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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE: COMMUNITY PROJECT- GROUP
1. BRAINSTORM 3
2. MINUTES OF THE MEETING 3
3. PROJECT PLAN 4
PART TWO: REVIEW LOG AND REPORT-INDIVIDUAL
1. WEEKLY DIARY 6
2. POSITIVE EXPERIENCES 9
3. NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES 9
4. OUTCOME OF THE PROJECT 11
REFERENCES 11
POSTER 11
PART ONE: COMMUNITY PROJECT- GROUP
1. BRAINSTORM
Help and be of service to the community (Kassmena, 2010). SMART goals must be specific and measureable so ideas must be such that they can be measured like donation of money. Must be completed within the time limit. Must be approved by the community and parents and easily achievable, so must not involve much expenditure. Selection of an organization, which can be helped and resources to accomplish the goals.
2. MINUTES OF THE MEETING
Date of the meeting:
Good and achievable ideas:
a) Selling items and donation of the profit earned- It involves buying items with money in hand, publicizing the products and motive for their sales and donate the profit earned to Friends of Cancer patients organization, which is measurable, realistic and can be achieved within the time frame.
b) Collecting old books, toys, etc, organize a garage sale and donate the money- It has the qualities of a SMART goal and can be organized by anyone and does not involve any expenditure from the pocket.
c) Collecting donation from people and donate it to an organization- It has the qualities of a SMART goal and is very simple to perform.
Negative ideas:
a) Helping in controlling the traffic by acting as volunteers- It is not a SMART goal as it cannot be measured and is not completely realistic unless done over a period of time.
b) Acting as library helper- It is not measurable and timely as constantly books must be arranged and hence there is no question of deadline.
c) Teaching poor kids- It is a noble job, however, it does not have any qualities of a SMART goal as it is neither specific, measurable, realistic nor timely.
Finalised projects:
The first project finalised is: buying items with money in hand, selling them and donating the profit earned to an organization called Friends of Cancer Patients that is charitable and volunteer-based and helps to give emotional and financial support to cancer patients and children. This project is very specific having all the qualities of a SMART goal. It can be started without any complications and can be easily achieved within the timeframe with the cooperation of the members. Only the selection of the item to be bought and sold has to be analysed and if proper publicity is done by communicating and involving other family members or friends, the goal can be easily achieved and can be a great service to the community.
The other project is: collecting old books, toys, etc and organizing a garage sale of the items and donating the money collected. This project also has all the qualities of a SMART goal. However, it is kept as an alternative as compared to the first project, this one involves labour of going door-to-door for the collection of items and the sale of the items may or may not reap benefits as planned as creating interest among people to buy old items is difficult. Although, it is measurable, there is doubt of achievement of the target.
3. PROJECT PLAN
a) The SMART goal for the first project is to provide financial support to the cancer patients and children in the Friends of Cancer patients organization by the amount collected. The SMART goal for the secondary project is to provide education for a primary student in an orphanage for at least 1 year.
b) The organization Friends of Cancer patients (focp) helped the patients both adults and children financially and helped in the treatment of the patients to a great extent. It also helps in creating awareness about the different lifestyles to be adopted by the patients for survival. We surveyed about 50 people regarding the different community projects and found that almost 75% of them agreed with the project concerning focp. Hence, we proceeded with this project.
c) The list of jobs for the project are:
i) Getting approval of college Principal, teachers and the foundation
ii) Collecting funds from friends and relatives
iii) Choice of the bakery having easy transportation, good quality cakes and within budget and paying token advance.
iv) Making posters and handouts for publicising the product for sales
v) Sending emails and sms to friends and relatives for publicising
vi) Preparing stalls for selling cakes
vii) Arranging for delivery of cakes on time
viii) Dismantling stalls after the completion of the project
ix) Proper maintenance of accounts and donating the funds to the organization
d) The list of resources for the project are:
The resources for the funds are family, relatives and friends and the budget for the project is 2500AED.
e) The schedule for the actual community event: the donation of the profit earned, to the organization is the community event is planned at the start of the 6th week after the completion of sales of cakes and preparing the accounts.
f) Problems that could arise:
i) Deficiency in funds collected can pose a problem, which can be solved by persuading people and approaching neighbours and known people for collection of funds.
ii) The selection of bakery may pose a problem as the availability of quality products within budget in a shop having easy transportation facilities may be an issue. It can be solved by searching different internet sites as well as from people in close circle for suggestions.
iii) Delay in delivery may pose a problem, which can be solved by arranging for alternate transport facilities or collecting the delivery personally well before time.
iv) Inadequate sales of cakes may be another issue faced that can be solved by implementing different persuading techniques as well as marketing skills.
