Importanceof Knowledge Based Reporting

In order for journalist to effectively integrate the aforementioned procedures and come up with substantive articles while covering a news story, they have to be well informed and knowledgeable. In writing news articles that concern various aspects of the economy or the business sector, journalist should at least have some background information on how the economy works. This will enable the journalist to come up with accurate and informed explanations and analysis of the subject being covered.In addition, being knowledgeable will enable the journalist draw a connection on the economy and how it affects or relates to the audience. Another example where journalist are required to be knowledgeable is in writing business related articles. In this case, journalist may be required to interview a professional in the field of business. The journalist needs to have some knowledge in this filed in order to know the questions to ask (Sack, 2012). In writing features, journalist who are not kno wledgeable and well versed with the subject they re addressing are vulnerable to manipulation by the sources they use.For instance, experts and professionals that journalist interview may not be passionate about the pursuit of knowledge or they may have their own agenda they are trying to advance. Having some knowledge in the basic concepts pertaining the issue being addressed could be helpful in questioning and raising skepticism on the answers provided by the respondent (Sack, 2012). Works Cited Sack, J. (2012). Journalism. New York: Metropolitan Books / Henry Holt and co.

Accounting in news

The article shall discuss about two news articles which has accounting effect in Australia and internationally. Both articles address the same issue of economic meltdown effect to accounting staff and how it shall affect the accounting duties across Australia and abroad.One of it highlights on how staffs have lost faith with their employers due to economic hardship which the companies are going through while the other address the employment treads of accountant in Australia.The articles address a number of accounting issues. They disclose accounting issues and company behavior (Lyons 2009). Due to the economic hardships which most of the companies have been going through has affected their books of account which in turn has affected their investment, and spending.Aequalis consulting which is an accounting and recruitment firm in Sydney said that most of the employees are disillusioned by the way companies are cutting down on cost by reducing their payment or sacking (Fisher 2009).Thi s is a contrast according to Lyons article, because most companies are fighting to improve on quality of their staffs by replacing them with highly qualified staff but this is made impossible due to their financial status.The articles relate to the course materials in supporting that appropriate number of staff with appropriate qualifications to do different accounting duties/roles.It’s very important to have accounting roles well defined such as stock taking, suppliers and deliveries, budgeting and auditing if there is few staff roles which are conflicting would be assigned to the same person which would promote fraud.The accountants will need to keep on updating the payroll and budgetary allocation to different vote heads of the companies to accommodate high turnover of staff and their payments and other company expenditures affected.I have learnt form the articles that it’s very important to improve on accounting staffs quality. Hiring people with right qualificatio ns improves on the company financial planning, appropriate book keeping and preparation of up to standard accounting reports.ReferencesLyons, P, 2009, The action in Aussie accounting, Available at http://news.efinancialcareers.com.au/Guest_ITEM/newsItemId-17094Fisher, D, 2009, A loss of faith, http://www.brw.com.au/viewer.aspx?EDP://20090402000030994502&fid=71&s=0&t=1&title=A+loss+of+faith

