Progress Report

Jennifer Salane
Progress Report
English 332, Holmevik

Overview:
My partner Sharon and I are doing a public relations-type campaign to collect books for a local elementary school, Providence Christian Academy, whom is trying to increase the functionality of their library. In doing so, we will successfully carry out different means of communication in order to reach the students, faculty, and local community members of the Clemson area in hopes of obtaining as many children’s books as possible. We brainstormed different means of publicity, such as The Tiger newspaper, flyers, www.facebook.com, email, and word of mouth. Our ultimate goal is to have a pizza party where donators can enter the party and have a slice of pizza by presenting a book or two at the door. The party will be held in the studio on the first floor of Daniel. We are hoping to have the party sometime after Thanksgiving Break.

Work Completed:
Brainstorming: Sharon and I have done a great deal of brainstorming, so we are at the point in our project where we need to start putting our ideas in action. We would like to have the party on November 27 from 2:00 to 3:15ish. We have to call and see if the studio is available to be used. We want to design t-shirts for the day of the party, even if they are just for a few people to wear. I have asked my friend Keri Deily, a graphic communications major, to give us advice for designing the logo for our t-shirts. We are currently coming up with slogan ideas on our own for Keri to reference in advising, as well. Sharon is handling putting an advertisement on www.facebook.com through the creation of a group that Facebook members can join. I am in the process of designing a flyer, which once it is done, will be hung anywhere around campus that Sharon and I get approval for. I put the first ad for our fundraiser in the Tiger Newspaper set to run this Friday, October 19. It looks like a filler ad, instead of just a plain old classified. I think the simplicity of the ad will attract reader’s attention. I directed readers to email me if they have any donations to make or just any questions for Sharon and me.

Interviews: I would like to do an interview with a representative from Providence Christian Academy to get their input on the severity of what the library needs and the extent of our project. Either Sharon or I can do this. I also think it would be neat to interview a student our age that is heavily involved with fundraising and perhaps even nonprofit work. That person might have valuable input and beneficial ideas for our project that we have not even thought of.

Writing/Production: We are trying to figure out what sort of document we want to create. I was thinking that we could put together a portfolio of our work, perhaps in a binder-format. I am not sure what the best thing is to do, so I want to ask Professor H. about this. We will each write our own paper, of course.

Next Steps:
Our next steps are very straight forward: design logo, come up with slogan, put in order for t-shirts, reserve studio for a party date, contact a pizza company for best deal on party pizza, and get the flyers hung around campus.

Conclusion:
The work that Sharon and I have done so far has been steady and consistent towards moving us in the direction of our goals we just need to figure out a time to meet with each other each week, outside of class. I told Sharon that I thought since each week changed, depending on our personal schedules, we should communicate on Sundays and decide on a time to meet during each week. The way that we assigned certain task for each of us has really helped in the production of our publicity because the workload is not too heavy for one partner over the other and not too light so that nothing is getting done. Sharon and I both realize that with a project like this, persistence and enthusiasm are important to maintain the constant flow of achievement with public fundraising.

Suggestions:
We have not met with Professor H. in a while, so we need to do that today, if possible, to get some feedback on our ideas so far.