Saturday, May 31, 2014

Friday 5/30

Today I did a lot of work to prepare for the giant relay. Ms. Post and I met to go over many logistics. This included assigning teachers different stations to oversee in the relay and then emailing them detailed explanations of what they will need to do during the relay. I got to learn a lot about teacher’s personalities by what Ms. Post and I chose to assign them in the giant relay. I think this was a very important insight that could hopefully impact the improvements of the house system.

Another large thing I did today was design; buy supplies for then create batons for the giant relay. Though this may seem like a small task, it took a ton of time! I think these batons have to potential to bring war-torn houses together in a very peaceful movement. Sometimes arts and crafts are a very soothing activity.

Next week Ms. Post and I will spend a majority of our time planning and executing the preparation of the Giant Relay in hopes of making it the greatest Giant relay in the history of the world of giant relays and all other relays! I can’t wait for everyone to be back on campus with me to enjoy it!!!

Till next time,

Ali

Friday, May 30, 2014

Day 10: Working with the Moneyman $$$$$

Today I worked in the admission department for the RubberDucks. For the first half of the day I shadowed Emily Ray who is the Office Manager and Assistant Director for Ken Babby (the owner). I was shocked to learn about all the responsibilities Emily has to do. She basically has to answer the phone all day and transfer calls from the community to other departments. As well as, setting up meetings and keeping track of where Mr. Babby needs to be and numerous other things. She taught me a valuable lesson in dealing with community relations and that was to do everything above and beyond and have a positive attitude. She's an awesome person and from what I've seen so far has probably the most hectic job out of all the departments. She has two interns who I shadowed and worked with the second half of the day named, Alex Moneypenny and Will. Alex's last name is sweet so everyone at the office just calls him Money. But anyway I worked with Money for the majority of the afternoon and I learned how the team handles donations. He is responsible for receiving all of the communities donation requests and has to read each letter and send back tickets. It's a hard job for one person to handle so I got the opportunity to read letters from different organizations and send back ticket vouchers for future games. The administration department is all about the community and making sure that the community is left with a satisfying experience with the RubberDucks organization. I feel that this department is so vital to sports marketing because you have to have a good name and good recognition for fans to be interested and businesses who want to work with the team. They do an outstanding job of making sure the community is satisfied and has a good experience with the RubberDucks. The more and more I'm around this community here, I've learned that this organization is like a family. They all are so close to each other and have a fun time working but also get what they need to get done, completed. They've accepted me with open arms and I'm extremely grateful to have this opportunity to work with them.

Day 9: Delivery Man

Today I was assigned the job to create displays for the pocket schedules for the RubberDucks. I made 20 boxes and stuffed each of them with handfuls of pocket schedules. I was working with the promo team and part of promotions was getting the restaurants downtown to help support the team and display our schedules in their stores. I felt really official because Christina (my sponsor) gave me a uniform and left me with the responsibility of going up and down the streets of downtown Akron handing out schedules to restaurants. Luckily, I was not turned down once! This one time the lady was like, "we already have one" and I was worried but she bailed me out and said, "we could always use more". The little things like that make my days at project and kept my confidence high. It was for sure an interesting experience because I haven't done stuff like that since I sold Boy Scout popcorn back in the day. I think this project is really making me become more comfortable with myself and forced me to use my communication skills as best as I can. I’m also getting to experience a different environment besides Gates Mills, Ohio! I really like urban areas and being in big cities. Although Akron isn’t the biggest of places, I’m really enjoying experiencing a place I haven’t really spent much time at in the past.

Kitchen Duty

Tonight I worked in the suites at Canal Park. I got to help out the kitchen chefs and servers on the suite level and together we kept the kitchen running for the night. Unfortunately I was washing and drying dishes the majority of the time, but it felt good to be able to help out and be appreciated by the workers for my effort. And although this task may sound unpleasing we did get fed throughout the night. Whenever the chefs messed up or had extra, we got to eat what was there and it was fantastic! Along with doing dishes, I also got the opportunity to cook and prepare food for the customers. This was a learning experience for myself, because personally I make a solid bowl of cereal but besides that cannot cook. We prepared burgers and Italian dishes; I also made shish kabobs and because Chef Jason is awesome he allowed me to make my own that I could enjoy. I worked alongside another RubberDucks intern named David and together we knocked out a ton of dishes and got to eat well while doing it. Operating the suite level is a big part for the team because you have the responsibility of satisfying the fans that paid the most to be there. Everything had to be done close to perfection and slacking off isn't an option. I really enjoyed this experience because I got to see how hectic the kitchen can be on a game day and shadow some amazing chefs that were kind enough to let me help out. I'm loving this project and I'm upset that its almost over :/.

