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.