The tournament

Thursday: 3-8 6 hours
Friday: 8:00am-9pm 13 hours
Saturday: 6:00am-9:00pm 15 hours
Sunday: 6:00 am-9:00 pm 15 hours
Monday: 6:00 am-5pm 11 hours

Total hours: 60 hours

Thursday:

I began this day by waking up at 3 am to make it to the airport in time for my six o'clock flight. I arrived in West Palm Beach around 11:30. I was traveling with a gentleman named Dave Sheets, and his son Marty, who is a special Olympics athlete. Marty is 54 years old, and he competed in the first Special Olympics Event at Soldier Field in 1968. Other than golf, he also participates in power lifting, and a couple of other sports. Anyway, after we arrived at the airport, we rented a car, and left for Port St. Lucie. By the time we got to Port St. Lucie, it was around 1:30 in the afternoon. We got something to eat at the cafe, went to our Condos and dropped our stuff off, and then came back to "headquarters" to begin working. I worked with putting the last bit of information into the tournament handbook, in addition to adding medical forms to the notebook. Also, I had to make some last second phone calls for people who had not brought their medical forms with them, and get them faxed to the PGA golf club. We did not receive the fax until Friday though. Also, we were putting together athlete goodie bags, and finishing up some of the last-minute details for the tournament. After this, the workers all went out to dinner for one last "real" meal before the tournament began.

Friday:
I worked athlete check-in/family registration. As various delegations came in, they came to me to receive all of their credentials, and I took note of any changes to their delegation, whether in job description, or if athletes did not come. I made changes to any credential information that needed to be made. I also checked all of their medical forms, to make sure I had them. There were a couple I did not, but fortunately most of them brought copies of the forms just in case. There was a situation that we had to work out in which we did not have an athletes medical info, and his mother did not have a copy, but we were able to work it out. At check in, they also received their athlete/partner gift bags, and proceeded to receive their room keys. Registration took a lot longer because there was an accident on I-95, which caused delays from the airport. Opening ceremonies were also this evening, but I was unable to go, because of registration running late. The opening dinner was Friday evening as well, and was followed by a coach's meeting, where the coaches received all the information on tee times for the first day of the tournament, and we went through all the tournament rules and answered any questions that the coach's had.

Saturday:
I worked athlete/ partner check-in and handed out caddie bibs. This involved confirming athlete tee-times and making sure they arrived on time at their tees. I also had to track down any athletes who may have been late and send them the right direction. Saturday evening I delivered dinner to the athletes. This was a huge problem because the caterer we ordered from was not very efficient. He did not bring all of the food at once, he had to make three trips to get get all of the food. He seemed to think that he was supposed to drop the food off in one place and everyone would come to get it, but did not understand that he still would have been late if he didn't have all the food at once. He was also more concerned with an event that he booked at the same time as ours. Needless to say, it was a disaster and it took me two hours longer than it was supposed to to deliver the food.

Sunday:
I worked athlete/partner check-in again. I had to inform some athletes of changes in their tee times, but other than that it ran smoothly. That afternoon I ran the Pitch and Putt competition on the short course at the PGA golf. I had to organize the groups into a line, and send them through the course. There were pros from the clubhouse throughout the course helping the athletes through the course. At the wrap-up banquet I announced the winners of the competition, and there was a slide show of pictures throughout the week.

Monday:
I worked athlete/partner check-in again. This time I had to track down athletes to inform that their tee-times had been changed because they hadn't been warned of it ahead of time as they had been the day before. The award ceremonies began at 9:30 as the athletes began finishing their round. They came through in shifts as each of their divisions finished. I worked the merchandise tent after registration; we sold Polo's, hats, visors, etc.

week of 9/3-9/7

Monday: 1 1/2 hours from apartment
Tuesday: 12-5
Thursday: 12-5


Monday: I made attempts to contact individuals about the Honored guest reception. We were having difficulty contacting certain individuals because the phone numbers we were given were incorrect. I also responded to some emails concerning medical forms that we had not yet received

Tuesday:
I received a phone call from the radio company wanting to know if we still needed to rent radios for the tournament, which I thought was odd, considering they never sent me a quote as they said they would. However, later in the day he did send me a quote, which I sent to my supervisor, who was searching for companies in Florida. I also cleared up some information on the tournament concerning attendance for the play golf America clinic. I answered some more emails in response to questions about medical forms, and sent arrival information to the condo service we are using in Florida.

Thursday:
I answered more emails about medical forms. I also answered several questions about the tournament from individuals from various delegations. I also inquired about missing checks for the tournament. I packed up the information I will need to take to the tournament with me.

The last couple of weeks have just been tying up loose ends for the tournament. There is not a lot to be done as far as office work, etc. I will be leaving for Florida at 6:00 am on Thursday the 13th, and returning on Tuesday the 18th.

week of 8/27-8/31

Tuesday: 10-4
Thursday: 11-2:30
Friday: 1 1/2 hours from home

Total: 9 hours

Tuesday:
I spent most of my day on Tuesday sending out emails to all of the delegations who have not yet sent in their medical forms or their partner registration forms. That took quite a bit of time, and I had several immediate responses from delegations who did not realize that this information had not yet been sent in. I also made a couple of phone calls to confirm orders for ice for the tournament, and began a search for radio rental companies because the gentleman I spoke with at the company I contacted a couple of weeks ago never sent me a quote as he said he would, so we are looking for a company more local to the area where the tournament is being held. I also reserved a few more guests for the Honored guest ceremony who sent in their RSVP's and fielded a couple of phone calls regarding the same thing.

Thursday:
I spent my day trying to contact some individuals who had RSVP'd for the honored guest ceremony. I also spoke with my supervisor on the phone about some questions I had regarding a few emails I received, and also searching for a radio company. My supervisor left today for Florida, and will not be back until after the tournamen is over. I confirmed my flight information, and I will be leaving on Thursday the 13th at 6:00 am

Friday:
I responded to some emails I received with questions about the tournament, and contacted the one delegation whose check we have not yet received.

Alot of my work this week was just confirming details, the tournament is now less than 2 weeks away, and it should be busy at the office for the next couple of days especially while my supervisor is away.

week of 8/20-8/24

Monday: Not in the office; moving back to school

Tuesday: not in the office: first day of class

Wednesday: Not in the office: 1 1/2 hours from apartment

Thursday: N0 class, 10-4

Friday: Not in the office

Total: 7 1/2 hours

Because it was the first week of class, I did not go into the office very long. I spent a lot of the day on Thursday working on sending out more invitations to the Honored guest banquet. I went through all of the registration packets and double-checked that all of the delegations had sent in their checks and that they hadn't overpaid or underpaid. I spent time adding information to the registration notebook that hadn't been entered in yet. i also spent some time finding flights for my trip to Florida.

Throughout the week I spent some time making a record of the RSVPs I had received for the Honored Guests ceremony.

The time to the tournament is winding down, and my supervisor will be heading down to Florida in the next week or so to get ready for the tournament. I will have to do a lot of work on my own the next couple of weeks. I will have to hammer out some details involving ice, etc. throughout this week.

My schedule for the next couple of weeks will involve my coming in on Tuesday and Thursday, as I do not have any classes on those days.

With the limited amount of time I spent at the office this week I felt as though I got a lot of work done. But I will have to work a lot by myself the next couple of weeks.

Week of 8/13-8/17

Monday: 10-4:15
Tuesday: 10-4
Wednesday: Out of office, 1 hour from home
Thursday: 10-2: 1 hour from home
Friday: Out of office

17 hours, 15 minutes

Monday:
I spent a lot of Monday contacting all of the companies that we are working with to confirm the details of all of our orders before my supervisor left that afternoon. Also, I spent a good portion of the morning going through all of the registration packets and double-checking all of the information I had entered on flight arrivals and departures, to make sure we have people at the airports at the right times. I emailed a gentleman at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie asking him for a welcome letter for the tournament to put in the event handbook. Also, I spent a lot of time putting new information into event notebook and reorganizing the notebook so as to make its contents flow more reasonably.

Tuesday:
Following up with all of the companies I left messages with the day before. I confirmed the details on the picture frames and signed an invoice to order those. Also, I drafted a letter to the Graphics company to put in writing the details on the graphics we will need for the signature scrolls to go inside the picture frames. I went through the details with the printer, and I confirmed all of those. My major project for this day was getting all of the invitations in the mail for the Honored Guest Reception. I had to print, fold and label all of the invitations. I sent out a mass email to all the delegations concerning discounts on car rentals for the tournament.

