Early Starts & New Projects

Hi guys, Mel here. The part of my prac which I am going to discuss with you today was the most exciting moment during my prac as of yet. It may not seem like anything amazing - but for me, it was a step towards learning Evens Management to a new degree. Before I begin though…I am doing my professional practice at TriEvents; an Events Management company which organises sporting and fundraising events throughout Western Australia. During my second week of prac, staff at the company were busy getting organised for the HBF Bike Hike for Asthma, to take place on Sunday 20th March. I had already been told to arrive at this event at 6am so I was looking forward to that early start! I spent my first day that week finishing a task from the previous week, calling a large number of schools and encouraging them to participate in the event.

My second week of prac consisted of a few extra days because of this event, as I was rostered to work in the HBF shop on the Friday and Saturday before the event on Sunday. I arrived at the shop at 8.45am and spent the full day there on the Friday, and spent half the day there on the Saturday. The work at this shop consisted of learning the computer system, registering new participants, and finding race packs for participants who had already registered. I couldn’t believe that out of the amount of people taking part in this event, I saw just one person I knew throughout the whole weekend! I obviously don’t surround myself by particularly athletic people!

It was so interesting to see how organised TriEvents was in setting these shops up. They knew it would get busy at a certain time of the day and they had staff rostered for those times. They had every race number set out and easy to find and they had back-ups for everything that went wrong. The people I worked with in this Subiaco shop on these days were volunteers and were so nice and welcoming, ready to have a joke and help out whenever they could.

The ride took place on the Saturday and I had been told to arrive at 6am. I was told to go to “Joondalup” – it could have been anywhere in Joondalup and I had no specific place I was told to go, so I drove around for a while (luckily I was early) and found a volunteer tent. I sat in this marquee for an hour, waiting…waiting… No other volunteers arrived till 7.30 and I was highly regretting not asking more questions – I could have slept in for an extra hour!! Apparently I had been given the wrong time, but the atmosphere when participants raced through the finish line was worth the early start.

The second week of my prac had been a big one and the event had run very smoothly. They gave me jobs such as handing certificates to race winners, keeping the stream of people running through the finish line running smoothly, and ticking off other volunteers as they came through the marquee.

The Tuesday after this event, I found myself back in the TriEvents office, where my supervisor asked me to stay on for after my prac days were complete for a new project – the HBF Run For A Reason, an event for which I have now become the Volunteer Coordinator. This was great news for me as it has given me what I feel is a great responsibility and purpose for being a part of the TriEvents team. I met with the previous Volunteer Coordinator for this event (who has now left TriEvents) and a co-worker, who updated me on the requirements of my project and a vague plan of the way the following weeks would turn out. Since then I have been recruiting volunteers for the big event, calling schools, uni's, bigger clients, Scouts, recreational and Rotary Clubs, sporting teams, volunteers from the event last year, and many more people. I have printed, folded, enveloped and sent many letters to schools and emails to interested volunteers have been countless!

More to come soon on my prac as Volunteer Co-ordinater for the HBF Run For a Reason!
Mel