Lessons Learned

Hi everyone,

It has been a few weeks since my last post, as things got very busy at Breast Cancer Care WA in the lead up to their first ever vintage and designer clothing sale, Vanity Fair, which was held last Sunday, 11th September at Notre Dame University.


With the luxury of hindsight, I have now identified a number of interesting PR components involved in the organisation of this event:

a) Professionalism is paramount - As Breast Cancer Care WA is a small, not-for-profit organisation, professionalism may be more important to its success than your average corporate organisation. Low levels of public awareness combined with the unique nature of charities (limited resources), means that many people struggle to take the actions and goals of BCCWA seriously. Hence, during my time there I have learnt that it is very important that all promotional material produced, every meeting held, phone conversation made and event organised must be executed with the utmost care and to a very high standard. This encourages critics and those who are unfamiliar with the organisation, to treat it as they would a large, powerful company. It also encourages better reviews, more favourable reception of ideas and thus, more fundraising/sponsorship/in kind support.


b) Strong teams work better than the best individuals - The workplace environment at BCCWA is very team oriented and strongly positive. Despite being exclusively female, there is a surprisingly low level of gossiping and negative back chat among colleagues at BCCWA and I think this is largely due to the selfless and rewarding nature of the work that everyone does. No colleagues compete with one another, as this serves no purpose in not-for-profit. Each member has their own defined role and works in conjunction with similar, yet distinctly different titles to achieve a common mission. Maintaining a strong team and an environment of support and encouragement for their employees is a huge priority at BCCWA. On the last Friday of every month everyone stops work at 4.30pm and congragates in the meeting room for drinks, nibblies and hilarious conversation. This gives employees a chance to connect on a level other than work, which I think is really important. Every time someone has a birthday it is celebrated with a card signed by every member and a cake. Little things like these have meant that the ladies at BCCWA are friends first, and colleagues second, which has proven to be a sure recipe for success.


c) No amount of planning can prevent a mishap - Despite many people in our profession having excellent attention to detail, no amount of forethought, planning and organisation can eliminate the possiblity of things going awry. It's vitally important that plans take into account the 'worst case scenario' and try to anticipate the difficulties which may arise from PR activities. Having said that, at the end of the day many things are still beyond your control and it is how you react to the mishap that matters rather than the issue itself. For example, one of the volunteers at Vanity Fair was recruited to play the role of a stylist for people unsure of what to wear/buy. She is an eccentric and very enthusiastic European lady and unfortunately was often a little too crass and direct in her advice to patrons. At one stage, a trio of guests left the venue very offended and alerted us to the issue, which resulted in a loss of potential fundraising sales. Most importantly, bad word of mouth and a mark on the BCCWA's professionalism and good reputation are likely repercussions. But volunteers are the 'life blood' of charities and they simply can't be told off, reprimanded or 'let go' because they are so in demand and vital to the operations of a charity. To resolve the issue, I praised the volunteer's enthusiasm and passion, and asked her to spend the afternoon manning the cake stall, whose sales were modest. Evaluation of the event saw the number of sales at the cake stall almost triple during the afternoon shift, which just goes to show that sometimes the issue isn't an issue at all, it's just a talent being misused ;)


Well I think that's quite enough insight for one day, but I'll post another update discussing Vanity Fair itself in more detail, soon. Just in case some of you can't wait, please visit the link to find out more about it!

www.breastcancer.org.au/news/article/05092011-105/vanity-fair-a-beautiful-day-and-a-fantastic-result.aspx


Kind regards,


Rebecca Schaus
Bentley Campus
14272149