Wednesday:
No one was in the office this week due to a sport business meeting in New Jersey, so I worked from home for the last couple of days. I spent some time working on updating the Event handbook, that was my predominant job for this week.

Thursday:
So as to respond to a couple of emails, I had to go into the office to get some information I needed. I went through event notebook to confirm the Registration summary. I also went through the family registrations to confirm who had paid, who hadn't, and who was purchasing a meal plan. I spent some time in the evening working on the event handbook for the tournament.

Friday:
I was out of the office, at home packing for school...:)

Most of my work this week involved working with either excel or Microsoft Word. However, most of what I did involved phone calls and emails to confirm details of the tournament.

This week, I felt as though I got a lot of work done, and I hammered out a lot of details on some of the things we are ordering. I was entrusted with a lot to do this week with my supervisor being out of town.

The tournament is coming closer, so there is going to be a lot of work for me to get done. This next week, I will not be in the office due to school starting. Because the tournament is coming closer, there will be a lot for me to get done from home. This is going to require me to keep in constant contact with my supervisor to find out what needs to be done.

Week of 8/6-8/10

Monday: 12-6:00
Tuesday: 10-4:15
Wednesday: 10-1:15 (dentists appointment)
Thursday: 10-4:15
Friday: 10-4:15

Total: 28 hours

Monday:
I made contact with the company we are planning on ordering our medals and ribbons from via email. I did this earlier in the summer, but never received an email back. Donna, from Midwest Trophy sent me an email back asking me to call her the next day. I also emailed my supervisor with a copy of the registration for one of the clinics that will be held at the tournament: The Play Golf America Clinic. Play Golf America will be offering a clinic to both participants and their families at the tournament. I also updated a spreadsheet with the athlete bio information by adding a section for their hometowns to the spreadsheet. This will be used for a media publication involving the athletes and partners playing at the tournament. I made a phone call to an intern for the tournament a couple of years ago, to see if she could answer a question I had about the gifts for the sponsors. I received a couple more confirmation emails from programs confirming their online registration. I did a little more work on the event handbook by sending out information and requests for welcome letters from our sponsors. Also, I worked on the changes to the volunteer handbook that were suggested in our conference call last week. I also did a lot of work putting together the tournament handbook for the tournament.

Tuesday:
I did more work with the Tournament handbook and adding the registration packets to the notebook. I contacted Florida, who has been especially slow in responding to us. We have yet to receive a hardcopy of their information with their housing information, medical forms, and athlete bio information. I was requested to contact them to find out the hometowns of their athletes for the bio pages, but was unsuccessful in my attempts. I received an updated copy of the bio spreadsheet with the information I had added to it. I made another phone call about the picture frames to the intern I had called the day before, and was successful in my attempts to contact her this time. She answered my questions, and cleared up a lot of things so I should be able to confirm my order by next week. I was told to contact her by the gentleman at the company printing our graphics. I began updating a spreadsheet containing caddie information for each of the athletes who are bringing caddies.

Wednesday:
I sent out a mass email with the Play Golf America Registration form attached, with instructions to fax/email it back to me. I finished updating the information on the caddie spreadsheet for my supervisor, though there were a few names I could not find. I spoke over the phone with the lady from they company we are ordering medals and ribbons from, and then she spoke with my supervisor to hammer out some of the details. My supervisor sent me an updated copy of the online info to download to GMS. Now I have all the information I need, so my supervisor and I are on the same page as far as our information goes. I left early today, due to a Dentist's appointment, so I left around 1:15.

Thursday:
I sent our contact at Microw Graphics an email to see if he could send us a mock-up of what our signature scrolls will look like. I also finished up the changes to the volunteer handbook that were suggested in our conference call, and sent them to my supervisor. I also answered a few questions concerning the Play Golf America clinic that I received via email. I also made a few changes to the housing information for North Carolina, they added a coach to their registration, and they are also housing an athlete from Washington, who is traveling by herself. We received more travel information for some of the delegations who had not yet made them.

Friday:
I began My day by going through the housing and travel information for all the delegations who had sent in their information, to double check that it was all correct, and that I had made a note of it all. I spoke with the gentleman from Microw Graphics about the signature scrolls, and he sent us an example of one, and told me to give him a call back on Monday with an idea of what we wanted them to look like. I spent the afternoon working on the athlete bio spreadsheet. I added fields for how long they had been playing golf, their favorite professional, their favorite course, and their interests other than golf. I finished about half of these, and my plan is to finish them Monday. Also, I spent part of the day making copies of a CD to be used next week at the Sport Business Meeting in New Jersey. I made about 40-50 of th 150 copies to be made. I recieved quite a few registration forms for the Play Golf America Clinic, in addition to a few more family registration forms. I sent out some emails concerning the family registration forms, and when the check would be coming in for their meal plans.

Most of my work this week involved working with excel or Microsoft word, in addition to just sending out ALOT of emails and making phone calls, and there was a lot of work on putting together the tournament notebook.

I felt as though I got a lot of work done this week, and cleared up a lot of questions I had about some of the gifts and things we are going to be ordering in the next couple of weeks.

I was still a little frustrated this week because after we finished the updates on the volunteer handbook that were suggested by the gentlemen in Florida, they sent it back to us with more suggestions, it's like they just can't make up their minds.

My goals this week are to finalize some of the details such as the ice for the tournament and updating the event handbook. My entire office will be out of town all week at a business meeting in New Jersey, so part of this work may be done from the office, and part of it may be done from home.

Internship: Wild Dunes Resort: Charleston, SC

My final week at Wild Dunes involved tying up a lot of loose ends, like final evaluations, and exit interviews, in addition to one last shadowing experience at the Tennis Center. The shadowing experience at the Tennis center was not very different from working in the Island Adventures store. That is one thing I learned while I was at the resort; all of the retail outlets operated in very much the same way,using the same POS system, etc. Also, they use a notebook to schedule tennis lessons and keep track of who is giving a lesson to who, and at what time on which day. This was probably my least informational shadowing experience, simply because it was very similar to what I did in the Island Adventures store, and did not get to do much while I was there.

If we had the time to do so, we were supposed to to go the Human resources department and go through an exit interview. This pertained to our experiences here, and if we had any suggestions for the department, etc. I did not get the chance to do an exit interview, but it was a standard procedure for employees who were leaving Wild Dunes.

My last couple of days were not very strenuous, because as my internship came to a close, the end of high season was coming closer too. We had very few children at Camp, and there were decidedly less people working on the Grand Pavilion, and swimming in the pools. My last day of work, I actually did not have to work because we only had three kids in camp, so we did not need four counselors with the kids, and my supervisor decided that I could have the day off.

Overall, this was an experience that I would gladly repeat, there were some things that I would have changed, and some things that definitely could have been done better, but overall, Destination Hotels and Resorts is a very well-run organization, and you would be hard-pressed to find an unenjoyable experience at the resort.

week of 7/30-8/3

Monday: 10-4
Tuesday: 10-4:15
Wednesday: Doctor’s appointment; out of the office
Thursday: 10-4
Friday: 10-4:15

Total: 24.5 hours


Monday:
As I expected, everyone chose to wait until the last minute to send in their registration packets, and we were swamped for all of Monday, and most of the other days of the week as well. Most of my work on Monday involved going through all of the registration packets and taking out the player bio information and faxing it to the lady in charge of putting them together for the tournament. Also, faxing information on housing to the management company in charge of the villas. I began to make separate files for medical forms and family registration forms as well. I have begun separating them to be put into the tournament notebook that I am in charge of making. Also, I began making confirmation emails to the delegations who sent in their online information. I also made another email to the gentleman we are using to print up our gifts to our sponsors about whether or not he knew of any companies who could frame these gifts for us. Also, I began inputting more information in the registration spreadsheet for the delegations who sent in their information.

Tuesday:
My Tuesday was spent in much the same way I spent my Monday: faxing, copying, and sending confirmation emails to delegations who sent in their online information. I am to keep a record of everyone who has confirmed their information, so as to know who we need to contact in the days to come. I spoke with the gentleman from the management company we are working with to rent condos for the tournament to make sure that he had received the same information we had, and to make sure that we had everything that he did. He told me what he didn’t have, and faxed me copies of what I needed.

