Today I got back to working on the facilities master plan. The project is coming along nicely and I have been adding the suggestions made by the coaches to the project. The information the coaches are providing us with are excellent. They have a better understanding of what they need in order to improve the facilities that they play and practice on every day. Many of the suggestions that we thought of while touring the facilities matched with what the coaches suggested. Many of the coaches also had more suggestions that we would never have thought of because they had to do with drainage issues. When we toured the facilities it was usually on a nice day which did not give us an opportunity to observe the field during poor weather. We have been adding in the recommendations given to us by the coaches and the document is starting to grow. I am hoping to have this done at the beginning of next week so we can put the final touches on the document before our presentation on April 13th.
Today my main focus was getting in contact with businesses that would be willing to sponsor the golf outing. After several failures, I was able to get another sponsor for the event. I have been reaching out to almost every business in the town of Oberlin for sponsorships and have been largely unsuccessful in acquiring sponsors. I am going to start looking outside the city for other options and possible sponsors. This project has turned out to be much more difficult than I anticipated in the beginning. Hopefully my luck will turn in the next week or two because I am running out of time to secure sponsorships.
Today I started adding pictures to the facilities master plan to improve the aesthetics of the project. I felt that just having the descriptions of what needed to be improved would not have been as effective as accompanying the words with pictures. I have finished about half of the project and I will continue working on this in the next week and a half to have my final project ready to present.
During the day I sat in on a meeting that discussed some issues with the companies involved in several different construction projects on campus. There were issues with the warranty and who would be in charge of fixing any problems that would occur with the construction. There was an issue of whether the university would be responsible for anything that is broken or the construction company would have to come and fix any problems. Today I sat in on several different meetings. The first meeting was another budget meeting for the construction of a new workout facility and a pool. This meeting also included some of the blue prints for the new building that will be constructed. There were some disagreements about some of the costs, changes, and timeline for the project. I'm sure there will be a few more meetings before the construction begins.
The rest of the day I continued to work on the projects that I have been working on through out my mentorship. I am still working on getting more sponsors for the golf outing, which is becoming pretty difficult for me because I can't seem to get people to agree to pay the money to sponsor the event. Hopefully I can catch some breaks here in the next couple weeks and reach my goal for sponsorships. Today I received good news about a donation for the silent auction for the golf outing. At the beginning of my mentorship I applied for donations from almost every professional sports team in Ohio. After many rejections, I received an email that the Cleveland Browns accepted my donation request and I will be receiving the donation in the next week. There are still several places where I applied for donations that I have not received word from yet, but hopefully I will be hearing from them soon.
For the rest of the day, I continued working on the facilities master plan as well as some other small tasks that I needed to complete. Today I received my first sponsorship pledge. The business I contacted agreed to sponsor a hole and is also considering providing a silent auction item for the event. I also had meetings with two other businesses that seemed interested in sponsoring a hole for the event. My goal is to get at least 18 sponsors, but I am hoping I can surpass that goal.
The rest of my day was filled with working on the facilities master plan. I have started to add the pictures to the pages to enhance the document. I am looking forward to my meetings with the coaches that will help me improve the authenticity of the master plan. Today I got back to work on contacting local businesses for sponsorships for the golf outing. While I am having trouble getting pledges, I have a few good leads on businesses that are willing to sponsor. Hopefully I will begin to see some sponsorships roll in in the next few days.
I also continued working on the athletic facility master plan. I have the overviews of the facilities mostly completed and now I am starting to schedule meetings with the coaches to find out what they want for their specific facility. The project is coming together nicely and I am hoping to have it completely finished in the first week of April. Today I sat in on a budget meeting regarding the construction of a new work out facility and pool. There had been some set backs in the plans in recent meetings, so there were discussions of what was going to be kept in the plans and what was going to be eliminated to save money. The swimming and diving coach was present in the meeting to put in his opinions on what needed to be included in the pool area in order for them to be able to host swimming and diving events. The meeting also included blue prints and line item pricing for each item that was going to be included in the renovations. The meeting was somewhat of a disappointment for the athletic department because of the cuts that had to be made for the original plans, there was still progress made to complete the project.
Today I continued to work on the athletic facilities master plan with my partner on the project. We went through each facility again and started taking pictures of the areas that we felt needed the most improvement and attention. The pictures that we took will be included in our final project and presented to the Athletic Director and Associate Athletic Director. My next task on this project is scheduling meetings with every coach to find out what they think needs to be addressed with the facilities. I am looking forward to these meetings because the coaches will have greater insight into what needs to be improved because they practice and play in the facility every day.
Today I got back to work on some of my other projects. I was busy making phone calls to local businesses and visiting other local businesses to find out if they had any interest in sponsoring the golf outing. I dropped off some information to these businesses with all the information that is needed to become a sponsor. I still have a long list of businesses that I need to contact and visit. I am hoping that I will start to receive some approved sponsorships for the outing. As I am learning, fundraising is not the easiest thing to do in the world, but it is extremely important for athletic departments. There is not a lot of money allocated by the school for athletics and they rely heavily on donations to support their teams.
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Daily LogOverview of the daily activities throughout my mentorship. Archives
April 2016
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