

I think that in order for our event to be a success, we must all work together to acheive a common goal. Essentially now that we aren’t doing the 3on3 tournament, I think that the majority of the group is more excited about a fun filled event that will make a lot of money as well as not cost a whole lot either. Today we managed to get our event plan working and hopfully finished up tomorrow. Since Lizzie got a large donation from an organization she’s a part of, we’re going to use that money as the funds for operating our event. I think we made a lot of necessary changes to the event. In all actuality, we were doing too much for our event and this way our event will be much more fun.

We split the event design plan up so that everyone has equal parts. This way we can get a lot of the work done and still have someone read over everything to make sure it is cohesive before we turn it in. Today we discussed having popciscles at the event instead of a full blown meal since it will be kind of warm outside seeing as how our event is in mid-late april. One problem we were discussing was the transportation of water balloons to the actual field. I did put in a request for New College Lawn as well as herty field for our event. Hopefully I will hear something sooner rather than later. I still haven’t heard anything from Coca-Cola but I will remind myself to call them sometime this week.

I emailed everyone our specific parts of the assignment so hopefully people will come with something in hand tomorrow so that we can work and get everything done in a timely manner. I think that everyone is a lot more motivated about the event and this way more things will get accomplished this way. We changed the facebook event name so that we can invite our friends to the new event and Sara Kate is coming up with a brand new flyer for the event as well. So since Corey said he would give us a team for our 3on3 tournament, I wonder if he will bring people out for the water balloon fight against breast cancer. We decided that we will ask for donations from each person anywhere from $3-$5. This way people won’t feel obligated to break the bank, but still know that their donation is going to a worthy cause whatever the amount. Hopefully tomorrow we will come with a lot accomplished that way we won’t spend the whole meeting in the computer lab.

Ashley

3.24.09

adh05 — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 02:19:02 +0000

We roughlyhave about three weeks until the actual date of our 3-on-3 tournament. I have not had a lot of time to go to places and beg for donations for our tournament. I feel as though tomorrow I have to run to a few places before we meet just so I can have something to report on. I only have one class tomorrow but I do have to go to work and I have a job interview tomorrow at 1:30. Hopefully I will have roughly an hour to run to some places that will be more than willing to donate. After meeting with just Zach and Lizzie last week, I hope that everyone comes back with things that they have done since they haven’t been to a meeting since before spring break. I still haven’t heard from Coca-Cola yet, and I will probably give them a call sometime tomorrow since it has been a week. I asked for donations for a crowd of 150 people, but at the same time, I haven’t gotten a team for the tournament yet. I asked some of my friends but they are too cheap to enter as a team. Especially when we haven’t come up with a concrete prize for first place. I know some other people who are basketball crazy but I’m not sure if they would be willing to pay for the tournament.

I know that a lot of people had contacts and things that they had at the beginning of the semester, and hopefully they will still be able to use them now that we are getting closer to the actual date. Everyone should go around and put flyers up and hand out donation letters so that can be something that we can do as a collective body. Now that we are getting closer to the actual date, we should meet more frequently in order to get everything together. I know that everyone has a lot of other things to do, as do I, but at the same time, we need to be on the same page and have similar expectations in order to have a successful turnout for our event.

I hope to put flyers up this week as well as solicit more donations for our event this week. I’m enjoying the class but I didn’t realize how much work that it would be! Hopefully everyone will bring something different to the event and we’ll work as a cohesive unit in order to raise a lot of money for the Kay Yow Foundation.

At the meeting tomorrow, hopefully we will get a lot accomplished and come up with other times to meet. We can hopefully get a percentage night as we had planned a while ago at a local restaurant. I think that we should do a place like Five Guys downtown or Wild Wings Cafe.

I’m glad I could post my blog on time this week and I am looking forward to meeting with my group tomorrow at 4 in Ramsey.