Thursday:
My Thursday was especially busy because I was not in the office on Wednesday due to a doctor’s appointment. However, most of it was still very much the same as Monday and Tuesday. A lot of faxing, copying, phone calls, etc. The gentleman from Microwgraphics who is printing our gifts for us called me back on Wednesday when I was out of the office, so I called him again on Thursday. However, he was out of the office, and I could not reach him at all during the day. I spoke again with Russ from the management company we are working with to rent condos for the tournament, and he got some contact information he needed for some of the delegations. Also, I began making copies of all the player bio sheets sent in so as to mail them to a lady in charge of media relations at the tournament. This took quite a while, as there are upwards of 200 participants, and we have only one small copier. While searching through the stacks I began to pull out other information such as volunteer forms and partner and coach registration pages, also the doctor’s form request for permission to use a cart during the tournament. I placed all of these in separate piles, organized by state, as they will all go in separate dividers in the registration notebook.

Friday:
Friday, just like every other day, I spent a lot of time faxing, copying, and making phone calls. I especially spent a lot of time finishing copying all of the player bio forms, and separating the registration forms into stacks. I finally got in touch with the gentleman from Microwgraphics about whether or not he had any suggestions as to companies who could make some custom-made frames for the tournament. He made a few phone calls and found two numbers for me. One was called Easel Art, and the other M&M studios. When I called Easel Art, I was slightly put off by a very rude gentleman who I can only assume was the owner/manager of the store. He refused to do business over the phone, he assumed that I had no idea what size frame I would need, and basically no idea what I was doing, and when I assured him that someone would in fact be coming to the store to look at his product before we just told him to put it together, it made no difference. Needless to say, we will not be using Easel Art for the tournament. However, a very nice lady named June was very helpful to me at M&M studios. She sent me pictures of our choices of wood, in addition to invoices with what each type of wood would cost for the number of frames we needed. A major bonus to this studio is that they can provide one-day turnover for us, which will be a major thing because we will be having the gifts signed by the athletes, and taking them to the store the next day to be framed. There was a little confusion as to whether or not I will need to order a matte for the picture frame, or if that will be printed elsewhere, which I hope to clear up on Monday. And lastly, I spent two and a half hours in a conference call to discuss the volunteer handbook that I have spent so much time putting together. This was a very frustrating experience for me, because the two gentlemen in Florida working with volunteers basically tore it apart. They thought it was too long, they didn’t like the way things were worded, they didn’t think the volunteers needed to know all of the information I put in it. While they told me a very good job, they felt that it would be more appropriate as an event handbook, and that in general there was too much information and the volunteers didn’t need to know all of it. This mostly frustrated me because they took out a lot of things in the handbook that my supervisor told me to put into the handbook, but for arguments sake we chose to just let them do it their way.

Feelings:
Frustration; complete and total frustration. I am frustrated with the flood of work that came in because no one sent in their information on time, and I am frustrated at the fact that some people still haven’t sent in their information. I am frustrated that I spent so much time and effort on the volunteer handbook that basically got cut in half throughout the course of the conference call. Again, I’m pretty much just frustrated with this week.

I feel as though I was very effective with my work this week. I made a lot of progress and got a lot of things done. However, I do feel as though I could do a better job of sorting out the registration packets, the way I have done seems to require me to go back through the handbooks two and three times, after I have already put them back together. I could save a lot of time if I just pulled everything out at once.

This week, my computer use was minimal, other than to send out a lot of emails and input information into Excel, I did not spend a lot of time working at my computer, most of it was spent sorting out registration packets.

Next week I will start off by sorting through all of the checks that have been sent in, and making sure they match all of the check numbers that the delegations cited. I will have to keep track of who has paid and who has not, most likely in an excel worksheet. I will also begin contacting the delegations who have not yet confirmed their online information to me. I assume a lot of next week will also involve making the corrections to the volunteer handbook that were mentioned during the conference call, and working more on straightening out the event handbook.

Internship: Wild Dunes Resort, Charleston, SC

Pool cleaning: Everyday of the week, two interns were responsible for cleaning the pools at both the Boardwalk Inn and the Grand Pavilion; three pools total. We began by vaccuming the pools, then skimming the pools, then we emptied the pool filters. When we were done, we were responsible for cleaning out the vaccum to ensure that it worked the way it should every day.

Hooking up the vaccum could be tricky, as it did not always want to work, there were times when we couldn't get the hoses to stay on the vaccum, or it wouldn't pick up the sand in the bottom of the pool.

Often, people did not think about the type of things they brought into the pool, and we would often have to pull cups, or deteriorating napkins out of the pool. One time, I even pulled out a really dirty t-shirt from the bottom of the pool. Also, we sometimes we had to check the chlorine levels in the pool, and if they were too high or too low, we either had to add more chlorine, or close the pool while we waited for some of the chlorine to evaporate.

This was hands-down everyone's least favorite job during the summer, partially because you never knew if it would work properly, so sometimes it took a really long time, other times you might be done really early. We mostly dislike it because it was the dirtiest job we had to do as well, and we also had to get up the earliest to do it, because guests were waiting to get in the pools.

week of 7/23-7/27

Monday: 10-4
Tuesday: 10-4
Wednesday: 10-4
Thursday: Out of the Office
Friday: 10-4

Total: 24 hours

Monday:
Today I began contacting individuals about things will need for the tournament such as radios and gifts for the tournament committee. I emailed a gentleman from the PGA of America about his input on the volunteer handbook. He is the gentleman in charge of volunteers for the tournament. I also spoke with a man from Microw Graphics incorporated so as to arrange ordering the signature scrolls to go inside the picture frames for our sponsor gifts. I also arranged for the company to send us a catalog of the items they carry so as to make some decisions about the type of gifts we will order for the tournament committee. When I talked to Microw Graphics, they told me that they would not be able to help us out as far as engraving gifts, so I spent a lot of the afternoon looking online at a website for a company that we have used before to find some gifts that are comparable in price to what we have done before.

Tuesday:
I worked with my supervisor on getting logos for sponsor pages. I also contacted a lot of the teams who sent in their registration info to clarify a lot of information if we had any questions. I finally got a response about where we might be able to find radios and began the process of setting up a conference call to discuss the volunteer handbook. I also began work on making a spreadsheet for the team registrations that should come in this week and next. I sent a fax to the PGA tour concerning a letter and an information page on the PGA to put into our event handbook and volunteer handbook. I contacted another gentleman about radios, because the first man told me to see if he could give us any more leads on companies we could get radios from.

Wednesday:
I began faxing a lot of information on Wednesday. I have started faxing athlete Bio pages to a lady involved with the tournament who will be putting them together for us. I also began to send housing rosters to the Housing company we are using for the tournament. I received the catalog from Microw Graphics today, and we began looking through it for gift ideas. I began working on a coaching and officials certification spreadsheet to keep track of how many certified coaches and officials there were in each state for each sport. This had nothing to do with NIT, but we were a little strapped for things for me to do. I input the information we received from the PGA in the form of a letter, and information pages and put it into the event handbook.

Friday:
I did a lot more faxing of athlete bio pages today. I also contacted the USGA about some information we would like to put into the event handbook. I also sent some confirmation emails to registered teams for the Tournament to let them know we had received their GMS information from the online registration and to confirm that it was all correct.

Most of my work this week either involved excel or working with equipment around the office such as the fax. I also was given the opportunity to work with the Games Management software that Special Olympics uses, and that helped me to understand a little more how the events are run.

As a whole, I had a lot more to do this week, and there was not nearly as much downtime during the day as there has been the past few weeks. It helped when I was having trouble finding something to do with my time, Craig found some other things that I could do, that even though they didn’t necessarily involve the NIT, they were still beneficial to see how the organization as a whole functions.

Next week all of the registration forms will be coming in at the beginning of the week, so my goal is to get all of that information put into the spreadsheets I have made as quickly as possible. Also, contacting all of the programs to confirm that our information correct is important too.

Internship: Wild Dunes Resort, Charleston, SC

Job Shadowing: Zach Stone, Resort Manager.