Organisational Development Strategy

Introduction Change is a constant thing and this transpires within world in many ways. As the world becomes more complicated and increasingly intertwined, changes ostensibly far away affect us. Thus, change may sometimes appear to occur frequently and arbitrarily. We are gradually becoming cognizant of how connected we are to one another and to our world. Organizations must withal be cognizant of their holistic nature and of the ways their members affect one another.The incredible amount of change has coerced individuals and organizations to visually perceive â€Å"the immensely colossal picture† and to be cognizant of how events affect them and vice versa. Organization development is a new term which means a conceptual, organization-wide effort to increment an organization's efficacy and viability. Warren Bennis has referred to OD as a replication to transmute, an intricate educational strategy intended to transmute the notions, attitudes, values, and structure of an organiza tion so that it can better habituate to new technologies, markets, challenges, and the dizzying rate of change itself.OD is neither â€Å"anything done to better an organization† nor is it â€Å"the training function of the organization†; it is a particular kind of change process designed to establish a particular kind of end result. OD can involve interventions in the organization's â€Å"processes,† utilizing behavioural science knowledge organizational reflection, system amelioration, orchestrating and self-analysis. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), incorporated on June 16, 1911, is an information technology (IT) company.IBM operates in five segments: Global Technology Services (GTS), Global Business Services (GBS), Software, Systems and Technology and Global Financing. GTS primarily provides IT infrastructure services and business process services. GBS provides professional services and application management services. Software consists pri marily of middleware and operating systems software. Systems and Technology provides clients with business solutions requiring advanced computing power and storage capabilities. Global Financing invests in financing assets, leverages with debt and manages the associated risks.In May 2012, the Company acquired Varicent Software Incorporated. In May 2012, the Company acquired Vivisimo. In June 2012, the Company acquired Tealeaf Technology, Inc. On August 1, 2012, Toshiba Tec Corporation acquired the retail store solution business from IBM. In September 2012, it acquired Butterfly Software Ltd. In October 2012, it acquired Texas Memory Systems. In October 2012, the Company announced the opening of three new branch offices in ASEAN, which are located in the cities of Ipoh and Malacca in Malaysia and Bandung in Indonesia, and announced the opening of three new branches across Brazil.In December 2012, the Company acquired Kenexa. In February 2013, it completed the acquisition of StoredIQ. In April 2011, the Company acquired TRIRIGA, Inc. In October 2011, the Company acquired i2. In October 2011, the Company acquired Algorithmics. In October 2011, it acquired Q1 Labs Inc. In November 2011, the Company opened in Romania its European site for developing and testing IBM switch and networking hardware and software. In December 2011, the Company completed the acquisition of Curam Software Ltd. In January 9, 2012, the Company acquired Platform Computing. In January 11, 2012, the Company acquired Green Hat.In February 1, 2012, the Company acquired Emptoris Inc. In February 15, 2012, the Company acquired DemandTec Inc. In February 10, 2012, the Company completed the acquisition of Worklight. In March 2012, the Company opened a new branch office in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. (http://www. reuters. com/finance/stocks/companyProfile? symbol=IBM) In 1992-1993, IBM began to lose money and struggled to meet payroll for the over 300,000 employees because of the changing market landsca pe. Louis Gerstner, the recently appointed CEO, saved the company by changing IBM’s culture and business model.As we know now one of IBM’s core businesses is consulting, which had not been a key component of the legacy model. It seemed like IBM was facing a similar, if perhaps more dire, situation to Merrill Lynch in the mid 2000’s. (http://professorjickblog. com/post/4194417315/organizational-change-at-ibm) IBM helped pioneer information technology over the years and it stands today at the forefront of a worldwide industry that is revolutionizing the way in which enterprises, organizations and people operate and thrive. The pace of change in that industry, of course, is accelerating, and its scope and impact are widening.In these pages, you can trace that change from the earliest antecedents of IBM, to the most recent developments. You can scan the entire IBM continuum from the 19th century to the 21st or pinpoint — year-by year or decade-by-decade †” the key events that have led to the IBM of today. (http://www-03. ibm. com/ibm/history/history/history_intro. html) IBM has been in the industry for a hundred years already but this paper will focus on the organizational changes and developments with the company for the past 20 years. Brief HistoryIn 1911 IBM was first incorporated in New York as the Computing-Tabulating-Recoding Company. The company’s history, however, can be traced back to 1890, when the United States was receiving waves of immigrants. To meet the needs of measuring population the US Census Bureau sponsored a contest to find the most efficient means of tabulating census data. The contest was won by German immigrant and Census Bureau statistician, Herman Hollerith. Hollerith formed the Punch Card Tabulating Machine Co. in 1896. In 1911 Hollerith’s company merged with Computing Scale Co. f America and International Time Recording Co. to form Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co. The company manufactur ed and sold products ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorder to meat and cheese slicers, tabulators and punch cards. In the beginning the company operated in New York City only. Within a short period of time, however, it quickly expanded its office and plants to other parts of New York State, Washington, DC, Ohio, Michigan and Toronto, Canada. In 1914 Thomas J. Watson joined the company and became the president of the company within eleven months.Under his leadership the company continued to expand its products and services. At that time the company focused on producing large scales custom built tabulating solutions for businesses. Within ten years Watson had expanded the company’s business operations to Europe, South America, Asia and Australia and in 1924 the company was renamed International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) to reflect the firm’s worldwide expansion IBM refers to the decades between 1939 and 1963 as the ‘Era of Innovation ’. During this period the company’s product line expanded ignificantly. In 1891 IBM introduced personal computers (PCs) for small businesses, schools and homes. For first time, IBM collaborated with Intel and Microsoft to produce personal computers. In 1985 IBM introduced local area networks (LAN), which permitted PC users to exchange information and share printers and files within a building or complex. IBM established a foundation for network computing and numerous applications of PCs. In 1993 Louis V. Gerstner, Jr, a former executive at American Express, Nabisco and McKinsey & Co. joined IBM as CEO. Gerstner emphasized the need to provide integrated solutions for the company’s customers. He also decided to keep company, together instead of splitting it into separate independent companies. Today IBM’s strength lies in its combined expertise in solutions, services, products and technologies. http://historyofbusiness. blogspot. com/2009/04/brief-history-o f-ibm. html How IBM does their Organizational Development IBM has launched one of its companies fixating on business strategies and development.So therefore, they will be one of the good companies that we can optically canvass and study how they remain successful over the years. IBM Global Business Services offers one of the largest strategy & transmute practices in the world, their strategy & transmute practice amalgamates business strategy with technology insight to help organizations develop, align and implement their business vision across four strategic dimensions – business strategy, operating strategy, organization change strategy and technology strategy – to drive innovation and magnification.This is withal one of the reasons why IBM is capable of transmuting quickly