PR tag

Playing the game of tag during elementary school days was a fun experience. I rarely got caught. It must have been because of my speed. Whenever there was a time I felt that I was in danger of a hand laying its touch on me, my speed enabled me to escape its reach. For me, playing tag was a youthful escape for me, a chance to roam freely, until I became "it".

Being "it" in the game of tag meant that now I became the one who had to chase the other school children across the yard. With the pressure of this task now focussed on me, suddenly the game of tag wasn't so fun.

The responsibility of chasing down 10 or more other kids, each running off in their own direction, was a tiring chore. Needless to say when looking back to the days in the yard when I was "it", I'm glad are over. But this game of tag was not done with me, with last week's time in the office full proof of that.

Most of the time at volunteering when I' m not in front of a computer, looking at the screen and losing my eye sight because of it, there is a black device I use for communication which occupies my time.

This device and I, usually get along pretty good. It helps me when I want to reach people in far places, while I return give it the utmost care that it deserves, there is no slamming it with me. However, it was on this occasion in the office where this device, the phone, and I would come to a blows. My patience would be tested through a game of tag, much like in my youth, leaving me frustrated as to where I should turn for relief.

At the sport association where I volunteer, we are currently conducting media tours country wide. A media tour is when you meet with editors, assignment editors in an effort to raise awareness of what your organization is doing.

So as an added responsibility of mine, it was my job to call the big well known media in Toronto (both print and broadcast) in an effort to try and book the chief of communications of our office (I like to simply call him chief), in our office as well as athletes which reflect our organization, in an informal meetings with these various media.

But I would be working with a hard deadline. I was to have as many meetings as I could book confirmed for the next day. With the afternoon sun already pulled in it was time to get to work.

When I got back to my desk, I jumped on the phone. My first call actually went quite well. I got a hold of the assistant to the president of a large broadcast media. I told her what we were trying to accomplish and we exchanged contact info, so the chief could go into more depth with her.

Not too bad I remember saying to myself. I was excited to be talking to someone so high up in the media. Little did I know that this would be the only excitement of the day.

Call after call, with nine in total that were made, went unanswered. I did whatever I could to get a hold of these people, spending a solid at the task. In the end all that I was left with was the drone of various voice mails, which I faintly can still hear ringing in my head. I was "it" in this effort to chase down these men and women of the media, and there was nothing I could do to catch them.

After these many unsuccessful attempts, I reported back to the chief. He was not surprised in the results. To him it was very much expected. Toronto, being the big city it is, mixed with the air of being the centre of the universe whirling around, probably played a role in my lack of success he thought.

To me it just reinforced what I have already known for some time. Being "it" in a game of tag can be a difficult proposition. But it's something that with perseverance and trying your best is all that can be done in an effort to win the game.

Life at the desk

With a second month of volunteering soon to be concluded, I can officially say that I am getting the hang of it. Everyday I come to work with a fresh number of articles to read through, interpret, and judge accordingly. Most of time when I arrive, around noon, I get finished by the early afternoon, as the speed in which I can input the articles into the report has gotten much quicker.

But yesterday it was a little different. I was in the office till 4 p.m. Now four hours might not seem to be a lot to the seasoned volunteer, however for me being glued at a desk for that time I beg to differ. Don't feel sorry for me though (I already can feel the sympathy from here) because I could have taken a walk around the office, gone for a bathroom break or found some other way to break from my duties.

I had that choice and chose not to take one. This is because I was so focussed on my work, so into what I was doing that I felt what it is like for many of those who work 9-5 everyday. I felt what it is like to have your life at your desk.

Now what I mean by having your "life at the desk" is the idea that the work you are doing at your job takes a precedent over everything else, making anything outside of this work seem insignificant.

For me this characterizes exactly what yesterday was. The countless articles that I had to read, analyze and input (45 was yesterday's total to be exact) for this months report became my "life at the desk". I could not get away from them. They held me like cement, keeping me rooted to my chair.