I did another job shadowing experience with Zach Stone, one of the "Resort Managers." His job is to respond if there are any problems on the resort. For example, some one says they have found something missing in their room, such as a pair of earrings. His job is to make a record of it, and check with housekeeping to see if there was possible anyone with sticky fingers in housekeeping who cleaned their house. He is also responsible for calling the guest to see exactly what they say has happened. More often than not, they have misplaced them, they dropped them and they were vacumed up, or they will find them when they are leaving. Either way, he has to file a report, and see if there is anything he can do to alleviate the problem.

He is also responsible in case there is some sort of emergency on the grounds. For example, we had a little girl get stung by a sting ray, a guy walk into sign and break his nose, etc. He is responsible for determining whether or not the resort is liable for any of these things. For example, was the resort quick enough in responding when they little girl was stung, could anything have been done to prevent people walking into the signs (like moving them higher). He also has to decide if the guest is truly at fault. We had a gentleman injure his foot on a sliding door at his vacation home, and he was trying to say there was something wrong with the door that caused him to cut his foot, when in reality, he wasn't paying attention, and he tripped over the door.

Also, he has to deal with guests who might have an issue with their room or condo. For example, their air conditioner doesn't work, or they had to be moved unexpectedly, or they didn't get put into the room they were originally told. Unfortunately, this also means that we may have to put up with guests who just want to complain about everything. This can usually be resolved by something like a complimentary bottle of wine, or giving them a slight discount on their room for the evening.

While shadowing, we basically made the rounds around the resort. Zach likes to begin by ensuring that everyone has everything they need. So we would make rounds to the restaurants, and the grand pavilion, just to make sure everyone had what they needed for the evening. Also, if people need things such as different types of alcohol or other things throughout the evening, Zach will usually go get them for them and take it to them whereever they need to go.

Week of 7/16-7/20

Monday: 10-4
Tuesday: 10-4
Wednesday: 10-4
Thursday: 10-4
Friday: 10-4
Total: 30 hours

Monday
I spent much of my day contacting people in various ways about information for the tournament. I started to receive information about who should be invited to the honored guests ceremony at the tournament. I began to compile a list of these individuals and the addresses where they could be reached. I also made phone calls to different ice companies to find out the price of ice for the tournament. I worked on the event handbook as much as I could with the information I had. I also contactd an individual from the PGA tour about an opportunity to gain publicity for the tournament at the PGA tournament.

Tuesday:
My supervisor emailed me a list of people to find to invite to the Honored guest ceremony. This list included the Mayors of the City of St. Lucie, St. Lucie County, Fort Pierce, Stuart, and Palm City; the commissioners of both St. Lucie County and Martin County, and the State senators from the area. I spent most of the day finding the names of these individuals and the addresses where the invitations they can be sent. I also spoke with one of the athletes about her flight plans. I spoke with an individual from the USGA about objects they will be donating to the tournament. In addition, I began to draft a letter as an invitation to the individuals to be invited to the honored guests ceremony and sent it to my supervisor to look over.

Wednesday:
My supervisor sent me the letter for the invitations with his suggestions on how to make it better. I also began to make calls about gifts to different companies in the Port. St. Lucie Area. I was not very successful in the endeavor, one of the companies we have used in the past proved very difficult to find. I spoke with an individual from another company which we have used before, and they were supposed to get back to me with some information, but did not, so I will have to try again next week. We need to order placques and special order Frames for gifts to Our sponsors. When I had difficulty contacting the frame store, I searched for a website or an email, and was successful. There was no website for me to visit, however there was an email. I emailed the individual from the store, and have not yet heard back, so I began searching for other companies to order from.

Thursday:
I did some more work on the event handbook, and did more research looking for companies in the St. Lucie Area for Picture Frames and Plaques as gifts to the tournament sponsors and committee members.

Friday:
I went to the storage facility to retrieve all of the caddie bibs, hats, and pin flags. I did an inventory on all of those items to find out how many we will need to order for the tournament. I also began to research gifts for the tournament committee. I was using the invoices from years past to find out what kind of presents we ordered then, and searched for presents in the same price range.

I had more to do this week, however, there were times that there did not seem to be enough to do to fill an entire workday. The problem is that a lot of my work depends on whether or not other people send in what they are supposed to send in, and if they don't, I might not have much to do, and as with many organizations, most people wait until the last minute to send things in. As we get closer to next week, we should become ever so much busier, as the deadline for turning in registration packets is July 30th.

I did meet my goals for last week in that I did get to make some phone calls and do some pricing for items for the tournament. I also got to do some work on the event handbook, putting letters from different organizations into the book.

My goals for this week is to start preparing for registration and following up on event logistics, including volunteers and equipment.

Internship: Wild Dunes, Charleston, SC

Shadowing experience: Property Management.
My second shadowing experience was with Property Managment at the resort. Property management is responsible for maintaining all of the Homes on the property that are used as room inventory at the resort. The way this works is that homeowners within Wild Dunes allow the resort to use their vacation home as part of the room inventory at the resort while they are not staying in the house. As a result, Wild Dunes maintains all of these homes and makes basic repairs as needed. The homeowner makes a profit from this arrangment at the end of the year.

Homes are given certain ratings depending on their interior and how well the owners have maintained and updated appliances as the years have gone by. All of this determines the price that is charged for renting the home/condo per week/day.

I was given the opportunity to ride along with the head of property management at the resort Sue Aldrich, and view some of the houses that are used by Wild Dunes property managment. I was also given the opportunity to help turn-down one of the houses. This included collecting dirty linens/towels, cleaning bathrooms and the kitchen, washing all dishes, mopping floors, making up beds, etc.

This was a beneficial experience for me, I got to see what goes into making these homes look the way they do, and how the resort rates homes to determine what will be charged for renting the home.

week of 7/9-7/13

Monday: Supervisor was out of town visiting the sight of the tournament, told me not come into office, worked 1 1/2 hours from home.

Tuesday: 10:00- 1:00

Wednesday: Not in Office worked 1 1/2 hours from home

Thursday: Not in Office: 2 hours from home

Friday: Back in Office 10:00-4:00
Total 14 hours

Monday:
I communicated with my supervisor about one of the registration packets I recieved and who I should contact on the form. I emailed the individual who sent in the registration packet: an athlete from Washington, about some information we needed from her.

Tuesday:

I came into the office today. I called into a conference call today where we talked about various positions on the tournament committee that needed to be filled. I also contacted individuals from clipped wings, a group for retired US Flight attendants. They have always been very involved with volunteering for Special Olympics, and we have been contacting them to find out what kind of jobs they would like to do. I also contacted individuals from the USGA who will be working with us at the tournament about the registration packet. They made some suggestions, and I sent them forward to my supervisor.

Wednesday:
I communicated with my supervisor about information I got from clipped wings on their volunteers. I also contacted another individual from clipped wings who has ladies that are interested in volunteering. I contacted individuals from the USGA again about the products they will be donating to the tournament for the goodie bags. I also contacted my supervisor about the registration packet.

Thursday:
Contacted my supervisors about volunteers from clipped wings and the registration packet.

Friday:
Communicated with Dorothy Mastromonaco from the USGA about booklets she will be donating to the tournament for the goodie bags and when and where we would like them to be sent. I also communicated with an individual from Clipped wings about her volunteers. I spent much of my day making a footprint for the layout of the awards ceremony in powerpoint. I worked on the event handbook because I was sent some new information to add to it. I developed an excel workbook for all of the information on the registration packets.

Most of my work this week was done through the email. However, I did do some work in powerpoint, excel, and word.

I was a little frustrated this week. Often, I find it difficult to find enough to fill my time while I am at the office. I am sure this will change as I get closer to the tournament.

My objective this week is to make a few phone calls about ice and other products to find out what kind of prices we can get. Also, to make as much progress in the event handbook as possible. As registration packets come in, I will need to record all of that information in the workbook I created last week.

I still need to work on managing my time better while I am at the office, and finding things to do while I am there.

Internship Wild Dunes, Charleston, SC

Special Project: Kids Fest '07

My special project while working at Wild Dunes was to work with three of my fellow interns and develop a Kid's carnival. It was the first time this particular carnival had ever been done, so we were pretty much going from the ground up. This involved contacting distributors about prizes, tickets, armbands, and/or food for the carnival. We also had to contact individuals about waterslides, cotton candy, and sno-cone machines for the carnival. Also, we had to contact homeowners on the resort to ask to use their water and electricity for the carnival.