PART TWO: REVIEW LOG AND REPORT-INDIVIDUAL
1. WEEKLY DIARY:
A] WEEK1:
a) Activities this week: approval from parents, college teachers and principal, arranging funds, searching of bakery
b) Job list for the next 7 days: approaching college principal and teachers for project approval and making stalls, arranging funds from relatives and friends, searching of proper bakery by searching sites and neighbourhood.
c) Completed/ Outstanding requirements: 30% of estimated budget remained to be collected
d) Positive statement: Co-operation from teachers and principal along with support from family
e) Negative statement: Refused by some relatives and friends for funds
f) Improvement statement: Approaching neighbours and other known people for funds
B] WEEK2:
a) Activities this week: Collection of remaining funds, Making posters/handouts for publicising the cakes, Collection of materials for preparing stall
b) Job list for the next 7 days: Approaching neighbours and known persons for collecting remaining fund, making innovative posters/hand-outs for publicising and sending mails/sms to friends and relatives, look for reliable source for preparing stall
c) Completed/ Outstanding requirements: Stall preparation was half way done due to non-availability of materials
d) Positive statement: Collection of remaining funds was done
e) Negative statement: Due to shortage of materials, stall preparation was not done completely
f) Improvement statement: Approaching for alternative resources for preparing stall
C] WEEK3:
a) Activities this week: Preparation of stall, taking delivery, Sale of cakes
b) Job list for the next 7 days: Preparing stalls, selling cakes after college hours, Completed/ Outstanding requirements: 70% of the total estimated sales for the project is remaining
c) Positive statement: Sales of cakes picked up very well in a short span of time
d) Negative statement: Delivery of cakes was not on time.
e) Improvement statement: Arrangement of alternative delivery options or collecting personally
D] WEEK4:
g) Activities this week: Sale of cakes
h) Job list for the next 7 days: Sale of remaining cakes
i) Completed/ Outstanding requirements: 30% of the total estimated sales for the project is remaining
j) Positive statement: Sale of cakes picked up more due to the motive behind it
k) Negative statement: Not sold out completely as planned
l) Improvement statement: Need to work more time to sell out the cakes completely
E] WEEK5:
a) Activities this week: Sale of Cakes, dismantling of stall, finalization of accounts
b) Job list for the next 7 days: Sell the balance cakes, dismantle the stall by taking the help of class mates, make the final payment to the bakery and preparing the account sheet.
c) Completed/ Outstanding requirements: task completed
d) Positive statement: task well completed within the time frame
e) Negative statement: -
f) Improvement statement: -
F] WEEK6:
a) Activities this week: make the donation to the organization
b) Job list for the next 7 days: meeting the foundation authorities and making the donation as well as acknowledging the co-operation of the college mates and teachers and principal
c) Completed/ Outstanding requirements: Task completed
d) Positive statement: Could serve the community in a way learning many lessons in the process
e) Negative statement: -
f) Improvement statement: -
2. POSITIVE EXPERIENCES:
a) Touching the humanitarian side of others: The exposure and involvement in the project helped us in bringing out the humanitarian side of not only our self but also of others. It taught us that there was good side in every human, which we were unaware of and also that every human feels intensely for the suffering of others and tries his best to help others given an opportunity. E.g. The watchman of our college bought almost a dozen cakes for the sole reason that he wanted to contribute for the cancer patients.
b) Bringing out the artistic side in us: The project helped to bring out the artist in us, which helped us in creating posters and presentations for the project. E.g., we never knew that in creating impressive posters, so many innovations and artistic forms could be included.
c) Team coordination: the project taught us to value the team effort and work as a team, involving all the members to put in their input and making good plans. E.g., we both put in our efforts and in tight situations could come up with solutions taking quick decisions.
3. NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES:
a) Unforeseen problems: some of the problems not foreseen by us created some issues and put us in tight situations. However, they got solved eventually and we got through. E.g., the delay in the delivery of cake order resulted in a pause in our sales, which was solved by the timely intervention of the owner of the bakery shop. It taught us to be prepared for everything in life and handle situations with patience and maturity.
b) Lack of sales: In spite of promoting and publicising the items, we faced with lack of expected sales in the beginning of the project, which disheartened us. E.g., we had expected that the first day of sales would be met with high sales due to our confidence on the publicity techniques. This taught us to take initial failures in our stride by not losing focus and work with renewed vigour and enthusiasm.
c) Incomplete cooperation from friends and relatives during collection of funds for the project: the demand for funds from the relatives and friends for the project was met with sarcasm to some extent, which saddened and demotivated us. E.g., some relatives and friends made fun of our project with sarcastic remarks of playing the role of a salesgirl selling cakes. This helped to increase our mental strength and made us stronger to face the world and its reality.
4. OUTCOME OF THE PROJECT:
The budget of the project was 2500AED. The cost of the cakes was 1AED/piece and the cost of the stall materials and posters including, the total cost came to around 300AED. Hence, 2200 cakes could be bought. The cakes were sold for 2AED/piece. Hence, the total amount received was 4400AED. Thus, the profit earned was 4400-2500= 1900 AED. Hence, the outcome of the project was 1900AED, which was donated to the organization.
REFERENCES
Kassmena (2010), WRITING YOUR PLAN (GOALS, OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES), livelonger.health.gov.au
PLANNING YOUR COMMUNITY SERVICE PROJECT, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION
POSTER
Keywords: collecting funds for cancer patient, for community service, selling cakes to collect funds, profit earned to make the donation
