This assignment is about administrative skills, which is based on organising an event that allows everyone to take a position of responsibility. It will depend on how many students are prepared to go and if some of the teachers can be persuaded to devote their time in participating in the event. Therefore the role of each individual is important, as it will determine the outcome of the event. The decisions are up to the students on where they plan to go whether it is a social event or a visit to an outside organisation. All the students will be put in an administrator’s role and as a result it is up to them on how they conduct themselves to achieve this goal.

The event we have organised is to go on a visit to the Trafford centre on the 12th December 2002.

The main objective of this event is that it must be successful. In order for this event to be successful, the following criteria’s must be achieved:

* Timing

* Everyone must attend the event.

* Choose an appropriate event, which can be accessible to everyone.

* Persuade at least two teachers to take part in the event by coming along with the students.

* ?ll the students and tutors to arrive back at college from the trip safely.

Everyone must attend the event because if any students don’t turn up on the day, they will be left behind at college. As a result they will fail their assignment because they wont able to evaluate the event, as they did not attend.

There will be a problem achieving the third objective because not all students will be happy to take part on the event, as they will have certain problems. These include students might feel the event is too far in terms of location and therefore the parents might be worried. To tackle this problem everyone will be sent a letter to their parents, which they must sign. This way the chairmen and secretary can find out if a student is eligible to go.

Another constraints of the objectives are that there must be two or three teachers coming along on the event. If none of the students can be persuaded to take part on the event, it will be cancelled. This will be dealt by giving an early notice to the teachers who would like to attend. By doing this the students will have priority and the teachers can cancel any other things that come up on the day of the event.

It is vital that everyone returns to college safely. One of the problems of this is that at the event no students will be supervised all the time because they will do their own activities. This will be deal by giving the students an emergency contact number so they can call a tutor if they have any difficulties.

There are five groups, which, the students are divided into they are Authorisation, Transport, Finance, Health & Safety and Others. As there are thirty students each group will consist of six students. These groups are of great importance because this is the stage where all the research must be done and everyone should be committed. The following is a table of students allocated to their groups.

Authorisation

The authorisation group probably have the important tasks to do because if they fail on their duties the event will not proceed. This is because they have to get the permission of an assistant principal and they must set a date, which everyone agrees. If an assistant principal is not satisfied about the request made by this group, the event will be cancelled. If they succeed they will have to type an authorisation letter and give them out to everyone to get it signed by a parent.

Transport

The responsibility of the transport group is to organise a method of transport that would allow everyone to go to the event and comeback to college. The transport group have to carry out a lot of research because as there a number of transport methods, they have to find out which are convenient and most importantly available at the day of the event. They will have to take a lot of things into consideration such as does the transport have a first aid kit on board and since Christmas is approaching they will have to book early as most transport will be booked.

Finance

The aim of this group is to sort out the financial side of the event. They will have to find out prices for the transport and collect money from students for the event. The finance group will need to communicate with transport group because they need to find out the prices for the journey. Also students need to know what is available at the event in terms of costs, so the finance group will need to do some research. The most important task is to collect the money from students so therefore this group will need to work hard and collect everyone’s money as there is a tendency to hold back when students need to pay something.

Health and Safety

The main concern this group will have is whether the event will be safe or not. It is up to the health and safety group to decide what kind of safety measures to take before the event. They will have to find out if anyone has any health problems that they cant attend the event and in case of an emergency they know how to act when someone is suffering in some way or another. It is up to them to collect personal details in case of an emergency. Most importantly they must collect emergency telephone numbers of every student because if something happens to a student their parents or guardian can be notified of this immediately. Also individual health checks will have to be made to ensure that everyone is physically and mentally fit to go on the event.

Others

This group does not have a specific responsibility but nevertheless they have an important role to play. They will assist in any extra research that has to be done for example finding out information about the event in terms of what it offers. They can also give a helping hand to the other four groups. It is up to the group to carry out additional research that they think will help in the planning of the event.