After we had contacted everyone we needed about products for the carnival, we had to plead for volunteers from individuals who worked at the resort. This was somewhat successful. However, we did not get as many volunteers as we would have liked. We also had to paint all of the signs and/or decorations for the carnival and set up the day of the carnival. On the day, the four of us working on the carnival showed up very early and started to set up.

Next, we had to assign jobs to all of the volunteers and give them jobs for cleanup after the carnival. We also had to contact people from the resort to provide food: hotdogs, hamburgers, etc.

After the carnival, we had to ensure that all of the homeowner's whose water and electricity we used were reimbursed for letting us use their homes. We also had to make sure everything we didn't use was stored in the proper location, and ensure that the lawn was left in the same condition we found it.

Monday 10-4 6 hours
Tuesday : 10:15-3:15 5 hours
Wednesday: Holiday
Thursday 10-4 6 hours
Friday: Supervisor told me not to come in because he was out of the office
17 hours

Monday: I got to work today and my supervisor did not have much work related to the NIT for me to do. After responding to a few emails about the tournament, Craig asked me to make an excel workbook containing information on various training programs within Special Olympics. I made records of when each of the coaches were trained, and when they taught training sessions. This information had been previously recorded, but in separate books, and my supervisor wanted the information to all be saved in the same place, so it was easier to find. I had a lot of information to go through, and I had to pair up information from the same training programs that were taught in different years, to track the differences over the years. I had to go through information from the past several years, and it took me pretty much all day.

Tuesday:
I finished up making the training information workbook today. I spent much of my afternoon finding information online about Ice suppliers close to the PGA Golf Club to come up with a list of companies to contact. We are looking for the company that will give us the best price. I also began looking around for shops to buy sponsor presents, or rather to get sponsor presents framed. My goal is to find the stores closest to the tournament that can give us the best price. I have some information on companies we have used in the past, and we are going to contact those companies in addition to a few others.

Wednesday:
Out of the office due to the holiday

Thursday:
I did a little more research looking for ice companies and framing companies in the St. Lucie area. We also got a little more information to add to the volunteer handbook. We received a leter from teh Golf Course Superintendent's association of America, which is helpful considering we needed it to put in both the volunteer handbook and the event handbook. I also got a little information to update the dining schedule and family registration sections of the event handbook. I began to update the travel information for individuals flying in to the tournament from the various airports around Port St. Lucie.

All of muy work this week either involved working with Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel. I made several workbooks involving the training sesisons, etc. I used Word a lot to work on the handbooks.

Friday:
I drove to the office only to get an email from my supervisor that he sent Friday morning telling me that he wasn't going to be there that day or all of the next week. He wants me to work on updating the handbooks even more, and make a few phone calls to the companies I researched.

This week I was a little frustrated. there didn't seem to be much for me to do involving the NIT, so I felt as though I spent a lot of time doing things that were a waste of time. It is a little difficult for me to do things like make phone calls because I don't have a phone, and I have to squeeze them in between his phone calls. I feel as though I often have to work around other people, and it is a little frustrating at times.

My supervisor has told me that next week I can work from home if I would like since he is not going to be in the office. He is going to send me emails throughout the week on things I need to keep up with, and some information I can update throughout the week. We have sent out registration packets and we should start receiving them shortly. I will go into the office this week in order to make some long-distance phone calls, but most of my work will be done from home.

One of my goals over the next few weeks is to find a better way to use my time over the next few weeks when there is not a lot for me to do.

Internship: Wild Dunes, Charleston, SC

Excursion Driver:
The job of the excursion driver is to drive all of the guests to and from the various excursions offered by the resort. For the most part we were responsible for driving to the Marina or the yacht harbor. If we had extra time, we would often be used as drivers around the resort for guests who needed a ride to their vacation home.

We often helped with kids camps by driving the kids to and from the pool at the resort, or to and from the Grand Pavilion.

We were also responsible for getting towels for the new swim center. We drove to the swim center and got the used towels and dropped them off in the laundry area, and picked up new, clean towels for the swim center.

At the end of the day, we helped out the person at the recreation desk with their job. We helped with running the receipts and turning them into the accounting department at the end of the evening.

In addition, we were often responsible for managing large groups of guests, often upwards of one hundred people. We had to arrange transportation for all of them by getting help from the resort drivers.

week of 6/25-6/29

Blog: 6/25-6/29
New Schedule:
Monday 10-4
Tuesday 10-4
Wednesday 10-4
Thursday 10-4
Friday 10-4

Monday: 10:30 am-4 pm 5.5 hrs
Tuesday: 10:00 am-4 pm 6 hrs
Wednesday: Doctor’s appointment, didn’t come in. 3:00-4:00 pm (at home) 1 hr
Thursday: 10:00 am-4 pm 6 hrs
Friday: 10:15am- 4:25 pm 6 hrs, 10 minutes
Total: 24 hrs, 40 minutes

Monday
Today was my first day back from Mississippi. I spent my days creating another spreadsheet for the quota allotment summaries that are now being sent in. My job was to read through them all, and make a note if any of the states wanted to change the number of people they are bringing to the tournament. From this spreadsheet, we will be able to determine exactly how many athletes have been requested, and exactly how many we will have tee times for, basically; how many we are going to have to cut. We also got my Special Olympics email account up and running today. I also began work on a volunteer recruitment packet. We were sent drafts by a gentleman who works at the resort where the tournament is held, and my job was to look over them and see where they could be improved, and compare them to other years. Volunteers are a crucial part of the Special Olympics organization. There would scarcely be a Special Olympics Event if it were not for all the volunteers that give up their time to come to these events.

Tuesday
I continued work on the volunteer recruitment packet. I finished the Volunteer assignment descriptions, and have sent them to my supervisor to look over so we can decide what other changes need to be made. I am now working on the Volunteer Application. I also emailed individuals working with the Golf Course Superintendent’s association of America and the LPGA about getting welcome letters from them to put in the front of our handbooks. By the end of the day, my supervisor emailed back to me with his suggestions.

Wednesday
Due to a doctor’s appointment, I was out of the office today. I spent part of my afternoon working on the Volunteer application and making some corrections and suggestions as to how it could be improved. I later sent my suggestions to the gentleman in charge of volunteers in Florida.

Thursday
I received an email from the gentleman in charge of volunteers at the golf club today. He sent me his drafts of the documents, and told me which of my suggestions he used, and which he did not. He didn't use most of mine and my supervisor's suggestions, which is slightly aggravating. After making a few more suggestions and sending it back to him, we made a phone call to his office to ask him a few specific questions about the document, and then just talk a little bit about the tournament. He said he would look over the other suggestions we made, and send it back to us the next day. He also stated that he had a few suggestions about the volunteer handbook I sent him, and that we could talk about it at at later date.

Friday
We received an email back from the man in charge of volunteers with his final draft of the mailing to be sent out to potential volunteers: he basically ignored every suggestion we made, which is slightly frustrating. We called him again today, and talked a little more about the tournament and recruiting volunteers. I spent most of today working on developing a tentative order of medals and ribbons for the tournament. I had to base my order on orders and winners from previous years. The number of medals we order depends on how many divisions we have, and how many athletes are in each division. In order to come up with the numbers, I had to divide the athletes into tentative divisions, and base my order on those. After I had done this, I developed a spreadsheet with my numbers for each level, and the number of medals and ribbons I would need for each level. In addition, I created a document with all of my notes as to how I divided the divisions and came up with the numbers. I then sent this to Midwest trophy, the company we order from, and am still waiting for a response.

This week, I felt as though my time was a little wasted on some of the things I was doing. It was frustrating to put a lot of time and effort into making something better, for someone to just decided they weren't even going to consider our suggestions and do it his own way, regardless of whether or not our way was actually better.
I was not too far behind when I came back from Mississippi, Craig had started some things while I was away that I finished when I got here. For example, the spreadsheet for the quota allotment summary.

New experiences
I got to sit in on a conference call this week. It was the organization-wide conference call that happens every month. It was interesting to see how Special Olymics North America functions in relation to each of the individual state programs. I also was given the opportunity to talk with some of the people I will be working with when I am down in Florida when we called Mallory, the man in charge of volunteers at the PGA golf club. Also, figuring out the order for the medals and ribbons was a new experience. Learning how businesses and organizations figure out how many of a certain item to order was interesting.