and successfully. Instead of going with the latest trends, they mold, develop and lead them. By combining the proven talent with the deep research, scale and scope of IBM, they have built a unique approach to industry solution development. This approach allows them to address the opportunities that matter most and deliver business outcomes with faster time-to-value.The IBM strategy and transformation practice helps expand the horizon possibilities while implementing with rigor. Its three areas of competence are aligned to drive opportunity and execute across the value chain. The insight provided by innovation and growth services allows setting an overall direction for the organization by developing sustainable business, customer and technology strategies. Their capabilities within the operations and finance area help optimize how the organization functions to drive higher performance.And finally, with organization and people expertise, they can develop and lead the talented individuals who create value and competitive advantage. With over 100 years of business and technology experience, IBM has demonstrated its ability to drive performance through continuous transformation of their business model, operations, technology and workforce. Their strategy and transformation practice draws upon these experiences as well as extensive IBM assets and best practices.With consultants in over 170 countries and deep expertise in 17 industries, IBM has proven the effectiveness and value of its approach. IBM thought leadership and research – acknowledged by analysts as among the best in the industry – are based on market-driven intelligence, in-depth interviews, and our own transformation story. IBM has a long track record of success in helping companies chart a course for business transformation.This commences with strategic orchestrating that can envision a broad range of future scenarios. Their consultants fixate on results, through the development of business models and executable strategies that foster innovation, sustainable magnification and profitability. They help companies and organizations build on key strategic drivers such as new product and accommodation offerings, dynamic market opportunities, new channels and greater customer insight to create greater competitiveness.Our team of strategists provides a clear roadmap for differentiation predicated on business model innovation, implemented through efficient processes and operations. Definitely by doing this, they have also implemented these strategies within their organization and have proven to have good results. (ftp://public. dhe. ibm. com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbb03089usen/GBB03089USEN. PDF) The processes and strategies that they have developed and proved over the years are also the factors why their organization is very stable.According to their website, below are some of the services that they offer and most likely apply within their organization as well. IBM's Organization and Workforce Transformation offering assists clients with two transformational imperatives: firstly, it enables them to transform their workforce into the productive, innovative and high-performan ce force necessary to survive and thrive; secondly it manages the people elements in any transformation being undertaken (process optimization, business model transformation, etc. Our services include: * Learning transformation: Addresses the need to inspire and equip people in business to improve performance, skills and knowledge for the following results: aligning learning initiatives with organizational and business goals, developing learning strategies, and harnessing the power of technology to enhance learning and performance. Talent management: Design strategies and solutions to align talent management with business priorities, covering talent sourcing, performance, succession management and rewards and recognition. This solution includes process design, systems implementation, change management and talent analytics. * Social business: Drive innovation and growth by connecting people to people, people to data and information, and people to personal and institutional knowledge inside an organization and across the larger organizational ecosystem. Workforce analytics and optimization: This offering leverages analytics to design evidence-based strategies and practices for optimizing workforce performance and productivity to develop information strategies, and a workforce measurement framework, which can help identify key metrics and align with employee goals. Organization design: Organization design enables enterprises to align their organization with new or existing business models and strategies to maximize effectiveness by clarifying work responsibilities and redefining jobs and their relationships to one another (structure), governance mechanisms, and other organizational elements to drive new behavior supporting strategic change and business results. * Change management: Change management is a roactive and systematic approach to deal with change from the perspective of an organization, a group, or at the individual level. Change management helps ensure that people impacted by the changes (technology) understand, accept and commit to changes; thereby mitigating risks and achieving long term benefits faster. (http://www-935. ibm. com/services/us/gbs/strategy/talent-and-workforce-management. html) During the course of the changes that took place in their organization, there were challenges encountered.Based on the researches conducted, below are the most significant challenges that took place when implementing their change projects. 1. Changing mindsets and attitudes 2. Corporate culture 3. Complexity is underestimated 4. Shortage of resources 5. Lack of commitment of higher management 6. Lack of change know how 7. Lack of transparency because of missing or 8. wrong information 9. Lack of motivation of involved employees 10. Change of process 11. Change of IT systems 12. Technology barriersAnd based on the challenges mentioned above, they were able to come up with factors that contributed to the successful change. It is normal to ha ve resistance to different types of change especially having a big organization like IBM. Below are some factors that contributed to the effectiveness of the different changes in their organization: 1. Top management sponsorship 2. Employee involvement 3. Honest and timely communication 4. Corporate culture that motivates and promotes change 5. Change agents (pioneers of change) 6. Change supported by culture . Efficient training programs 8. Adjustment of performance measures 9. Efficient organization structure 10. Monetary and non-monetary incentives ftp://public. dhe. ibm. com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03100usen/GBE03100USEN. PDF The most fruitful success strategy is to begin with leadership tools, including a vision or story of the future, put the change in place with management tools, such as role definitions, measurement and control systems, and use the pure power tools of coercion and punishments as a last resort, when all else fails.The purpose of business strategy is to exploit t he capabilities of the company to gain and sustain competitive advantage in accommodating the desiderata of customers in a chosen rialto. An effective business strategy will provide good answers to questions on business scope, customers’ needs, how the enterprise will exploit its advantages, and on how competitive advantage will be achieved. It will withal describe the main actions compulsory to implement the strategy and the reasons why the vicissitudes are compulsory.Summary All in all the reason for IBM Global Business Services’ success is because they have methods and strategies that have been tried and tested over the years that they have been in this industry. Also one of the factors for success is having open minded members of the organization who are always open and welcome to change. Somehow, the company also has its own ways to make the employees and members of the organization understand and help them to adapt through the course of these changes.Resistance t o change is normal but with proper guidance and support from the whole management team, members of the organization will feel at ease and motivated, hence, will embrace the change. Today, businesses must bring more innovative products and accommodations to market, more quickly than ever before. IBM makes utilization of best practices to help companies become more rigorous in their approach to development and lifecycle issues – not only to ameliorate speed and cost, but withal to enable the perpetual amelioration of products