Physical and Human Resource requirements

The physical resources for the event include paperwork, computers, mobile phones, first aid kit and the coach. Paperwork is important because during the meetings every student will take notes and write down their minutes. Computers will also be important because the students will be doing their assignment and the Internet will be used to search for any information. The students will use mobile phones because they have to make calls to find out for example prices of coaches and book certain activities. The first aid kit is a physical resource as it will be on the coach and it is an important item to have. The coach is important because it will take all the students to the event and bring them back.

The human resource requirements include students, teachers and the coach driver. The students will be organising the event so they are vital in terms of human resource. The teachers will be coming along on the event as well as the coach driver because he will drive everyone to the destination. These human resources are important because without them the event cannot be successfully accomplished.

Information technology, written and oral communication

During the project we had weekly meetings in which oral, information technology and written skills were used to meet the needs of the project. Oral communication was used in all the meetings as the five groups had to give feedback on what they have done and the information they have collected. The advantage of this is that everyone knows exactly what each group has done and therefore any issues can be raised about the feedback. Also the chairman and secretary can find out how each group is coping in an administrators role by giving feedback to the group.

Written skills were used at all meetings because every student had to write down their minutes. The minutes consisted of up to date feedback from each group and any other important information that needed to be written down. Also the chairman and secretary gave out agendas. The purpose of an agenda is for students to write down any comments they wish to discuss with chairman or secretary. The advantage of having written information is that it allows the students to give detail comments and ideas on any issues. Another form of written communication is a letter because all the students were given a letter to take home which had to be returned and signed by parents.

Information technology was used for many tasks such as emailing, typing letters and doing research. Email was used when students had to make any suggestions to the chairman or secretary. This is an effective way of passing messages because it is very convenient. The authorisation group had to type up a letter on Microsoft word for every student and the Internet was used to do research.

Effective skills in working with others

Since I was in the authorisation group I had to work with people in my group. I had to be responsible in the tasks that I was given by my group. One of my duties included in helping in getting permission from an assistant principal about a possible date of the event. I did this particular task with Rajul and Adam. It was difficult doing this because most of the time an assistant principal would be out of college so we had to go at a specific time to find one of them. After the third meeting we had I decided to go to College one myself to find an assistant principal. I went to the office of each principal but they were not present. I asked at the reception if it was possible to see an assistant principal. The receptionist told me that they were not going to be available as they are out of the college. Personally I did not have any luck on finding a principal but nevertheless one of my group members had already discussed the date and time of the event to an assistant principal.

On the 8th October the venue was changed to Trafford centre. As a result I decided to do my own research on Trafford centre. I looked up on the college Internet to find out what the Trafford centre has got to offer. I did this particular task because I was eager to find out the selection of things you can do at the Trafford centre. I have therefore included some printed copies of what I have found.

On the second meeting my group had been given some tasks to do. This included organising the date of the by getting permission from an assistant principal and the number of tutors and students that are planning to go on the event. Also this group had to provide letters to be sent home. For the letter to be completed we had to consult the finance and transport group for some information. We asked the finance group how much it would cost to go on the event so we can type it on the letter. The transport group told us that we would be going by coach so that also needed to be included in the letter. Due to the change of date and time the letters were not done in the first couple of meetings. Also one of the tutors was not happy with the drafts. When the letters were done they were given out to all the pupils. We had to make sure the letters were brought back as soon as possible and signed by a parent or guardian.

Contingency plans

During the project there was a few contingency plans. Firstly the initial plan was that everyone wanted to go to Preston but we decided to go to Trafford centre, which was the back up plan. Everyone had to vote again on where they would like to go so majority of the votes were in favour of Trafford centre. Another contingency plan was that the date of the event was changed from 19th December to the 12th December. The reason for this is being the Barlow’s coach was fully booked on the 19th, so the only choice we were left with was to go on the 12th December.

Steven Gidley who was one of our teachers going on the event had decided that he wont able to come with us. Steven has stated that one his classes had an exam coming up and he was worried that he would jeopardise their chances if he went on the event. Neil McDonald therefore replaced Steven. On the last day before the event Neil said he wont able to go on the event. The reason for this is that he had to replace another teacher because they were not going to come to college on that day. Someone had to replace Neil so Lisa Jones decided that she would like to come on the event.