This week I mostly worked with Microsoft Excel and Word. I made a lot of spreadsheets this week, and worked with a lot of Word Documents.

Areas for improvement
I need to work on finishing things a little more quickly, I tend to get caught up in making things perfect, and sometimes it takes me a while to finish things.

Objectives for next week.
Work on the Event handbook. Even though there is a lot I can't do with it right now, there are some things I can do to improve it such as working on the order of documents in the handbook. It is difficult for me to state exactly what I am going to do, because I often don't know what Craig will want me to do until I get there on Monday morning.

Strategies
make better use of my time, stop being such a perfectionist. Work on avoiding distractions in the workplace, and staying focused on the work at hand.

Internship: Wild Dunes Resort, Charleston, SC
Recreation Desk:
The vast majority of this particular job goes something like this: "Good morning/afternoon/evening, thank you for calling Island Adventures, this is Jessica, how can I help you? It often felt as though it should be more like "Good morning/afternoon/evening, thank you for calling Island adventures, this is Jessica, how can I attend to your every whim?, or fix a problem that you seem to think is my fault, even though it isn't, but you are calling to yell at me about anyway?

This job description was probably everyone's least favorite job of all the one's we had to do. If someone else messed up, but they weren't at the desk later in the day, or the next day, someone else inevitably got yelled at for it. The problem was, that we often didn't know how to fix a problem, because we didn't know where the problem started, or whose fault it actually was. Nonetheless, we all became pros at dealing with angry guests as the summer progressed.

That's not to say that everyone who called the desk was in a foul mood, most of them were quite the opposite. Our main job during the day at the recreation desk was to field calls and make reservations for excursions and kids camps. Also, we would ring up and run receipts for all of the people who came to the desk to pay before they were taken on their excursions. On certain days, usually towards the beginning of the week, the desk would be flooded because people were trying to plan their vacation for the next week or two. On other days, like Saturday or Sunday when most people were either checking in or checking out, the desk was typically not as busy.

At the end of the day, whoever happened to be working the desk would work together with the excursion driver to check all the receipts and turn in the day's receipts to the accounting department.

Week of 6/18-6/22

This week, I do not have a lot to report on; I was on vacation in Mississippi with My family. I obtained access to a computer as often as I could, and checked email from my supervisor pertaining to the progress made this week. I responded to an email from the Hilton Garden Inn referring to the arrangment of prices for the families attending the tournament and sent it to my supervisor for him to look over. On Wednesday, I spoke with my supervisor on the phone about the arrangment with the Hilton Garden Inn to make sure that it was being taken care of. I have done as much with the handbooks as I can do until the appropriate people have finished looking over them to make sure they are put together well enough. The registration handbook and the volunteer handbook have both been sent out and are currently being looked over. My supervisor has sent me emails referring to corrections that may need to be made, and a conference call to discuss them. While on vacation, I had limited access to a computer, so progress was limited, but I did maintain contact with the office while I was away.

My objective this week is to catch up on anything I may be behind on from this past week, including the handbooks. I believe my supervisor will be out of town this week visiting the site of the tournament, so I will have to maintain contact with him while he is away. Also, I need to talk with my supervisor about a more consistent schedule, now that most of my major things to do this summer are finished.

Strategies: stay in contact with my supervisor, through email, phone conversation. While either of is out of town, it is imperative that we maintain contact with one another.

Internship: Wild Dunes Resort, Charleston, South Carolina
Five days a week, Monday through Friday, we offered Children's crafts and activities on the Grand Pavilion, which is one of the main attractions for families at the resort. The Grand Pavilion is a boardwalk built on to the back of the main hotel at the resort. It has two pools, a grill, a bar, an ice cream shop, and the Island adventures gift shop.
Below I have listed each activity offered on each day, at what time.

Monday:
10 am: Flag Football ( a free activity for kids)
12 noon: Sand art ( funneling colored sands into bottles to make design)
2 pm: Birdhouses (a painting activity, where kids painted birdhouses)
4 pm: Spin art (Children design their own frisbee using different colored paints)
5pm-9pm: 3-on-3 basketball (a tournament)

Tuesday:
1o am: Kickball (a free activity for kids)
12 noon: Hemp Jewlery (hemp jewelry making)
2 pm: T-shirt Tie Dye ( tie-dying t-shirts)
4 pm: design a beach tote (a painting activity where kids design their own beach totes)
4 pm-6 pm: tournament time (a family activity involving games such as bocce and horseshoes)
9 pm: blacklight volleyball (Volleyball played at night with blacklights and blacklight nets, balls, and ropes)

Wednesday:
10 am-2 pm: Summerfest (a free pool party for kids where we play water games, etc.)
4 pm: Family bingo ( family activity where we offered prizes to winners)
6 pm: Candle making (Children collect sea shells and beads to put inside a candle they design themselves)
9 pm: Capture the flag (played at night on the south lawn of the grand pavilion with glow sticks and glow-in-the-dark flags)

Thursday:
10 am: Blackbeard's treasure hunt ( a children's treasure hunt around the grand pavilion)
12 noon: Soccer ( a free activity for the kids, depending on the tides, it was often played on the beach)
2 pm: Birdhouses
4 pm: family stepping stones (children design their own stepping stones using cement, shells and sometimes handprints, etc.)
4-6 pm: tournament time
9 pm: Black light putt-putt (played on the resorts putting green, using blacklights and blacklight pvc pipe to make holes, and glowing balls.

Friday:
10 am: Wacky Wiffle Ball (wiffle ball, with a twist: we decide how each inning is played, run the bases backwards, bat your weak hand, run backwards, spin around before you run to the next base, etc.)
12 noon: Decorate duney ( a painting activity where children paint a puzzle of the resorts mascot, Duney, the loggerhead sea turtle.
2 pm: t-shirt tie-dye
4 pm: Design a fish ( a painting activity where children paint different designs on wooden fishes)
9 pm: black light volleyball

We were trained on how to do each of these activities during our first week of training. It was our responsibility to show guests how to do each of these things correctly. The activities ran the same schedule every week. There were usually two people assigned to work activities every day, sometimes three, depending on the day. When we were finished, we were responsible for ringing up all of our receipts and making sure they all matched up. We then turned them into the accounting department at the end of the day.

Week of 6/11-6/15

Hours:
Monday: 10 am-3:45 pm
Tuesday: Office closed due to meetings
Wednesday: Office closed due to meetings; worked from home 7-9 pm
Thursday: Office closed due to meetings; worked from home 10-12 am; 2:30-3:30 pm
Friday: Out of town for a supervisor-approved family trip to visit extended family in Mississippi total: 10 hours, 45 minutes
I am doing this one a little bit early, because I will be out of town for about a week and a half starting today.

Monday:
I spent the majority of my day at the storage facility for Special Olympics North America. My supervisor and I were doing an inventory of the equipment we had that we could use for the tournament, so as not order things we did not need. This involved searching through boxes and counting items, and compiling a list of what we had. Later in the day, I received a response from the Hilton Garden Inn about housing for families, and my supervisor forwarded it to the main office in Washington DC. I was also sent to Staples to make copies of a training manual to be used when training coaches for various Special Olympics Teams. I began looking for a inventory sheet from the last tournament, so as to compare it to the information we found.

Tuesday:
The Office was closed due to meetings, I did not come into the office
Wednesday:
The office was closed due to meetings, I did not come into the office. I began working on compiling an inventory list in Excel using the information we had gathered from our trip to the storage facility.

Thursday
The Office was closed due to meetings, I did not come into the office. I completed the current inventory list for this tournament, and completed the comparison list from the past tournament. We can now use that list for reference.

New Experiences:
I was given the opportunity to experience what is involved with this job outside of the office. For example, my trip to the storage facility and staples.
Most of my work this week involved working with Microsoft word and Excel. This involved making inventory lists and working on the various packets

As I have only been in the office one day this week, I am not sure if we have gotten responses from some of the people we have been contacting about the tournament. If we have not, we still do not have all of the information we need to complete all of the handbooks. However, we have completed the handbook. It is still frustrating how difficult it has been to contact some of these people.

I completed the Registration handbook over the weekend, and it should be ready to be sent out by next week while I am away. The event and volunteer handbooks are still not yet complete.