Whether this is something that I look forward to next week is something I'm still not sure of. While not having the ability to leave something you enjoy is a good thing, there comes a point where breaks are necessary, just to let your mind relax and get back into the real world. Until next week, I might have a better idea where I stand...

The Boardroom

A heavy metal door, equipped with a key pad for entry, blocked me from entering the boardroom. How was I supposed to get inside? With the meeting minutes away and no tools to aid me to gain access such as a blow torch, crow bar, I was left helpless...or so I thought. With just minutes to go, the secret code was punched in by a member of the office, crisis averted.

When I started my volunteering I thought I would spend the majority of my time at a desk, on the computer doing hours upon hours of data entry. This is still the case. However, everyday presents new and exciting challenges so although it is essentially the same task, volunteering remains a fun and fulfilling experience.

An experience which got a lift this pas week, because in addition to my regular duties, I had the opportunity to sit in on a office meeting, in the boardroom. Not only was I sitting in on the meeting, but I had the responsibility of presenting the hours of data entry that I had complied in a report. So here I was, in the boardroom, sitting in a puffy leather chair, anxiously waiting my chance to speak to the other members of the office.

On the agenda, the presentation of my report was the third item. As I patiently waited to get called upon, I observed the discussion of the four others in the boardroom, members of the communication team at the sport association.

Aside from the occasional personal small talk, they were all business when discussing the items on the agenda. There was a fair bit of PR jargon, good thing I had kept up on my terminology through the year, nestled in between an easy going, professional business talk. Basically they talked like normal people but sprinkled in a little PR terms.

So after the two first items on the agenda quickly breezed by, if you could call over an hour spent on two items, I was up.

I opened simply with explaining what my role is and what I had been doing. This can be summed up as analyzing media outlets across Canada, looking at articles in newspapers, magazines, blogs and other publications that mention the sport association, with the help of some pretty cool technology of course. Then I would classify the article as having a positive, neutral or negative tone.

After I determine what kind of tone the article is, I rate it on five criteria, defined by the sport association, and see if the article has any of these five criteria. Once I have gathered all this information it gets put into the report, which leads me to its explanation in the boardroom to the rest of my co-workers.

As it turned out, explaining what I do to you turned out to be really not that nerve wracking. In fact, when I continued on with the actual presentation of the report, I felt even more relaxed. Relaxed enough to speak to everyone else in the room with confidence, something that I wasn't expecting in the beginning of this.

The boardroom at first glance seemed like an impossible situation for me to overcome. Being thrust in a professional meeting as an volunteering intern, I was intimidated for sure. However with a relaxed attitude and confidence in my abilities, I was able to come out in one piece. Perhaps the access code to the boardroom could be coming to me sooner than I think...

Volunteering...PR style

As a nice complement to what I have been learning in the classroom, I now have a volunteering position with a sport association downtown. Well I've actually had the position for over a month now but with the crazy ending to the school year, it hasn't become that relevant till now.

Although it is only volunteering, I was pretty surprised I got the position. I applied through the ever popular Monster.com, on a whim, just looking for anything PR related, so I could get some experience over the summer. Luckily for me, I received a response, from the association and after a phone interview, sending over some writing samples, and an informal face to face meeting, I was in.

I love the work what I'm doing at the association. I'm working with cutting edge media monitoring software, developed by CPRS, which should become the industry standard in a couple years. As a student in PR, working with technology this new for the industry, is really cool.

Other cool things (wow I sound like a high schooler) are having your own desk, e-mail, and computer, your co-workers talking to you on a first name basis instead of "intern" or "volunteer", and being part of team in the office, make volunteering here fun and appealing.

Overall, this position has given me more responsibility and confidence of my abilities. It proves that I am able to step up and contribute to an organization, something which even surprised me at first. I was always confident in myself but when someone sees something in you and chooses you for the position, it makes you feel good. I never knew volunteering could be so much fun...can't wait to get back into the office tomorrow.