Womens in the west Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Womens in the west - Essay Example Women were not deprived of the chances to pursue their own innovations on tool making, food preservation, pottery, art and architecture. As the ancestral occupation was agriculture, major portion of their experiments was associated with the requirements of their daily life. For instance, as food preservation was their major concern, they initiated making earthen pots because they knew that earthen pots could withstand the higher temperatures needed to cook ground corn and beans. Moreover, women learned how to locate and mine the best types of clay for making pots, and they passed their knowledge on to their daughters too. They could develop the technique to temper clay by mixing the sand to broken pottery as it would prevent damage during firing. The result was highly fitting as they could produce beautiful pots that ensure storing and preserving seeds, cooking, and gathering water. Subsequently pottery emerged to be new occupation to certain segments of women and their families. Women’s achievements on pottery led them to rather broad architectural concerns like construction of shelters and walls using clay. The art was highly prevalent in the North American regions. The construction of walls revealed their awareness on the science because they used some specific techniques like applying clay, with each layer allowed to dry before the next coat was applied. By19th century ethnic groups like Hispanic, Indians, and Rio Grande had established their own accommodation. An array of factors including the Spanish language, Catholicism, technology and foods integrated them along with the women’s contributions to art and labor. For instance, the post World WarI decade brought hundreds of artists ,writer and visionaries, many from the East to Northern New MÃ ©xico to maintain a home; and the migration indeed was led by Anglo women who determined convention in mater of love, family, and occupation. Some of the

(HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT) EFFECTIVE TRAINING METHODS FOR LEADERSHIP Essay

(HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT) EFFECTIVE TRAINING METHODS FOR LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT - Essay Example In addition, the core emphasis on today’s work methodologies emphasizes team work and coordination given the highly complex nature of today’s tasks. Teams engage constructively to evolve a common strategy towards fulfilling organizational responsibilities. In an age when organizations look towards improving the team work amongst employees, the need to coordinate and lead such teams becomes an investible necessity. Moreover, organizations and business cultures are driven by change where there is a constant effort towards improvement and the thrust towards better techniques of management. The advent of globalization and the subsequent rise is competition for limited resources is further forcing individuals to develop skills to resolve conflicts and evolve skills that can resolve any discrepancies in a qualitative manner (Kenneth Clark, 1996). All these aspects are traits of successful leadership. There are several methods to foster and nurture leadership and managerial skills within a work culture. Some organizations look towards developing leadership as an inclusive and internal process. In fact, it is often believed that the key factor to win in a competitive market it to enable the creation of able leaders. Organizations that span across countries and cultures cannot thrive without developing leaders within their organization, which is achieved by providing the qualified ones with the right opportunities to develop such management skills that can take on added responsibility, make them feel pride in facing new challenges and providing them the requisite resources that can help them overcome all such challenges in a satisfactory manner (Martin Simons, 2003). However, in the midst of this struggle within organizations to find the best fit for developing their next generation of leaders, a number of questions need to be answered. Companies are interested in understanding the

Database Design Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Database Design Project - Essay Example This paper presents a detailed analysis of basic areas of the new technology. Data and information are the most valuable resources for any business or corporation. Therefore, the development and implementation of databases to store this valuable business for corporate working has turned out to be a major part of almost every corporation or business sector. In addition, this development and implementation of the databases has offered great advantages to the organizations for an effective management of their business activities. This paper throws light on the development and analysis of a database system for â€Å"Mayo Clinic Medical Center† that is health care business with a variety of off-site campuses interacting within its health system. This business is operating through different working and business problems. The main objective behind this research is to outline the problem areas and then suggesting most suitable solution for these problems. Mayo Clinic Medical Center is a health care business that is working through a chain of off-site campuses. The working of this business is traditional in nature and relying upon the manual ways of data and information handling. In this business, there is an utmost need of a constant link among the distant working teams and main campuses. To serve this purpose, they need well qualified staff and suitable office structure. Now the management of the Mayo Clinic Medical Center has decided to establish a new database technology framework for the corporate. The main intention of the Mayo Clinic Medical Center management is to potentially improve the overall corporate performance and working capabilities. As discussed above the business of Mayo Clinic Medical Center is currently running through manual ways. In such scenario, the overall workload and working style is more rigid. All these problems lead to less effective working performance. At present, the data

Public Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Public Relations - Essay Example Next, the media channels have to be meaningful. 3rd, the media channels have to be memorable. 4th, the media channels have to be understandable. 5th, the media channels have to be believable (164). The components of how audiences receive the messages and process them are very recognizable. First, the audiences receive the messages in various forms. Next, the basic data is transmitted to the audiences in its original state or form. 3rd, the message is often filtered by journalists, editors, bloggers, and other persons; the message remains intact when received by the intended person. 4th, the audience retains the incoming messages and validates them to be either valid. 5th, the audience believes, accepts, and implements the message received. 5th, majority of the audiences change their behavior in response to the incoming messages (165). Based on Figure 7.1 on page 166, there are five public relations perspective variables in Chapter 7 that refers to communication or transmittal of the plan in paragraph form; the same variables are essential to the professionals in communication. First, the communicator must focus on community relations. Next, the communicator should focus on media relationship. 3rd, the communicator should focus on consultant relations. 4th the communicator should focus on investor communications tor communication. Lastly, all persons must equally give enough time on employee and management communication. The topic is very important because complying with the tenets of the media story gatherers (166). Based on the above discussion, each person has his or her own interpretations when an incoming message is received. Media display can make or break a person. The components are necessary parts that will increase clarity of the media message. The characteristics are important in terms of ensuring the original message is received in its unadulterated period. The public relations perspective variables

