Discussion Journal #10

This past week in our class lectures we dove into our SEPPPs a little more. Mary took us in depth into what each section needs for our second draft and ultimately our final report of our SEPPP. Unlike our first draft of our SEPPP where we almost just stated our purpose (mission, values, etc) the second draft is more in depth and a lot closer to our final project. We need to incorporate our marketing, financial, operation, risk management, facilitation and management, and evaluation plans into one document. We were able to look at past group's plans and see what exactly is expected for our final project.

Sitting there and taking notes on Thursday really got me thinking about my group's SEPPP. We have been divided into smaller groups to work on these things, and then we come together as a whole to analyze what we have been doing. Even though we have specific leaders and a task force for each group without knowing what one another is doing we can't accomplish anything. I'm struggling doing my end without knowing EXACTLY what is happening with timings, events we have on ice, who is going to be where. I nearly laughed when Mary said the animation plan is one of the hardest, I thought it was going to be a walk in the park, but now after looking at what needs to be done I am really going to work with the rest of my group to put this together.

So now knowing what each part of the SEPPP truly entails going forward it is going to be a constant communication process with the group. I had already started to tap into that this past weekend, but now it is full force. If every one of us truly steps up and chips in our event is going to be successful. We have 60 tickets in our possession at the moment and I truly believe our group can pull off A LOT more, but it is a matter of working together through out different plans in order to do so. Becoming closer with marketing (as I have some ideas for a Facebook page and such) is going to be extremely important in the next few days as our event is a few weeks away!

Discussion Journal #9

This week we focused on management and leadership. Compared to popular belief, those who are managers aren't necessarily leaders and those who are leaders aren't necessarily managers. Being a leader means you're going to lift people up, be inspirational and someone people aspire to be. Being a manager means you are by the book, you have structure and the goal is to get things done. Most work places see failure when managers aren't leaders, as there is no inspiration and the moral of the team is quite low.

While doing this week's reading I was at work, and I had to run to show my manager what I was reading. We have had a lot of issues at work lately and our upper management has been quite horrible. They have backed off on everything they believed in. They aren't following our mission, vision or values. They have been yelling rather than explaining. Our one manager Tyler he is a true leader, more a leader than a manager, and he has always been on our side. I showed him the quote from Kotter's reading: "Management controls people by pushing them in the right direction; leadership motivates them by satisfying basic human needs." Tyler agreed and was shocked at how that one quote was exactly how our workplace has fallen to be. Previously our head manager believed in empowerment and we make our decisions, now it's chaotic and extremely controlling. This whole week has been such a reflection to leadership in my own life, in my workplace and as being captain of my swim and dive team.

Since being reminded of truly what leadership is I want to see it throughout my life. I am continuing to lead my team this year throughout our season, but not in a manger style, yes we have to get things done, but I have to stay true to being a leader. I hope to help lead my group during our SEPPP this semester, as it's been quite chaotic with everyone trying to do everything. Finding the balance between one another and each of our goals is extremely important in the next few weeks, otherwise it's going to be a disaster. Leading doesn't mean knowing everything it means sharing others thoughts and trying to bring a group together to make the best possible idea.  

Discussion Journal #8

This week we dug into quantitative data following the evaluation topic. There are 5 P's of evaluation: participants, program, place, policies/administration and personnel. Those are incorporated into our logic models and our evaluation. A big part of evaluation is surveys. If we get the participant's and worker's feedback we will then be able to see if our program is successful and meeting our objectives. It is important to specify what you are trying to do in the survey. Are you trying to measure satisfaction, accessibility or value? Like as if we were in a science class we almost write a formula. We need a dependent variable and an independent variable. The dependent variable is what is being measured and the independent variable is what influences or predicts what is being measured. We also really focused on learning how to write a good question in relation to our surveys. There are seven important things to remember when writing questions:

1. Avoid double barreled questions
2. Be Clear and Brief
3. Avoid leading questions
4. Write in the language the respondents use
5. Avoid technical jargon
6. Avoid negative questions
7. Use precise alternatives

Since our focus has been a lot more on topics rather than emotions in class it is hard to find that personal tie of how the information makes me feel. Tying this all into our group's SEPPP it is going to be extremely important to be using our 5 P's of evaluation as well as looking at our independent and dependent variables.  After learning about writing good questions for our surveys it really showed me that we need to start asking those questions to ourselves. An example of that is "on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being worst and 5 being the best) how did you enjoy the event?" Thinking of that and other questions starts to put the thought process of how we want our event to go is important.

So taking all what we learned this week moving forward I think that really using how to write good questions will not only help our group create a good survey, but also help us start looking at the objectives we want to accomplish with our program.