The problem, which may occur with one of the contingency plan, is timing. This is because since there was always a teacher replacing another it was important that a replacement was quickly found because the event would not have successful if at least two teachers were not present. As the day of the event came closer it was vital that this problem got solved.

Responding to any new information

There was many new information that was raised during the planning process of the event. The first major information the students received was the change of event. The authorisation group responded by changing the letter because it had Preston as the event. The finance group responded by researching the price to go Trafford centre. The others group had to respond by doing some research on Trafford centre. As a result of this everyone had to plan for the new event. The date of the event was changed so this is another new information. This affected the authorisation group because they had to change the letter by indicating the correct date. The time of the event was changed to insure everyone arrives back at college time. The original time was at 8.30am to 6.00pm. The new time set for the event was between 9.00am and 4.30pm. Due to the time change the authorisation group were again affected. They had to change the letter once more because it must state when the students are expected to come back.

Effective use of business communication and teamwork

The communication during the project was very effective. At the meetings the communication was formal because it was arranged. Also a notice board was used to help the students write down their minutes. Two-way communication was carried out when the groups were left alone to discuss any issues. The advantage of this is that in a small group you can get instant feedback while in a larger group it takes time.

The teamwork in the authorisation group was very effective as I was a member of the group. The six people contributed by having a key role to play. During the project I got a feeling that the group worked well because of the team spirit it had. No one would disagree with each other but instead they listened to what each other had to say very carefully. There was not a leader all the time because everyone had a say on what goes on during the meetings.

Effective planning and evaluation of the project

On the Thursday 12th December we all went to the Trafford centre. The coach arrived at 8.45am. Some students had to get an earlier bus to come to college because they were worried they can possibly miss the original bus so they are not going to take the risk. The coach left college at 9.00am. We arrived at the Trafford centre before10.00am safely and well. There was only the slight delay of traffic at the beginning but we still managed to arrive on time. Before we could get off the coach Claire our teacher gave us a emergency telephone number to contact her just in case of an emergency.

When we got off the coach everyone went to different directions in small groups. There were not a lot of people around because it had just opened but we got to find out later on how congested the place was. There were a lot of things on show at the Trafford centre but the place, which nearly all the students went, was the Namco game station. This place was in favour of the students because it had arcade games, dodgems and many more activities. The group I was with went to the cinema where we watched a film called Deathwatch. I must say not everyone enjoyed the film. Time management was crucial because we had a limited number of hours to do everything so it was not always possible. As Trafford centre is famous for its shoppers it was no surprising to see some of the students and even one of the teachers do their Christmas shopping. When it got later towards the day the place was a familiar sight because you can see so many shoppers.

When it was 2.45pm everyone had to make there way to the village where we all would meet together. We made our way back to the coach and waited for anyone who was going to be slightly late. In the end everyone was present on the coach so it was time to head back to college. There were a few people who let us down on the event. Rajul and Dipak did not come with us on the coach because they were late. Instead they made their own way to Trafford centre by car. There was one person who did not come to the event, which was Billal. He failed to attend, as he was not feeling well.

In conclusion I would say the event was a massive success. Everything we had hoped for was well organised on the day. Everyone acted as mature students and did not give Oldham Sixth Form College a bad name. Also the teachers did not have to tell anyone off as they behaved like adults. If this event were carried out again I would recommend a few things. First of all I would have this event taken place throughout the day because since it is a huge place everyone can spend at least a whole day to enjoy themselves. Second of all I would like to have seen all the students sticking together for a while. This will mean everyone has more fun because it is in a larger group.

During this project I was satisfied with my overall contribution but I felt there was more to come from myself. When I was with my group I did not take a leading role as this was not my strength but when there was something to be said I did not hesitate to make my point. During the meetings my ideas and opinions were not taken seriously. I say this because in a lot of situation I would give an idea but most of the time it would get ignored. Especially during the first two meetings when everyone was shouting out all the time and did not give myself and other people a chance to speak. I believe I could have contributed more to the whole project if my ideas were taken seriously.