Social Media v. Digital Media

            I finished the digital and social media suggestions portion of my project.  It is going to be reviewed sometime over the weekend by my sponsor to see what suggestions will be followed.  Yesterday, I actually was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go to the Facebook London office.  My aunt works in marketing and advertising for Facebook, so through out this process she has been a great deal of help, because she sees the behind the scenes and affects of good social media campaigns.  Over the past few months I felt like Facebook irrelevant and not useful, but after visiting the office it is clear Facebook is thriving when it comes to business connections and advertising campaigns.  However, I am happy I have finished with the social media suggestion portion of this project because I was starting to spend an unhealthy amount of time on social media.
            My new task is too explore email services, like MailChimp, so my sponsor can easily and affectively email all of his Screen Advantage subscribers without having to send 35 batches of emails.  This is a rather mundane task, but from what I am noticing email is extremely important to maintaining a successful business.  The most important part of emailing for my sponsor is making sure that his company does not spam people’s inboxes (kind of like what colleges did to us sophomore, junior and senior year). 
            I think this whole digital and social media presence blows my mind because many of the people that have asked me about my thoughts and opinions of social media have actually considered it to be an expert opinion just because of my age and relationship with social and digital media. 
            Also if any of you know any aspiring filmmakers that need help with their finances send them over to ScreenAdvantage.com.

            Yay networking!

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Grit


Today I started by updating the website. As new merchandise comes in it is important for the store to stay up to date so that customers know what is in the store. After helping with that, I also updated the Facebook page and added photos from different photo shoots that Haven Style House did in the past, which highlighted great pieces that they currently have in the store. After everything was updated I emailed one of the brands that the store buys from because the store received a jacket that was damaged and in order to get their money back or get a new jacket I had to let the company know. I asked the company for a return authorization so that the store would not need to pay for shipping to return the jacket since it was damaged when it arrived. Unfortunately I am learning that challenges like this happen a lot at the store because they are a small business. Many times companies will just not get back to them or certain products will not arrive and my mentors, Anne and Cori still push through until they have received what they were promised. It takes a lot of grit and effort to be able to continue and make sure everyone else is doing their job so that they can do theirs. 

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Vanessa's Dumpling

Vanessa’s Dumpling: huge half-canisters lined with doughy white pastries, fried some, steamed others; men with a missing tooth here, a tuft of unbrushed hair there, lifting lids from these canisters and fishing in the oily soup to return with ladels of dumplings; their shells sizzle and crack brown on ivory, pinched tops, the sweet stink of salt and fried foods. No MSG. Vegetarian options. A woman leans on the counter with her midriff bare between a crop-top and low-rise jeans, black hair an untamed mane, she stalks her order number, waits, patient and impatient all at once.  The room is yellow. Not just in color, but lighting, and smells, it really smells golden; I can almost taste it, the thick air, that frying air. Rice piles high on the countertops, they wear no gloves – the chefs, I mean – and one scratches at his cheek. One cracks a joke in Cantonese, another laughs. Both their ears fan far from their heads; brothers? They are lithe and pinched at the cheeks, like the dumplings. Dumplings hiss from their canisters, and the only woman – her hair tucked beneath a serving cap – scrapes them free. Black. Damn, I feel her say. Disappointment is a universal expression. 

Frank Lloyd Wright's Broadacre City

The MoMA is huge; I mean six stories of sprawling floor plans exhibiting a new artist every couple of rooms. There was Sigmar Polke with his floor to ceiling prints of towers that represented not only WWII internment camps, but lifeguarding positions. The obvious irony there is unnerving and beautiful. There was pop-art, the classic Campbell’s soup can prints by Warhol who claimed he “wanted to be like a machine.” But what struck me the most was Frank Lloyd Wright’s notion of what could be the ‘perfect city.’ Broadacre City was his brainchild: he believed that the present city has nothing to give its citizens as it is so centralized it has no method of internal regeneration. He wanted a decentralized city of skyscrapers, ones that were economic without feeding into capitalist culture, and was a proponent for what would later become urban sprawl (though he suggested a more organized migration from the city). These buildings in Broadacre were clad in entirely transparent glass facades; they skipped the platitudes to go straight to flying slabs whose lightweight material outweighed all then-contemporary masonry. He was all about avoiding shadows in his city, and allowing all men and women at least one acre to themselves. Idyllic, and probably improbable, but wonderful nonetheless. 

