Hi fellow PR interns.
My name is Isabella and I've just finished my second week working with the West Australian Electoral Commission (WAEC), and so far, have loved every minute. I first found out about the WAEC through the Public Relations Planning & Evaluation unit last semester as they were our client for our 2 major assignments.
My name is Isabella and I've just finished my second week working with the West Australian Electoral Commission (WAEC), and so far, have loved every minute. I first found out about the WAEC through the Public Relations Planning & Evaluation unit last semester as they were our client for our 2 major assignments.
I work at the WAEC office (located on St Georges Terrace) twice a week on Tuesdays and Wednesday. On Tuesdays I am joined by two other Curtin PR interns - Ed and Winnie. I have had one class in the past with Ed and none with Winnie so it was nice to meet some somewhat 'fresh' faces. All three of us our based in a little area in the middle of the second floor, called the ROLO area. This area is the most central part of the office which will be very helpful when we need to interact more with certain staff members on our projects
WEEK 1
Day 1 of the internship began with a guided tour by our supervisor Sotear, who introduced us to all of the staff members. It was interesting to see how diverse the team was and how some staff members have been working at the Commission for a really long time. [I can understand why after only being there for a few weeks! All the staff members are so friendly and definitely try their best to make us feel comfortable].
After the introductions, the other interns and myself along with Sotear and our secondary supervisor Katherine went to one of the meeting rooms upstairs and brainstormed in our Engagement Strategy Workshop, where we discussed the various projects we will be working on for the duration of our internships. My project will be of a similar focus to what was covered in Public Relations Planning & Evaluation as it relates to how the WAEC can improve their social media channels while also engaging youth in enrolment and voting.
During the session we collaborated together to brainstorm ideas for all the projects which also include internet voting for disabilities and voting on campus. I definitely enjoyed hearing all different ideas we had and the input and feedback from our supervisors.
Once the workshop was done, it was time for lunch and we made ourselves familiar with the kitchen facilities available and the tea room area. It was then back to another meeting but this time with IT who sat us all down to explain and emphasise the organisation's online security policies. After this we received our log in details and began typing up our workshop notes in to a document as asked for by Sotear.
My second day at the office was spent alone (as I'm the only intern on Wednesdays) and while it was lonely, I enjoyed the ability to work a little more independently. I was given the task to create a ‘Project Briefing Document’ that would cover my project and focus on the objectives, outcomes, resources and contacts that I would need to consider in all stages of research, implementation and evaluation. This process was one that I did not find too difficult thanks to the notes from the strategies workshop. As a result the document was completed earlier in the day and emailed to the supervisor. As I had finished a little earlier than expected I started to work on the research component as outlined in the document. Our supervisor Sotear had a few meetings that day and I was unsure on how to tell her I needed more work so I was somewhat bored for a while until Lena (the Commissioner's assistant) came by to see how my day was going. I told her that it had been good so far but that I needed a little bit more work. She was very friendly and even gave me a phone list so that I could contact Sotear and other key staff members if needed. I later received an email from Sotear outlining some more tasks to do including some meeting points about new social media platforms the WAEC could possibly use and the ways we could use them, as well as possible issues and how to manage them.
WEEK 2
Day 3 of the internship was somewhat similar to the first day in terms of the busy meeting and activities schedule. We began our day at a meeting with the Commissioner, David Kerslake, who had briefly spoken to us on our first day. The meeting focused on feedback from David regarding the documents we'd worked on during the previous week and it gave us some ideas on what to work on when we had time. Later in the morning we had another IT meeting that focused on the specific program used to save documents. I appreciate the effort the WAEC has made to ensure to make us feel welcome and part of the team.
After an early lunch, we joined our secondary supervisor Katherine (who is looking after us while Sotear is away in Darwin) for an excursion to the WAEC'S Electoral Education Centre. We took the local CAT bus to the EEC which is located across from Parliament. We were introduced to Nigel who explained what the EEC does and gave us a quick tour of the facilities before we were joined by a year 9 group from Butler College. The program for the afternoon focused on the levels of government and the preferential voting system used in both the state and federal lower houses. It was really interesting to visit the EEC as I had never done so during primary and secondary education.
After the visit was over it was back to the CBD where we decided to have a second lunch and a quick visit to Nespresso for a coffee sample.. then it was back to work where we began working on some of the dot points mentioned during the morning's meeting with David. We started to collaboratively research contact details for universities and disability radio services for final part of the work day.