Objectives
While I am away for the next week and a half, I will need to maintain contact with my supervisor so as to find out if there is anything he would like me to work on while I am away. Hopefully while I am away, I can make a little more headway towards finishing the event handbook and volunteer handbook.

Strategies:
Get to a computer as often as I can, emailing and calling my boss. Just Ensuring that I stay up to speed while I am away.

Internship: Wild Dunes, Charleston, SC
Topic: Kid's Camps

Each week, we offered 4 days of kids camp. The camps were split into 2 age groups: ages 3-5, and ages 6-10. We had a specific theme for each day. For the older children, we took them off property twice a week. Tuesdays we took them to a water park, and Thursdays we took them to Frankie's Fun Park, an arcade where the kids could play video games and drive go carts, or ride in go carts if they weren't tall enough to drive. One day was spent teaching kids to boogie board, and playing water games. Another day was left up to the counselors to decide what to do, we were each given a day to program activities, and every Friday we did something different.

The younger children were taken off property once a week. On Mondays we took them to the Sullivan's Island Fire Department, let them sit on Sea Doos, and try on Firehats. We then took them to play on the playground next to the fire department, and would sometimes play game like kickball with them. Every other day was spent at the resort. Tuesdays were pirate day, so we took the kids to a treasure hunt at the Grand Pavilion, and outfitted them with Bandanas and eye patches. One day we played Water games with the kids, and Fridays were another day that the counselor's got to decide what to do.

Another camp offered was held on Wednesday and Friday night, so as to let parents have time to themselves. We usually took the kids to a movie, or putt-putt. On the nights we stayed on property, we went to play capture the flag with on the resort, it was a glow-in-the-dark game that was played on Wednesday nights.

Week of 6/4- 6/8

Blog: Week of 6/4-6/8

Hours:
Monday: 12:45-4:45
Tuesday: 12:45-5:00
Wednesday: 12:50-5:20
Thursday: 1:00-4:15
Friday: 12:45-4:45
Total: 20 hours

Monday
I spent most of Monday gathering the final quota requests that were sent in for the tournament. Much of my day was spent working on the excel workbook organizing information and totaling the requested number of Athletes. In addition, I spent part of the day emailing the contacts on the quota requests I received when on Monday to confirm the number of athletes they requested. Our total number of athletes after I received the last of the quota requests was 303. The rest of the day I spent working on the event handbook to be sent to the coaches of the athletes coming to the tournament. I seem to have come to a bit of a standstill with this project; there are a lot of things I cannot update until my supervisor gets some of the information necessary to do so. In addition, I have had some trouble getting in contact with people involved with the tournament in Port St. Lucie. I have had some questions about information I need to put in the event handbook and volunteer handbooks, and have not yet received a response from these individuals. For example, I emailed a gentleman from the Resort to double-check the yardages for the holes, and have not received a response yet.

Tuesday
I spent the first part of my day Tuesday working on the event handbook for the tournament while my supervisor made finished up a little work on the tournament. I later met with my supervisor to discuss the quota requests. We discussed which states had responded to the requests. Specifically, which ones were coming, which ones were not, and which states had not responded at all. We determined that if they had not yet responded, they were most likely not going to respond. We have 25 states who confirmed they are coming, and 10 who confirmed they are not. There were several states that sent nothing in, so we assumed that they would not be attending. After double-checking all the numbers, we determined that we would have to cut quota for the event.
The athletes are split into 5 Levels, Level 1 being a skills competition, Level 2 being a 9-hole partner competition, Level 3 being an 18-hole partner competition, Level 4 being 9-hole individual play, and Level 5 being 18-hole individual play. Most of the athletes compete at the Levels 2 & 3 competition. In this case we had 168 golfers at level 2; 84 athletes and 84 partners, which means that we have 84 teams signed up to compete at Level 2. We decided that we would most likely need to cut quota by about 50 athletes in the Level 2 group. All of the other groups were substantially smaller than level 2, and we don’t think there will be any problems finding tee times for all of them.
I spent the rest of the day updating the event handbook, which I am still waiting to receive some updated information on.



Wednesday
I spent the first part of my day Wednesday working on the Event handbook using. I am still at a bit of a standstill with that, I have not yet gotten all of the information I need. My supervisor gave me a couple of other things to do including contacting the Hilton Garden Inn at the Golf Club about getting a deal on price for the families who are attending the event. In addition, I worked on developing a template for coaching certificates within Special Olympics. That is what I spent most of my day working on Wednesday. My Supervisor and I began batting around ideas for my internship project. We discussed that I be responsible for developing the handbooks and paperwork for the event, in addition doing a thorough event evaluation. The evaluation will help with the event in the future. It will help identify problems we had with this year’s event, in the hope that these problems can be avoided in the future. We also discussed my schedule when Summer School is over, which is still to be determined.

Thursday
I spent a good portion of Thursday looking for a specific document that my supervisor could not locate. It pertained to the grant we receive from the USGA for the tournament. I looked through a lot of files, but was unable to find it. I then searched a CD my supervisor gave me and was unable to find it on the disk either. I also spent a little more time on the template for the coaching certificate. Later I made a phone call to the Hilton Garden Inn about pricing on rooms for the event. I was unable to get in contact with the person I was supposed to call, so I left her a message, and called the front desk to get an email for her. I then sent her an email explaining the situation, and that we had spoken with People at the PGA Golf Club, and that they suggested we contact her about getting a deal on the rooms for the families of athletes who are attending the event. I am still waiting to hear back from her as she will not be back in the office until Monday. We spoke with a gentleman from the PGA Golf Club today, so I should be able to put some of the finishing touches on the event handbook.

Friday
The beginning of my day was spent finishing the coaching certificate. I met with my boss about the budget for the tournament, and we discussed what exactly we thought we would have to spend money on. We compared our budget to that of years prior, and used those as a basis to prepare ours. I discussed the registration packet with my supervisor, and, I almost completely finished it, I have a few things to correct, and one more addition to make, and it will be done, and we will be able to send it out to the attending teams. I am still waiting to get some information so I can update the Volunteer handbook and the Event handbook. My advisor and I discussed my internship project a little further, and we determined that I will do some sort of event evaluation to determine what worked well with the tournament, and what could have been done better during the tournament, to avoid problems of the same type in the future.

Evaluation: We made a lot of progress this week, even though at times it seemed as though there was not a lot for me to do. We have had trouble completing a lot of work because of problems with communication with people working with the tournament. On more than one occasion we have sent emails and made phone calls only to receive no response from the people we need to speak with. We hope that after this week, everyone may have a slightly more open schedule, and we be more capable of speaking with us.

I spent much of my time with the computer this week, working predominantly with Powerpoint and Microsoft Word.

I got a little bit of experience communicating with other people involved with the tournament through phone calls and emails this week. it helps me familiarize with the people that I am going to have to work with throughout the process of preparing for the tournament. I am directly responsible for many of the aspects of planning of the event, and contacting people to make arrangements.

Honestly, I was a little frustrated this week with the way things seem to be going right now. We have had a lot of difficulty getting people to respond to emails and phone calls, and it is beginning to slow our process a little. Thankfully, we are still early in the process of planning the tournament, and we are not running too far behind.

This week, we nearly completed the Registration packet, however, I did not finish the Event handbook as I had hoped, because as I mentioned before, we have had difficulty getting in contact with people who could give us some information we need to finish. Hopefully, this coming week I will finish the Event Handbook, however, most of this work will be done from home, due to the fact that no one will be in the office this week after Monday.

In order to finish the event handbook, my supervisor and I will need to make even further efforts to contact individuals working with the tournament.

Internship Project
My supervisor and I discussed it this week, and we decided that my project will pertain to an event evaluation. It will help with the tournament in the future, and will prevent problems of the same sort in the future. In addition, I am responsible for putting together all of the paperwork for the tournament, including the registration packet, volunteer handbook, and event handbook.

Internship: Wild Dunes, Charleston, SC

I began doing shadowing experiences at Wild Dunes. My first shadowing experience was in the gym and Spa at Wild Dunes. These experiences allowed me to see how individual departments within the resort function in relation to the resort as a whole. I discovered that most of the departments function in similar ways, as far as keeping track of sales and reporting them to the accounting department. All departments have to take into account whether or not the guest is an owner at Wild Dunes, a guest staying at the resort, or a guest renting a property on the resort, but through another property managment company. Each individual is charged differently according to what type of guest they are. Obviously, owners and guests are given preferential treatment to individuals renting through another company. Individuals renting through another company have to pay to use practically every amenity on the resort property, whereas owners and guests us them free of charge. In addition, they have to pay higher prices for certain services at the resort, like varioius spa treatments. Each department has a unique way of recording appointments and reservations, but generally, we all use the same Point of Sale system, and similar ways of reporting sales to the accounting department.

