Community Relations: FIFO perspective

As a part of my time interning I’ve encountered community relations from the both the city and regional perspectives. In the Perth city office, strategic planning, projects and goals for the organisation and the community are developed for the future. The other component of my time working in community relations has been on the ground within the regional communities of influence. I have the privilege of working with Community Relations Officers on the ground in Tom Price and Paraburdoo. Working out in the communities provided insight into in the ground realties and the lifestyle of FIFO workers, most importantly I gained insight into the lifestyle of a Community Relations Officer and the pressures and responsibilities associated with representing the company in a small community.

Upon arriving in either town, you know you’re there for business. The combination of the small population, isolation from other communities and role of the mine gave a distinct impression that you arrive to work, with the mine shaping the community. I quickly became immersed in the towns, and found my own working rhythm, of twelve-hour working days, exercising, eating then sleeping falling in sync with the town and its mining heartbeat. Understanding the lifestyle and culture that surrounds these mining camps through experiencing the way of life furthered my belief in the crucial role of Community Relations.

Community Relations Officers within the towns are the link between community and the mine. The role as a company representative within the town was acutely aware due to the small size of the town. In a community where most people know each other the personal and professional behaviour of the company staff was frequently criticised. Venturing into the communities provided me with the insights and pressures of small towns and communities on Community Relations Officers.

Relevant videos are attached for greater indight into my experiences in community relations in a remote mining community.

Keeping buzz-y

Over the last two and a half weeks I've been involved in a number of different communications endeavours at Scitech. It's incredible to experience first-hand how much preparation, organisation and effort goes into the promotion and delivery of each and every exhibit, exhibition and event at Scitech. The end of August and beginning of September saw the Scitech After Dark: Top Secret event and RoboCup, two completely different events targeted towards opposite demographics and organised by the same amazing group of people.

RoboCup has by far been the highlight of my placement so far. 400 primary and secondary school students flocked to Curtin Stadium on Friday 23 and Saturday 24 August for the WA RoboCup. RoboCup is an educational initiative that aims to foster and promote shared learning, development and research in the world of robotics to students across Australia. The WA competition saw robots dancing to music, playing a game of 2-on-2 soccer and negotiating challenging obstacles in a specially built arena while performing a rescue. The event allowed networking opportunities with journalists and photographers, as well as, yet again, incredible insight into the support Scitech gives as a not-for-profit organisation to the education of children. Social media was used to promote Scitech's involvement in the event across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter platforms, as well as a media release in the lead up to the event, and a post-event media release with photos and a list of the winners, sent to local newspapers in a number of different circuits around the state. RoboCup was supported by Rio Tinto, also a major sponsor of Scitech. 

Scitech After Dark is a unique, biannual event showcasing Scitech's current exhibition in an atmosphere created specifically for those aged 18 and over - NO kids allowed! On this particular occasion (August 31) the event was themed 'Top Secret', inspired by James Bond and based around the espionage exhibition by the same name; guests went undercover with their trench coats and spy gear to solve the mystery of the stolen computer chip. The night encouraged "fun without the kids" and as usual the popular event was just a few tickets from selling out. Unfortunately I was bedridden with the flu for the event, which in all honesty I was really disappointed about, but I assisted in some of the communications preparation which certainly impacted the success of the night. Media event listings were distributed to local online websites, family and adult-oriented, a media release was written up as well as a draft for a post-media release. We also lined up a competition with Experience Perth in which promoted the event on their website and allowed three viewers the chance to win 3 x double passes to the event. Photo's from the night were uploaded to FaceBook and it definitely looked like an enjoyable night was had by all!

As well as working on events, I've also been exposed to more behind the scenes communications tools used at Scitech, such as Joomla for website management. I was given the opportunity to write an online article for the Scitech homepage (www.scitech.org.au) about a new exhibit launching in anticipation of the October school holidays, 'The Visible Hive'; a live bee hive that allows visitors to observe what really goes on inside a bee hive and the roles each kind of bee plays in the 'bee world' (bees can even exit and re-enter Scitech through a clear tube allowing visitors to observe the neat processes of pollination). I'm now experienced with adding content, media and formatting to online websites while following the tone of voice and theme preferred by Scitech to appeal to both young and mature audiences. Unfortunately, because the exhibit hasn't been launched yet I can't provide a link to the brief website article, but it will be published and ready to be included in the appendices of my report. I'm also currently working on a media release for the bee hive in preparation for the launch. Writing content for both the website and the media release was a lot of fun; even though I was writing for varying audiences the vocabulary was playful and I was encouraged to use as many bee puns as possible!

With the October school holidays coming up, the communications team have many plans in place to push their exclusive holiday programs, promote new exhibits and enhance awareness and involvement on the closing exhibition. I've sent out media event listings, as well as a media release to local newspapers for their 'school holiday' sections, and even content for both 'What's On at Scitech' for the City West Newsletter, and a Scitech ENews article through the use of 'MailChimp', another web content management program.

I've also been working on each of Scitech's social media platforms but that's an ongoing project, and this blog post is already long enough! This Friday (20th September) is scheduled to be my last week on internship, so I will post a final blog outlining my final achievements, experience and performance afterwards.

That's it from me for now, over and out 99!

Natasha Weeks
Curtin University, Bentley

14853926