Memorial Day in Central Park

In central park, on the various bodies of water, you can always see a couple rowboats cutting through the water. One guy had a rolled up American flag plastered to the side of his boat, his paddles squeaking with every turn. We were sitting in a gazebo right on the edge of the water with a tree titling across right next to us. Its roots twisted up from the ground, suspending the trunk over the water. Little leaves grow from the roots that are connected to hunks of stone. Right behind our resting space, a group of four people huddled around a turtle on the ground, question if it was dead or not and trying to poke it. Another four turtles were lined up on a log, sunbathing and hiding their heads and limbs. A girl in a white dress, her chopped blond hair clinging to her head, plunks a rock into the water below her. She flails on a branch as her friends tell her not to fall in and her laugh gasps out of her. Her voice sounds like a character from I Dream of Genie, bubbling out of her throat, high and lilting. The shadow of the tree ripples across the water, a gnarled hand, placid and still. A bee buzzes around my head, sounding like the fuzz from a radio. 

The Frick Collection

The Frick Collection is contained in house taking up the entire front of a block. It was owned by a man named Frick who made it his life’s work to collect paintings and sculptures to fill his house. Although he only lived in it for six years before dying, as soon as his wife also passed away, the house was opened to the public. It’s filled with grandfather clocks, ancient marble, preserved. Water dribbles out of a fountain in the middle of the indoor courtyard. The stones in the ceiling let spots of light through, fading into the gallery. The gardener has bags open, his gloved hands spilling grains of dirt against the cool marble floor; he quickly sweeps them up before continuing his work. He grabs at the only colored flowers- bloody spatters against the green leaves- and snips away. He pulls long stems out, showing that all of the stocks are dead, already cut and decaying. The flowers fall away with a brush. All of the furniture is preserved, roped off to war off the evils that can be called children. Vases and potpourri pots are left uncased, maybe to redeem a sense of trust in the visitor. Even though the Frick Collection is no huge museum like the MOMA, it has a sense of connection to the city as a part of its past.

Monet Musings at MoMA

Eventually, I end up back here. I’ve never seen MoMA’s Monet room before, but the Impressionists feel like home. Most people are here for Frank Lloyd Wright, the Campbell’s soup cans, Starry Night, the stuff that’s unique to this space and this city. To me, though, it’s the dashes of color—pink on dark blue on light blue on purple on green—that feel right. Adjacent to a room of geometrically perfect paintings, it’s the chaos and simplicity of water lilies in rural France that makes me feel at ease.
The woman in black pants, sneakers, a green cardigan, and a ponytail does not look so sure. She blinks too much, twists her hands together. Maybe she’s sizing the place up for a heist. Maybe her ex-boyfriend is meeting her in the corner. But something about this room makes her nervous.
One of Monet’s last paintings of the Japanese Bridge, from 1922, does not look like a bridge at all. Dark red, brown, orange, pea green. More like wet clay than a sunset, and there’s no real shape to it. A sense of random selection lingers in the brushstrokes. I try to step away so the painting will come together, but it feels charged with anxiety and uncertainty even from across the room. Like a beating heart on display, catching my eye. Calming me.

Tweet like a bird

            The more I research social media the more I feel like I’m Donald Draper in Mad Men minus the affairs and casual drinks at 1 in the afternoon.  Today I looked into what makes Twitter accounts successful for businesses, such as Lululemon, Lilly Pulitzer, Microsoft and Taco Bell.  These are all very different companies, but one thing they all have in common is constant updates and a lot of color. These veteran companies make Screen Advantage’s Twitter look like amateur hour.  My recommendations for Screen Advantage is to add color to the profile theme, Tweet at least 2x’s a week and put all social media account names on fliers that are handed out at film festivals or promotion events.
Promotion outside of festivals is a very difficult aspect because Screen Advantage is a software company, which can seem dry and lame to follow on social media.  I hit a wall for this issue around lunchtime so I went to Oxford Street, a huge shopping district.  As I explored trendy, classic and casual businesses I noticed most of these places have the names of Facebook pages and Twitter accounts displayed in places like windows, dressing room mirrors, bags and in some places their on posters on the wall.  This is hard for Screen Advantage since it doesn’t have stores or offices.  It is abundantly clear that Screen Advantage needs to almost shamelessly promote at every event, because social media is the main advertisement for Screen Advantage.   

My hope is that Screen Advantage will see a jump in followers once promotions begin and that the changes made to the profile will keep the followers interested.

House Leader Elections Lack Respect Tuesday 5/27

Today I did more research on how to improve the house system. I did countless interviews of students with leadership roles at the school. It has come to my attention that people do not take house leaders as seriously as people who are in Senate. In the future we would like to get rid of this stigma because each leadership role serves a special and important role in the school’s ecosystem. Some of the students I interviewed claim that some of this lack of respect for house leaders stems from the fact that it is the last leadership role to have an election. It appears to many students that the only people who run to be a house leader are those who have previously lost a senate or HIC election. Therefore, it makes the house leader role look like the one that is for losers. This is something we think really needs to change in the future. One idea we have is to have House Leader elections at the same time as Senate elections next year. Getting rid of this stigma will give people more respect for the house system in general.

Till next time,

Ali