Week 2

This week, my boss was out of town in San Diego, California volunteering at the California State games. My responsibility at the beginning of this week was to call all of the state programs who had not yet responded to our quota requests, and inform them that they had until Friday the 1st of June to either fax or email them in. By the end of the week, I had received almost every request from the programs that were going to send them in. Several of the programs were out of the office when I called because of their state games, so I did receive some requests when I came to the office today. Later in the week, after I had received all of the quota requests, I was responsible for emailing all of the contacts at the program to confirm the number of athletes they requested. In addition, I worked with Excel quite a bit this week, making entries and totaling the number of requests that I received. I did not get to spend as much time working on the volunteer handbook, registration packet, and event handbook due to the fact that I spent most of my time on the phone and emailing different programs. I spent approximately 12 hours in the office, and three or four hours working at home. As I stated in my last update, I will be able to spend more time at the office when my summer class is over.

This week I gained a little bit of experience working with various microsoft programs, especially excel. I was also given the opportunity communicate with other people who work with Special Olympics through email and telephone conversation. Being in contact with these people will familiarize me with some of the people I may be working with while we plan for the tournament.

I need to work on my one-on-one interaction with the other people in the office, and become more open about asking questions when I don't know the answer or when I need help. In addition, I am not quite sure of what is expected of me while I'm in the office. For example, I was not sure whether or not I should answer my supervisor's phone when it rang, or if I should let him check his messages as they come in. I still feel like I have not been informed about a lot of things that would help me with my work. I might feel more comfortable answering the phone if I knew I would be able to answere the questions or be of assistance.

I could improve my performance by becoming more verbal in the workplace and asking questions. Building relationships with my coworkers will help me become more comfortable with my work.

This week, I met my goals of contacting all of the state programs about their quota requests. I did not finish the Event handbook as I had planned, mostly because I was making phone calls and emailing different programs within Special Olympics.

My objective this week is to finish the event handbook, this will partly depend on my supervisor, and whether or not he gets some information I need to finish it. I have a lot of information from past years, which I can use and update for this year, but I also need a lot of new information pertaining to the people who will be working on the tournament. This also applies to the volunteer handbook and the registration packet.

Communicating with my supervisor is the best way to accomplish these objectives, as much of my work depends on whether or not he gets some of the information I need.

Internship: Wild Dunes; Charleston, SC

The nature of my internship this summer is very different from my internship last summer. In my second week of work last year, I became involved with working at Kid's camps, and making reservations for the different trips offered by the resort. Working at Wild Dune's was a much more interactive internship. I interacted personally with the guests at the resort and their children. My job this summer is very much an office job. I do a lot of work with my computer, working with excel, word, and powerpoint. Last summer, I worked with activities on the Grand Pavilion, worked as a cashier on at the Island Adventures Store, and a variety of other things. At Wild Dunes, there was a lot of variety in the jobs I did. I never did the same thing two days in a row. It made the job very interesting, and I got to see many different aspects of the resort industry.

My first week

Schedule: For the first few weeks of my internship, I will be going to summer school in the morning, and going to my internship in the afternoons. Until June 8th, my schedule will be as follows:

Monday: 12:45-5:00
Tuesday: 12:45-5:00
Wednesday: 12:45-5:00
Thursday: 12:45-5:00
Friday: 12:45-5:00

When my summer school classes are over, I will update my schedule.

My internship is with Special Olympics North America, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. My internship will involve the planning and execution of a golf tournament in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The tournament will be in September, at which time my internship will be over. My supervisor's name is Craig Pippert, he is the Senior Manager for Sport Development at Special Olympics North America. His primary responsibility as of right now is preparing for the golf tournament. At other times in the year, he works on the execution of other major events for Special Olympics. For example, the world games, and various state-sponsored events. Melanie Ferlito and Greg Epperson, the other employees at the office have many of the same responsibilities as Craig. They are each responsible for planning different events at different times throughout the year. My responsibilities include developing registration packets, volunteer handbooks, and event handbooks to be sent out to all involved with the tournament. In addition, I will be involved with communicating with individuals at the tournament site. This will help me with developing various handbooks to be sent to the people attending the event.
Most of the events that occur with Special Olympics occur within the school year, because many programs rely on the school system to transport athletes. However, currently the office I am working in is involved with World Games, which are hosted this year in China, I believe. My supervisor also recently left for California to help with their state games.

I began my first week this Monday. For most of this week, I worked on my computer developing the registration packet and volunteer handbook. This involved looking at information from past tournaments, updating and occassionally throwing information out. And putting it together. There is a lot of information to be updated and thrown out. A lot of it will not be able to be done until we receive updated lists of officials, volunteers, and athletes. My work this week specifically involved working with Excel and developing a workbook to save the information we receive from the various state programs as to how many athletes they are sending, and what level they will be competing at. In addition, I used Microsoft Word for a lot of things, like developing the volunteer handbooks and registration packets.
This job is not like many others I have had in that I am personally responsible for many things, in the past have had a much larger hand in what I did. In this job, I am permitted to do a lot of things myself, and given a certain amount of flexibility to do them the way I want to.
Most of my work this week involved using Microsoft Works, which I have a lot of experience using in the past. I need to become more familiar with some of tools used for formatting documents in some of the programs, however I have used all fo the Microsoft programs at some point in the past.

Though this internship is in large part an office position, I am still enjoying it. I am getting a lot of valuable experience working in an office environment, and with working with individuals who are older than I am. This internship is giving me the opportunity to be involved with the development of a major tournament, and will hopefully open many doors to me in the future. Though this job will undoubtedly be not as much fun as my last internship in Charleston, I am still looking forward to finishing it and gaining a valuable experience.

To improve my performance I need to familiarize myself a little more with using some of the tools for formatting in the Microsoft programs, and become a little more verbal in my inter-office communication.

Objectives for coming week:
1. Finish Volunteer Handbook and Registration Packet
2. Contact State programs about their athletes
3. Finish Excel workbook and confirm number of athletes.
4. Begin work on Event Handbook

Finishing the Volunteer Handbook and registration packet will require me to spend a lot of time away from work working on the documents, as I will be spending a lot of time this week on the phone contacting representatives from different state programs. My supervisor is out of town this week, and he has left me the responsibility of making courtesy calls to state programs and reminding them that the deadline for registration is coming up. Finishing the Excel Workbook will require me to make sure that I contact everyone that needs to be contacted, and record the information.

Internship: Wild Dunes, Charleston, SC

In my first week of my internship last summer at Wild Dunes Resort in Charleston, South Carolina we went through an intense week of training and preparation for the summer ahead. We spent anywhere between six and nine hours a day at desks in a classroom like atmosphere learning about the resort and our responsibilities. Every afternoon/evening we took a break and participated in some sort of activity such as jet skiing, sailing, or kayaking as a sort of team-building activity. This also allowed us to experience many of the excursions and trips that we would be selling to our guests throughout the summer. One thing that was stressed throughout the summer was upselling, and these experiences allowed us to tell guests about the trips, and a first-hand account of the experience is a major selling point for many people. At the end of the week, we were given a "test" to see how much we had absorbed from the week of studying, and on Saturday afternoon, five of us, myself included, began work a day before everyone else.
Throughout the week, we learned about our responsibilities during the summer. We were responsible for working at children's camps, working as a cashier at a gift shop, making reservations for the various trips/ camp's offered by the resort, driving guests to and from excursions at the Marina, and running activities on the Grand Pavilion, the boardwalk at the center of the Resort.

This internship differs greatly from my internship at Special Olympics in that I was not the only intern in the organization. In addition, there was an intense training period at the resort, whereas at Special Olympics there was no real training period, I was just put into the job with little instruction. The nature of the job differs greatly, in that Wild Dunes was a much more hands-on experience, where I got to become personally involved with the guests, and Special Olympics is largely an office job, even though I will be involved with the athletes at the tournament.