Ashley

Blog 3.18.09

adh05 — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:10:31 +0000

I know that ya’ll have learned a lot in your class, and I want to see how you can
apply what you have learned to our event. Let me know how the information
that you learn in class can be translated into our event?

A lot of the information that we learn in class is extremely helpful to the success of our event. For example, event leaders and coordinators have to be very detail oriented–which I am not. In order to make our event a success, we have to follow strict guidelines in order to make the event as successful as we want it to be. Additionally, when working with other people and companies, we have learned to get everything in writing. For example, I have contacted the Athens Bottler for Coca-Cola for refreshments for our event. In the event that they will be able to provide sports drinks for our event, we will need to obtain a written agreement with all of the information on it. Also, they will need to know event specifics, such as when and where to drop the donations off.

Additionally, the WBS , though it’s breakdown sometimes confuses me, helps us to remain organized as we plan our event. There ares so many things to be done and just now, we realized that the event is exactly one month from today. Some things that we need to do include doing a thorough walk through of the venue because we haven’t seen it yet.

In today’s meeting, me, Zach, and Lizzie came up with some plans for the tournament. Zach is gonna come up with the brackets and rules for the tournament and we brainstormed today about t-shirt ideas leading up to the event. I thought about having a catchy shirt that would spark people’s attention about the event. Something along the lines of “April 18th” on the front, and facebook search Kay Yow on the back. Something like this will spark others’s attention about the event and get us talking to others about it. We are still soliciting donations and contributions from local businesses for the event.

Ashley

adh05 — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:15:00 +0000

So… for some reason I can’t remember to post my blogs on time. I don’t know what it is about Tuesdays that just slips my mind about blogging. Anyway our event planning is well under way for the Kay Yow 3-on-3 B-ball tourney. We met last week and everyone reviewed the letter and we gave some specific feedback about the direction that our event was going.

We’d decided that we would do a percentage night at local athenss restaurants in order to get the start up funds for our event and pay for things like t-shirts. We had decided that the shirts would be pink and that they would include the logos of companies that give us donations. It seems as though people have a lot of scheduling conflicts that may or may not deter us in the long run. We dedided that March 15th would be the percentage night at local restaurants and a lot of people would be out of town since it is the day that we get back from spring break. We marked April 1st as the last date that we will be accepting donations for the Tourney.

Also, a main concern that we were having was picking up the money for the registration for teams. We decided that we’re going to have a pick up and drop on a particular day in order for the teams to know the rules and regulations we set forth for the tournament. Also, we another concern was who to make checks or donations payable to since we do not have a post office box or an organization account so we will have to make checks payable to the Fast Break club which is the booster organization for the women’s basketball team.

I was just thinking that we could possibly look into getting a bank account for event design class. i think that it would be easier to manage the funds we have and maybe choose one person who is trustworthy to manage them. We decided that on the flyers we would put Sara Kate’s e-mail address for contact information and that we would e-mail out the registration packet to the teams in order for them to fill out the information and give it back to us on April 1st which is the day that we are collecting funds.

Since we did not meet today, because of RLST major’s and Sara Kate’s scheduling conflicts, we are planning to meet in class tomorrow for the time that we have together. Hopefully everyone will have new ideas and new things to bring to the table. I am still working on the Coca-Cola sponsor for the event, and seeing if local businesses would be willing to donate to our cause. Hopefully UGA has a lasting repoire with some companies so that they will be willing to donate to our cause. Next week i hope to get this in on time and to write about how our in class meeting goes tomorrow.

Until then,

Ashley

Reflection question

adh05 — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:48:55 +0000

So… Sara Kate posed a question to us this week asking us what we wanted to get out of the assignment if anything. Hopefully by the end of this project, I will improve my event planning skills to the point where I can effectively plan an event. Hopefully through this experience I will not only form a bond with my group members since this is a semester long project, but rather to make lasting contacts with people who have the same goals that I do.

