· Town of Bassendean
· City of Bayswater
· City of Belmont
· Shire of Kalamunda
· Shire of Mundaring; and
· City of Swan
EMRC provides services in waste management, environmental management, regional development and risk management. The vision within EMRC is to be a responsive and innovative leader in assisting Perth’s Eastern Region to be a great place to live, work, play and do business.
Upon commencement, I was introduced to the Marketing and Communications team, which I would be doing my placement in. Teresa the Manager, Marketing and Communications (also my Supervisor for the placement) and Teale EMRC’s Marketing and Communications Officer. Once I was settled in my work station and (somewhat) understood how all the systems worked, Teale took me on the grand tour of the organization, showing me where everything was and introducing me to everyone who worked within the organization – right through to our Chief Executive Officer. When we came back to our workstations, she gave me something, very precious, which she called The Bible – a colour printout of all the employees within EMRC, their positions, contact details and most importantly their photograph. Along with this, I was also given the organisation’s floor plan and EMRC’s style guide, which was also developed by the Marketing and Communications team. This truly has been and will be my bible during my placement here at EMRC.
Day One was definitely a blur. It was complete with inductions, media monitoring and editing the contact management database (CMD), content management system (CMS) and current newsletter. By the end of the day, I felt like my brain had gone through a serious information overload! I was exhausted, not to mention feeling completely under the weather.
Day Two was a lot easier than the first (especially since I’d taken a few days off from being so sick). I was able to observe the processes that took place and understand how the organization ran, as well as figure out my own routine to try and get my work completed both effectively and efficiently (by day three I came to the realization there aren’t enough hours in the day!). I started media monitoring – an exercise I had never done before. By skimming for articles in newspapers and magazines, which related to EMRC and its member Councils, I started to learn the importance of the act. Mediums are an essential channel of information from an organization to its stakeholders. Inaccurate information can be detrimental or misleading, so it is vital to ensure anything available to the public has been monitored and fixed if needs be. Media monitoring also ensures that media releases and advertisements from EMRC have been published correctly.
Through out the next few days I spent time uploading relevant articles and content (via CMS) found from my media monitoring onto the intranet set up within the organization, which is accessible by all staff members. Majority of my work also including updating and maintaining the organization’s CMD. Having a CMD is vital for any organization, especially one with hundreds of contacts like EMRC. This is an excellent public relations tool, which can play a huge role in maintaining stakeholder satisfaction and information, with their correct details and information. Once I felt more comfortable and confident in my role, I began liaising with our member Councils about relevant information for EMRC’s corporate brochure, which I would be working on, as well as doing an event scan, and creating a monthly calendar for the major events in Western Australia for 2012, so that we could begin to coordinate and organize dates for EMRC’s annual dinner.
On top of these day to day projects, I was also able to begin two long term projects - an event for all of the member Council’s Communications, Public Relations and Marketing teams to come together for a networking sundowner, and research into the use of social media in relation to our organization. These two projects are really exciting for me, as one gets really into event management – the field I hope to eventually be involved in my public relations career and the research into social media is such a new, upcoming, innovative and popular branch of public relations so being allowed to research and understand it really helps both the organization and me for the future.
My first five days finished with an all staff meeting. A couple of staff members presented the projects they were currently working on, and I was also put on the spot to stand up and talk about myself. The CEO asked if there were any new members of staff, and I seemed to be the only one… I was never told I’d have to introduce myself, but once I stood up and started talking, I felt completely comfortable and at ease. Afterward, I was paid quite a few compliments on the way I speak and was told I was definitely in the right industry! Being told this definitely boosted a lot of my confidence!
Overall, a very satisfactory five days. Working has confirmed how much more I love public relations than just studying it! I definitely can’t wait to keep going!
Aditi Subramanya
14166611 – Curtin University, Bentley Campus
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