Chapter 6 from Service Learning

This chapter seemed to be aimed specifically at me, obviously I am the group manager. While that does not necessarily alleviate all responsibility from the other team members, what it does entail is that I am supposed to be on top of things. Certainly this is something that can be difficult to accomplish while going to class full time and working, especially considering the amount of homework and other activities involved. None the less I am upping my abilities as much as possible without burning out. As stated in the last blog we have assigned positions in order to make the process that much smoother and communicate readily, had it not been for bad luck and busy schedules our foothold would have been much better. Taking cues from the chapter we like to treat everyone in our group as equal, project manager, comm. manager, design manager, none of it means you are above the person beside you and this allows us to have a clear/ creative outlook on our project.

Chapter 5 from Service Learning

Chapter 5 provides great coverage when it comes to refining projects, both general and specific. I think the best parts of the chapter were getting at organization and communication as a whole and how important that is as a key to success, both in these projects and obviously in life. My group readily applies these previously mentioned principles the best we can so that even in somewhat frustrating situations there is something or a form to circle back to for guidance. So far it has helped immensely even though we have encountered a few difficulties in our current endeavor. Planning, time lines and proposals are essential (though we are struggling a little in this area). We have assigned Maurice as our comm. manager, Brody as chief designer and myself as project manager, as such hopefully things will continue to move along to accomplish something great.

Trip to Mount Zion

Well, after listening to the director of the program I honestly did not know exactly what to expect once we arrived at the location of the building. After exiting the bus it became clear that communication was not in great effect or so it seemed because apparently they did not know we were even going to touring the facilities. That said, they are talking with us on handbooks, brochures and other things when perhaps there are many other things to be improved on. It more or less seems like a race for funding and a center that is not organized very well, thats how it appeared to me at least.

As far as this effecting my course project; we just need to get something together that looks attractive to companies that provide grants and the like.

Training

Overall, this had to be one of the more enlightening speaker presentations I have listened to. Most of this due in part to the fact that in the past one of the speakers had indeed been homeless himself, thus adding a deeper level of personal interaction. Not to say without him the project would not be as effective, rather just interesting and more oriented to the "pathos" or emotional side of things.

The presentation left an emotional influence and therefore was good. However on the logical side, there were things left to be desired. Understanding why surveys are taken is easy accepted, though the solution to the problem needs to be addressed in a better or more effective manner it seems.

All things considered, the different segments of the presentation when added are technical communication by definition. We have classic rhetoric involved here..