Just based on what we have already accomplished, I hope that everyone will find their niche in our assignment. I think a lot of people have a lot of contacts in various areas, however I think that one to two people need to be over specific aspects of our project. For example, maybe one person can be over soliciting volunteers whereas two people can be over soliciting donations. Once we have all completed our respective tasks, I think that there should be specific areas where the entire group should be included in making decisions. For example, I think that the location, and date should have been a group decision (as it was).

I sent out a letter to Sara Kate and she sent it to the rest of the group to get their approval on it in hopes of starting to solicit donations and other contributions to our 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament. Tomorrow, hopefully everyone will come with three to five businesses in mind that Ivey suggested and this will be our starting point for getting more people to jump on the band wagon and to help out for a good cause.

I talked with one of my prophytes who works for Coca Cola and she told me to contact the Athens Coca Cola Bottler and see if they will donate any products or give anything to us for the tournament. She said that since they already have a repoire with the school (us being a Coke school), we shouldn’t have any problems getting things from them. I’m excited to get everything started for the tournament and I know that everything will be time consuming to plan. We have a meeting tomorrow so we can bring all the things that we were supposed to do last week to this weeks meeting and give reports on what we are supposed to do. Lizzie is responsible for doing the minutes for the meetings and hopefully this week we can delegate more responsibilities and tasks to the group in order to keep everything running smoothly. I enjoy that Corey makes us work together in class on certain assignments because that will only make us strengthen the relationship that we have as a group and it will hopefully allow us to examine the strengths and weaknesses of each person and see where everyone will best fit in working on this semester long project. I think that eventually, we will be able to meet outside of Wednesday afternoons with Sara Kate in order to move the project along.

Ashley

adh05 — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 06:43:51 +0000

So I’m slightly late with my first official blog post but I did get the chance to officially meet with my group today. We had gotten the chance to work with each other on an official class assignment last week. It seems like we have some pretty strong persoanlities in our group but it seems as though me and Zach tend to find the humor in it all. Last week, Corey has us doing an assignment on budgeting and since we didn’t have the book with us, we had to navigate the internet to find excerpts from the book in order to successfully complete the assignment and upload it to WebCt. We actually completed the assignment and got it uploaded before class was over.

Today we met with our group in Ramsey. Sara Kate was there and although she had the idea for the project, EVERYTHING was up to us. We started throwing out various ideas about what to do and how to do it, who to contact, and who had what kind of connections and we began to iron out the details of our 3-on-3 basketball tournament. I’m actually kind of excited about it but I know the planning phases will be rough. Hopefully no one gets too stressed out during the planning process because I can’t deal with attitudes. I’m a “make it work” kind of girl.

I have the duty of drafting a letter that we will present to local businesses in order to solicit material and monetary donations. Next week, the plan is that we will come with three to five businesses in mind in order to start fundraising for the Kay Yow foundation. I think that we have SO much money to raise and it will definitely be a great task ahead of us, but I’m optimistic that it will turn out fine.

I enjoy the fact that everyone has something different to bring to the table. Ivey works with Star 94 in Atlanta and Zach and Maddie have t-shirt connects. Britt has some PR skills and Lizzie has her random connects. I’m supposed to have the letter drafted up by friday to send to Sara Kate so she can send it out to everyone so that if they have any additions, they can put them in the letter. We are definitely starting from scratch but I’m not surprised. At all lol.

I’m enjoying the class overall (so far) I feel like I haven’t officially caught up since I added the class so late. Full-time staff is cool; the fact that they are so close adds to the humor of my day.

Even though we have an enormous task ahead of us, I’m sure that everything will work out just fine. I’m sure that the seven of us will become extremely close over the course of this semester. Hopefully we’ll be able to attend some of the other group’s functions and hopefully they can attend ours as well. I’m sure that our teamwork will show at the end of all this.

Ashley

i’m blogging?

adh05 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:23:27 +0000

so… i’m blogging now. i’m not really sure what this is about but we’ll see

Ashley