INTRODUCTION:
This report will look at the way a group of first year students studying level 1 of BA Hons Airline and Airport Management, organised and conducted a charity event. This charity event was an assignment set as part of the Personal and Professional Development for Managers (PPDM) module. The main aim of this report and holding a charity event was to form a group and show the ability to work together, which represent good managerial skills. The group consisted of 5 students, Kelly, Toryalai, Iptisam, Martyna and Dorcas. The charity that was chosen was Cancer Research UK, which raises money in order to provide doctors and scientists with funds to develop ways of improving the lives of cancer patients, their families and give knowledge to the public.
On the 7th November 2007, the group gave a presentation about what Cancer Research UK does, how the group would raise money and the reason choosing this charity. Money was raised from the sale of cakes, snacks and drinks within Thames Valley University. This event was held on the 4th December 2007 in the lobby area of the university, between the TC and Hospitality block, on the ground floor. Posters had been placed around the university prior to the event, in order to promote it and also word-of-mouth was used as it was very effective to friends and teachers.
Collection boxes were placed on the table on the day of the event, in case people did not want to purchase any food or beverages, but wanted to make a contribution. The event started at 10:00am and finished at 2:30pm. During this period, £92.97 was raised for Cancer Research UK, which was donated later that day, where an official receipt for the donation was received.
MAIN REPORT:
We had regular meetings twice a week to plan and decide which charity we were going to support and how were going to raise money. Primarily, as a group we decided to raise money for Oxfam. Toryalai and Martyna, visited an Oxfam shop in Ealing to register our event and ask for support, such as posters and information about the charity, in order to raise awareness within the university. However, Oxfam never contacted us. Therefore, we decided to change our charity to Cancer Research UK. Having cancer research as part of our charity event has benefited us because people are familiar with the diagnosis and it is one of the leading charities in United Kingdom.
In a seminar session, each member of the group contributed in tasks presentation. These are the History of the Charity, Their aims and objectives, how the charity works, how are we going to raise money and the objectives of holding this event. We put our sections together in a PowerPoint slideshow, in order for this to be presented visually. One of our weaknesses was lack of eye contact and pausing between lines. Identifying these weaknesses has helped us to improve our speech and body language in order to perform a good presentation.
We had regular meetings twice a week to plan and decide which charity we were going to support and how were going to raise money. We found out what skills each person had from the Belbin activity and split tasks so everyone could enjoy it. These meetings allowed us to arrange the details of the charity event, such as; the date, time, location, what we would sell and how we would promote the event. We selected Thames Valley University (TVU) for our venue with the location being on the ground floor between the Teaching Centre Block and the Hospitality block in the lobby. We contacted the correct people who were responsible for this location, to check and get permission for holding our event at this venue.
A private sponsor had donated £30 to us in order for us to have a budget for the purchases of our food and drink. We came to agreement of selling water, coca cola, orange juice, crisps, pre-packed biscuits and a range of muffins. We designed flyers showing the date, time, location, what our event was and the charity we were supporting. These were given to students around the university campus, in addition to being posted around the university and using word-of-mouth to promote our event to friends and others we knew. Our event was held on Tuesday 4th December 2007 and we had planned to start the event at 10am, we set up the table, displaying the food and drinks. Martyna volunteered to go down one of their local charity shops in Ealing and brought back a fundraising pack, which included; balloons, money boxes, charity’s pins, bracelets, rings, fliers and posters. The event proved a great success and many students and teachers were happy to support our fundraising. By 2.30pm, the university was looking derelict, so we all decided to pack away and also we had nearly sold all our products. Martyna and Tor, returned to the charity shop, where they counted the money we had risen. During the event we raised £92.97 and collected a receipt showing our donation, which we were all impressed with and proud of.
This activity has identified our roles and been able to help with out strengths and weaknesses. Contribution from all group members has shown effective team work within our group project. Even though there were a few problems within the group, we managed to solve these issues that occurred within our group. Belbin (1981) reported that up to 30% of team members had no clear team role on the first approach. However, our team roles that emerged from the module workbook were not 100% correct, as there was a differential of Belbin’s roles to the one we completed in a class. In the workbook exercise, Kelly came up as a completer finisher; nonetheless, when carrying out the assignment, she ended up as a co-ordinator. This benefited the group because; she took control over the group, made decisions and motivated the group to be organized.
Mind Tools Ltd (1995-2007) highlighted that co-ordinators are people who take control over the group, which proved us right, because Kelly was the strongest role in our group for this assignment. Higgs (1996) stated that the combination of team roles, results in an achievement of successful group exercise. The group benefited from having Toryalai as a resource investor, due to him taking responsibility and developing contacts with Cancer Research UK and Oxfam. Higgs (1996) mentioned that resource investors are people who explore, develop contacts and negotiate for resources on behalf of the team, which proved to be true in this case. Dorcas came out as a team worker in the Belbin activity; however, she came out as a specialist when carrying out the assignment and helped the group to get our work done. As she had knowledge on producing posters, this became essential for helping advertise the charity event effectively.
With team workers in our group, our presentation was fairly successful, as Iptisam and Martyna, both team workers, provided support within the group, it contributed to the group working effectively. Good teamwork contributed to the group’s performance and the Belbin team roles helped us to describe a pattern of performance from one person’s behaviour in relationship to another. The Outward Bound Trust (2007) identified the contribution being made by each individual helps the team to success and reflects on each an individual's work personal. This benefited individual performances because it helps the group to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, where the team can prioritise the group team consistency and help people getting along (Outward Bound Trust, 2007).
CONCLUSION:
Overall, an evaluation of this charity event must take place, in order for improvements to be made in the future. There were good and bad aspects of this group work and organisation of the charity event. Primarily, the positive were that we did work well together as part of a team and listened to each others input and ideas. As a group, we all agreed on what charity to raise money for and what type of event to hold. We did originally chose to raise money for Oxfam, however, there were problems with gaining information as we contacted the charity many a times, but never got back to us. Therefore, we chose to help Cancer Research, as there was ample information we could use from the internet and charity pack they would provide for us after registration of our event. However, where there are positives there are negatives. Between us there were some communication problems, such as arranging when to meet to discuss and organise the event; nevertheless, we tried to overcome this by having weekly meetings. Furthermore, if we were to do this assignment again, there are things the group would do differently that would be an improvement. This would include preparing the presentation to a higher standard by rehearsing it more and using more visual aids. Another way we could have made the event more successful was by carry out a questionnaire amount the students and teachers to see what snack food and drinks would have been popular. Moreover, our event was very successful as we sold nearly all of our food and drinks we had purchased, so on this accomplishment the event was a good choice and also the goods for sale were a triumph, especially considering no research was carried out into what was popular and what was not. On the whole, this group work has been a great success and if we were to carry it out again, not much would be changed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Websites:
Author of document:
Year of publication: 2007
Title of document: Outward Bound
Full URL:
Date of access: 17/12/07
Author of document: Cancer Research UKYear of publication: 2002Title of document: Cancer symptoms and side effectsFull URL, http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/Date of access: 10/11/2007, 17/12/07and 03/1/2008
Author of document: Oxfam Year of publication: 2008Title of document: OxfamFull URL, http://www.oxfam.co.uk/Date of access: 3/11/2007, 5/11/2007
BOOKS:
Higgs M. (1996) The Henley Research Centre
Shone, A. (2004) Successful Event Management, London: Thomson Learning
Allen, J. (2002) The Business of Event Planning, Canada,
APPENDICES:
1. Receipt from Cancer Research UK
2. Receipt from Costco Wholsale