Day 4 was a very productive day yet again I ran into an issue but this time it was more to do with not being able to work rather than not having any work. I began the day working through the meeting points that focused on the social media project and included how social media could be linked to the other projects as well as a seperate youth focused strategy and plan. After this I decided to create a document for important contacts that would be involved with all the projects. Both of these documents were sent to Ed and Winnie to review when they were in office the next day.
I had a quick look at the briefing document I had made on Day 2 to see what tasks could be done. I decided to work on one of my main research elements, which involves analysing the WAEC's current social media platforms as well as their website to see what types of content were being used and how this could be improved and if anything was being missed. I had no issue completing this task for the website as a link is easily found on the staff intranet and there is currently no external content on the page. My main issue with this task however was that I do not yet have access to social media sites from the office computers (although a request for access has been put forward by our supervisors). Instead, I had to improvise and use my own mobile device to access the WAEC's social media and analyse the content. I was able to complete the Facebook portion before my phone decided to go on low battery. Again, I improvised by focusing on social media platforms the WAEC currently doesn't use such as Instagram and Snapchat and how those platforms could be of use to communicating with the 18-29 year old demographic and how it can be used effectively and appropriately. Thankfully I already had notes on these platforms from the meeting notes I had made the previous week and from
my social media plan I had made earlier in the day.I emailed Katherine to discuss the issue of the social media access and to ask if I could finish work 30 minutes earlier because of not being able to finish this task and not having any further work to do.
Overall, my experience at the WAEC has been great and my only complaints are really about the lack of tasks to do, although I'm sure we will start to get very busy over the next few weeks ; and the lack of social media access which is key to my project but hopefully shouldn't be an issue for much longer. I've really been enjoying working in such a friendly and comfortable work environment and having two other PR interns has made the process of interning a little less daunting than I was originally thinking it would be.
Until next time...
Isabella
After an early lunch, we joined our secondary supervisor Katherine (who is looking after us while Sotear is away in Darwin) for an excursion to the WAEC'S Electoral Education Centre. We took the local CAT bus to the EEC which is located across from Parliament. We were introduced to Nigel who explained what the EEC does and gave us a quick tour of the facilities before we were joined by a year 9 group from Butler College. The program for the afternoon focused on the levels of government and the preferential voting system used in both the state and federal lower houses. It was really interesting to visit the EEC as I had never done so during primary and secondary education.
After the visit was over it was back to the CBD where we decided to have a second lunch and a quick visit to Nespresso for a coffee sample.. then it was back to work where we began working on some of the dot points mentioned during the morning's meeting with David. We started to collaboratively research contact details for universities and disability radio services for final part of the work day.
Day 4 was a very productive day yet again I ran into an issue but this time it was more to do with not being able to work rather than not having any work. I began the day working through the meeting points that focused on the social media project and included how social media could be linked to the other projects as well as a seperate youth focused strategy and plan. After this I decided to create a document for important contacts that would be involved with all the projects. Both of these documents were sent to Ed and Winnie to review when they were in office the next day.
I had a quick look at the briefing document I had made on Day 2 to see what tasks could be done. I decided to work on one of my main research elements, which involves analysing the WAEC's current social media platforms as well as their website to see what types of content were being used and how this could be improved and if anything was being missed. I had no issue completing this task for the website as a link is easily found on the staff intranet and there is currently no external content on the page. My main issue with this task however was that I do not yet have access to social media sites from the office computers (although a request for access has been put forward by our supervisors). Instead, I had to improvise and use my own mobile device to access the WAEC's social media and analyse the content. I was able to complete the Facebook portion before my phone decided to go on low battery. Again, I improvised by focusing on social media platforms the WAEC currently doesn't use such as Instagram and Snapchat and how those platforms could be of use to communicating with the 18-29 year old demographic and how it can be used effectively and appropriately. Thankfully I already had notes on these platforms from the meeting notes I had made the previous week and from
my social media plan I had made earlier in the day.I emailed Katherine to discuss the issue of the social media access and to ask if I could finish work 30 minutes earlier because of not being able to finish this task and not having any further work to do.
Overall, my experience at the WAEC has been great and my only complaints are really about the lack of tasks to do, although I'm sure we will start to get very busy over the next few weeks ; and the lack of social media access which is key to my project but hopefully shouldn't be an issue for much longer. I've really been enjoying working in such a friendly and comfortable work environment and having two other PR interns has made the process of interning a little less daunting than I was originally thinking it would be.
Until next time...
Isabella
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| BONUS: Here's a photo of my work space along with my handmade name sign which is now pinned up to my wall so staff can remember my name! There is also a phone next to the computer and a few draws that contain essential stationary items |
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