How to become a
nationally recognised organisation: with absolutely no budget
The first question I
asked my supervisor was where they want to be in five years time?
Answer: We want to be
recognised by the industry, government, members and community as the leader in
this industry in Western Australia and we want our training business to be
recognised nationally as the leader in hospitality training.
My second question asked
what our marketing and public relations budget is, in order for us to reach
these goals.
Answer: There is no
budget.
.........................................................................................
I began my internship with Clubs WA in September 2013, after I was mid-application for a vacation program with a Western AUstralian mining company. During filling out my application I realised that I had no real-world experience working in the public relations industry and apart from the marks that I had earned from writing essays and participating in speeches, the recruiters would have no idea whether I would actually be any good at the role I was applying for.
The next day I scrolled through the internet looking for internships and found a small advertisement on Gumtree looking for 'Marketing and Event interns' at a small not-for-profit based in Cockburn Central.
Here begins my entry-level position within the public relations and marketing sector.
Clubs WA is one of the largest membership based not-for-profit organisations in Western Australia and is the governing body of licensed sporting and community clubs in WA. It represent the interests of licensed clubs to relevant WA ministers and governing bodies and its goal is to be the 'voice of the club community'.
Each state has a sister organisation in each state and its parent body is Clubs Australia. Western Australian clubs have extremely restrictive legislation placed on them compared to other states and the purpose of Clubs WA is to give member clubs advice and information on how to work with these restrictions to ensure their clubs remain successful and viable.
From September 2013 - June 2014 I worked at Clubs WA writing copy for the monthly magazine and website, sent out media release about events, and helped the Marketing and Events Coordinator with two big upcoming events, the Annual Awards of Excellence and the Annual General Meeting and Trade Expo.
Both events were hectic to work on and all I had to do was the simple tasks that my supervisor asked me to do, including putting together PowerPoint presentations, hundreds of invitations and the promotion of the event through our various communication tools.
At the end of May 2014, my supervisor left for a six-month African adventure and asked me to step in for her for whilst she is gone. I am now the Marketing and Events Officer and love every single minute of it. While my title is marketing, the role is much more PR-orientated.
So I have given myself a six month timeframe to do all I can to achieve the goal my supervisor gave me, on my very first day - to make Clubs WA famous (in a great way).
However, like most not-for-profits we don't have a lot of money to play around with. 90 per cent of my budget goes towards our events and what is left over goes towards marketing and PR efforts. Everyday is a challenge and it's great.
The majority of our funding comes from the hospitality training courses that we provide through our training portal, Hospitality Alliance Training (HAT). HAT is a nationally recognised leader in training courses throughout Australia and has successfully trained more than 50,000 individuals.
The rest of our funding comes from membership fees, sponsors and some government grants.
So I am two-and-a-bit months into my new role and while it's insanely challenging, especially whilst still enrolled in a full course-load, I love every minute of it.
I look forward to sharing more of my adventure with you over the next few weeks, and good luck to each of you in your own internships!
Holly Hazel
