old town commercial association intern handbook

Transcription

1 old town commercial association intern handbook introduction On behalf of the Old Town Commercial Association (OTCA), we are thrilled and honored to have you with us. As an intern at OTCA, you will be taking on a variety of responsibilities. This guide is meant to help you learn about your role as a communications or design intern, as well as the resources available to help you complete the many tasks that come your way. Independence, resourcefulness, and professionalism are three characteristics that should help you better undertand the character of your position as an OTCA intern. independence Work at Old Town can be rewarding, but also a challenge. Because the Executive Director works alongside the interns as the only full time employee, interns are expected to be able to manage their workload and tasks on their own once they learn the ropes. While self-reliance is expected, interns should also know the right resources and channels to get help when it is needed.

2 resourcefulness Because both design and communications interns are required to complete many different tasks, they will need to use many different resources around the office and around Old Town. This means interns should have a thorough understanding of the Old Town area and the OTCA; they need to know how to locate the materials, information, and people necessary to complete their tasks. professionalism At times, interns will manage the office on their own while other members are off-site. They need to be accountable and ready to help visitors with exceptional customer service and character. Remember you are networking between businesses around Old Town and the greater Lansing area. Impressive work and a great attitude can lead to open doors and new opportunities. communications interns OTCA s communications interns are primarily responsible for planning and organizing the many events held in Old Town throughout the year. At the beginning of your internship, you will be given a number of events to coordinate. As event coordinators, interns will have the following responsibilities: meeting with committees Often your projects will require you to attend the meetings of some of OTCA s four committees. These meetings are usually held monthly recruiting volunteers OTCA relies on volunteers to help with its events, its historic preservation, and keeping the neighborhood clean and beautiful. drafting press releases Communications interns are responsible for writing the content of OTCA s many press releases. Press releases must comply with the OTCA Style guide. Once written, they should be sent to the Executive Director who will do final proofreading and distribute them to the media.

3 finding and contacting sponsors Many of the OTCA s event sponsors are consistent from year to year, but they still need to be contacted regularly. Interns should keep a rapport with past sponsors and look for new sponsors within the community. writing newsletters The OTCA releases a monthly newsletter to members of the Old Town community. Communications interns need to write articles about Old Town, community developments, and upcoming and past events. To get a sense of what s expected, interns should review older copies of the newsletter. binders To help communications interns coordinate the tasks necessary to organize their events, all material from the previous year is saved and organized in binders for each event. Interns will reference these binders to accomplish the tasks related to their event. Most binders include, but are not limited to, the following sections: agenda The agenda section in the beginning of each binder includes a table of tasks in the order they should be completed by. The Executive Director will refer back to the agenda s timeline to ensure that tasks are being accomplished in a timely manner. budget A binder s budget section includes a spreadsheet of the costs of each resource from the previous year. The budgets of yearly events will remain fairly consistent; Interns should use the budget section as a guide for which resources need be acquired and how much each will likely cost. sponsors Most Old Town events rely on sponsors for funding. The sponsors section should include all communications with secured and potential sponsors. Interns should look through last year s sponsors for each event and contact them. promotion All promotional materials from previous years are included in this section. Many materials can be re-used from year to year, but some will need to be rewritten by the communications intern or redesigned by the design intern.

4 permits and insurance forms These sections include the required legal documents to hold each Old Town event. Interns should refer back to these documents to ensure that they properly fill out new forms. Communications interns are expected to maintain a certain level of independence in their work; they should feel able to accomplish tasks for their events without being reminded by the Executive Director. However, if at any time an intern is unsure about a task or responsibility, he or she should feel free to consult other resources (see resources section) or, if need be, contact the Executive Director. design interns Design interns and communication interns differ completely in overall job description; however, these two positions work together to bring the OTCA s festivals to life. While communication interns organize the events, the design interns create the means of promotion. Design interns are responsible for creating any of the following materials: shirt designs, postcards, print advertisements, logos, ticket designs, event materials Keep in mind, the OTCA also serves the needs of local business that belong to the association. Other businesses of the Old Town area rely on the OTCA s design interns for a variety of different advertisements, including: brochures, posters, business logos, press releases, other requested materials Like the communication interns, the tasks of the design intern are largely completed independently. Design interns are expected to be organized and meet the deadlines set by those who need their materials.

5 collaborative responsibilities In addition to your main project or festival you are assigned to, interns are responsible for completing other tasks on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. These tasks need to be completed by both design and communications interns in addition to their above responsibilities. Many of the tasks can be completed in interns spare time around the OTCA office. daily google alerts It is highly recommended that interns utilize Google alerts to stay informed and on top of their schedule for the OTCA. Because much of the work at the OTCA is time-sensitive, this can be a great way to help you stay on top of your responsibilities and avoid falling behind or forgetting about a task. press clips If you come across Old Town in the media, print the story and put it in the Old Town Media binder of the relevant year. The State of Michigan uses this to track how we are doing by what people are saying about us. updating social media (facebook & twitter) In addition to Facebook & Twitter, it is important to keep the newspapers updated on the events of the OTCA, in order to be included in their event calenders. weekly press releases Press releases are generated to inform the public of upcoming festivals, as well as new businesses that join the OTCA. It is important to consult that style guide (found in the resource section) when creating a press release. All press releases must approved by the Executive Director or other approving supervisor.

6 updating the website The iloveoldtown.org calendar needs to be up to date and accurate for all OTCA events and all member business events. New businesses need to go in the business section, new available properties on the real estate section. The featured articles section must be updated daily to showcase new articles. monthly newsletters The OTCA staff generates a news letter every month as another form of promotional outreach. The staff meets every month to divide up the articles each staff member will write, and a couple weeks later, the finished products are due. Approval is necessary from the Executive Director or other approving supervisor before publication. resources Interns will often have questions that they cannot answer on their own. In such cases, answers can usually be found in one of the many resources around the OTCA office. Because your responsibilities are so varied, we know that there will be times when you don t have all the answers. The best way to deal with these situations is to learn about the resources available to help you find answers. OTCA style guide The Style Guide should be referenced when creating any document or message that uses the Old Town Commercial Association brand. It contains information on proper use of logos, fonts, colors, and design elements. It also explains how to properly format press releases, web content, and s. OTCA web manual The web manual contains information on how to navigate and maintain It includes usernames and passwords to use when logging in, and guidelines on how to edit and add content, including changing calendars, posting news items, and changing event descriptions OTCA website Our website, iloveoldtown.org, contains many helpful resources with information on the history of Old Town, current and past events, and news

7 items. Familiarizing yourself with the website, including the back-end, can help you learn more about how to access information as well as how to add new information when necessary. other websites Most organizations located in Old Town have their own websites. Visiting these sites can help give you a better understanding of the issues our community members are invested in, and how to best approach them when they do come in with questions. network files There are many files you will need to access while working for the OTCA, and it can get messy. Interns should get to know where the files they need can be found so they can access them quickly when they are needed. shared documents on Shannon: files for Community Garden, Compassionate Feast newsletter and Membership files annual meeting notes Crganizational Committee projects shared documents on OTCAFestival: promotional Committee project files event files for Festival of the Sun and Moon, Oktoberfest, Taste & Tour, Old Town Dicken's Village, Old Town Scrapfest, Chalk of the Town shared documents on OTCADesign: Design Committee projects branding materials & graphic design work style guide photos public files on the PC: Economic Development projects Ribbon Cutting files Business Assistance Team materials media alerts financial statements board documents