What an experience!

I don't even know where to start with what I have learnt through my internship. It's almost overwhelming to think that in just over 6 months I will be working in 'the real world' applying these skills which I have learnt at Curtin.

My biggest learning experience through my internship has been about communication. Internal communication, external communication, written and verbal...it seems communication was the largest part of my internship. I spent a lot of time writing various documents, email and articles and then went on to call numerous perspective members, sponsors and advertisers. I never really gauged the full importance of communication in PR until I started my placement. Analytical skills, confidence and professionalism are all so important when you are working for an association like the Retirement Village Association. Though my communication skills aren't bad I do still think I could improve them over the next six months of my degree at Curtin.

PR in such a small office which spans across the nation is a lot more complicated than I expected. Stakeholder relations plays a huge role in the RVA. Members and membership committee's were among the highest priority of the PR department at the RVA, however the wants and needs of internal staff members, the community and the industry all weighed in heavily as well. I think my biggest lesson from my placement was the multifaceted nature of a public relations professional. Though we were about that in classes, you don't really believe it until you see and experience it.

So to finish off I would like to thank the RVA, Katheryn Jones in particular. Also, thank you to Curtin University as this experience has been one of the best throughout my degree.

Good luck everyone!

Jade

So much change!

Hello Everyone,

Jade here from the Bentley campus. I haven't written in a while so I have quite a lot to catch up on. A lot has changed within the Retirement Village Association where I have been doing my placement. Firstly Katheryn Jones, the Regional Manager and National Membership Manager who I have been working with has decided to leave the RVA after being offered the new job. The change over process from Katheryn to the person who is going to be filling the position has been slow, from what I know they haven't even started advertising it yet. Katheryn has stayed on half a day a week to maintain an upcoming advertising initiative she is organising (also something I have been heavily involved in) a coloured lift out called Retire in Style which will be featured in the community newspapers. To assist maintaining the office until they find a new Regional Manager I have been offered a casual position. Because it was only Katheryn, myself and another intern at the RVA it means I have been left by myself until she is replaced! It's an extremely nerve racking yet exciting experience being thrown in the deep end. Luckily Katheryn has been assisting me by telling me what to do when I go in the office and a lot of my work is carried on from my internship.

Up until almost the end of my internship the focus on the work I was carrying out was event management. I have said it before and I will say it again, events management is not the field for me. Towards the end of my internship and now as a paid employee my work has shifted to focus more on sponsorship for the upcoming national conference which will be held later in the year and assisting in creating Retire in Style. The RVA are relying heavily of advertising to fun the lift-out, so my time has been spent finding potential advertisers.

I am so grateful for the experience which this internship has given me and also the opportunities I have gotten from it! But until next time, I have to get back to writing the report!

Jade.

Stakeholders- it's about pleasing everyone.

It has been a while since my last post, but I thought I should update everyone on what has been going on at the Retirement Village Association.

For the past few weeks we have been pretty busy with two events- Demystifying Retirement Living and Operational Intelligence. The first event was a seminar for prospective retirement village residents to gain information about different villages and the industry itself, whilst the second was for village managers and officials to learn about budgeting. The two events gave me a great chance to see both sides of PR within the industry as well as gain industry knowledge from both sides.

The weeks coming up to the Demystifying Retirement Living seminar I was able to be involved with all the planning of the event. The small tedious tasks such as calling people who registered their interest and confirming their attendance, making show bags and name badges were all on the top of my to do list. Throughout this time it made me realise how important it is to prioritise tasks and be efficient with your time. I have found so far that nothing is overly complicated (task wise) yet usually extremely time consuming. Though both seminars where highly successful, I did learn that no matter how much you prepare little things can go wrong and instead of dwelling on these things you should learn from them and move on.

I have be so amazed how relevant the stuff we have learnt is within the industry. I am loving being able to put my writing ability in to practice. I have also realised how skills such as time management and prioritising are imperative within the industry.

I am quickly learning that a member based organisation means you have to try your best to please everyone which quickly results in being stretched in a hundred directions and often PR is under regarded. As I am working with the regional manager and national membership manager, her time is split between advocating the industry, increasing membership and maintaining relationships with prospective residents, members and industry specialists and the list goes on. No two days are the same, which is both exciting and exhausting. Every key stakeholder that the RVA has identified wants something different from them, not to mention every member- though working for a simultaneous belief- want something for themselves. So in this case, I think PR is about pleasing everyone to the best of your ability whilst still trying to keep the business objectives at the fore front of your mind. It's not an easy task

First Day at RVA!

Hi all! Last week I started my internship at the Retirement Village Association of Australia (RVA). Obviously, by name the job doesn't sound too fantastic, but luckily enough for me I have the most amazing mentor who I am working with and she has already made me so excited about the job and what I am going to get to do with her over the semester.

The office consists of my mentor Katheryn who has the job title of National Membership and WA Regional Manager. She is an ex Curtin graduate with a background in PR and Marketing so really her main role is to build the membership and exposure of the organisation, a large portion of her job is liaising with different publics such as local government, RVA members, WA Retirement Village Representatives and Consumers.

As an 'introduction' in to what I will be doing I spent the day doing some 'admin' work, basically photo copying and filing media articles, as well as assisting with any potential ideas for the articles. Being a new year, they are currently organising the events for 2011 (predominantly events and professional development days for the RVA members and associates) which hopefully I should get to help out with quite a lot. So my afternoon was spent in a meeting to discuss with representatives from the larger retirement villages Katheryn's ideas for events to run.

I am loving learning about how everything works in the 'real world', it's great to see to positives and the negatives of the industry which we are soon going to be entering in to!

Until my next post, I hope everyone is enjoying themselves at their organisation!

Jade- Bentley Campus