Advanced Corporate Reporting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Advanced Corporate Reporting - Essay Example This is in particular for the companies that issue public bonds on a regulated European market. These accounting standards have shown a significant impact on the potential influence on the behaviour of economic agents. Accounting standards caused the financial institutions to behave in a certain way that enhances the financial stability in the long run.1.2 Arguments of European Commission/ Union on IFRS: It was opined by analysts that the core of the financial mismanagement lies within the commission and due to the fact that structure is opaque. The problems of financial mismanagement are the basic enforcements weaknesses. The court of auditors of European union admitted that the 80 percent of taxpayers money was never accounted properly. The responsibility for combating fraud has been considered by European commission. It was observed that the EU's financial regulation 2342/2002, article 87(4) claims that there I no need to attempt the recovery of any sum less than million euros and this has been ruthlessly exploited. By eliminating the loop hole, the European commission resulted in shared responsibility instead of separation of the responsibilities. As the improvement is not possible if each EU institution or department works with different standards and criteria, the common standards for the accounting were considered. Due to the erroneous accounting the debtors of European commission simply disappeared in 2002-03. ... Another problem with the old system is potential mismanagement of cash due to lack of principles in cash flow analysis. The maintenance of huge cash suggests the deliberate retention of member states and companies surpluses against EU rules, the establishment of own resources by the tax payers money. These huge funds are used to maximize the public funds. This should be avoided as the cash in hand by any company should be reported and the use of it can be restricted. To avoid these issues, the credit rating of the companies should be true and fair and must be based on accounting statements. This should be regulated by EU. The implementation of IFRS auditing on EU and the companies in the EU states resulted in overcoming the problems regarding the financial mismanagement and misuse of cash. The action on fundamentals and injection of commercial reality was made possible by the introduction of IFRS. The commercial organizations will ask themselves the questions regarding their performa nce and they should be reflected in the financial statements. The IFRS made it possible and the transparency has been resulted in the use of the money of the investors. This needs a creation of financial infrastructure and that was taken by the lesson from New Zealand that will audit fully singed annual accounts within three months. The auditors were made independent in assessing and auditing the company's financial statements and strict guidelines have been imposed according to IFRS. This made possible good financial management in the company's possible and gave the required security for investor's money in the company. This gave chance to investor to estimate the

Special Interests Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Special Interests - Essay Example On the other hand, they also take note of the legislative process and the bill making process. This enables them to influence the executive, legislature, and judiciary (Wilson, 2009). This has proved significant in the country. Some of the groups have limited following while others enjoys vast membership. This has been the case in United States. This paper seeks to focus on interest groups. An interest group consists of people sharing a goal mostly of influencing the government and lawmakers (American Government, n.d.). The purpose is to offer linkage either to the lawmakers or executive. Such groups further their policies in a different arena. Moreover, such group aims to manipulate public opinion, elections, and public policy (American Government, n.d.). Their focus is to influence the government through various ways. The main ways of influence are through lobbying, donation, financial pledge, and volunteering. These groups do not engage in profit making activities. Moreover, they represent a narrow focus on their intended purposes, and hence they do not represent the general population (Wilson, 2009). Interest groups are myriad in United States today. They also exist in different forms. Some have a vast membership while others only have limited membership. This sometimes depends on available resources. In America, several interest groups exist. Examples of such interest groups include the National Manufacturers Association, AFL-CIO, American Farm Bureau Federation, American Medical Association, American Bar Association, American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club, National Council of Churches, Common Cause, Public Citizen, National Governors Association, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons (American Government, n.d.). These groups represent the interest of profession, field, or a group of people. These interest groups have attracted serious debates in the United States for time. These debates r evolve the merits and demerits of such groups. There exist a strong relationship between interest groups and political parties. This is seen in various aspects, in the United States. The first most important link is the way in which interest group fund political parties during electioneering period. The contributions are made through the Political Action Committees (PACs). Most of the fund is provided to the congress. This is because most of these groups have interest as to which party has the majority of seats in congress. This helps these groups in ensuring that their policies focus is taken care of in the congress. However, such donations are meant to have a little impact on the political side (Brunell, 2005). This ensure this through provision of support to the incumbent as they require little amount of money to seek reelection. These groups show preference to the party according to their interest. For example, the labor groups prefer the democrats while the corporate side prefe rs the republicans (Hays, 2001). However, PACs provide money across the political divides. Nevertheless, the pattern of donations appears to be skewed towards one side. This happens to either the democrats or republicans. Throughout history, campaign in the United States appears to be a costly affair. This has made it possible for overreliance by the congress on funding from the interest groups. However, they also rely on individual contribution, but contribution from the

Knowledge vs. Experience Essay Example for Free

Knowledge vs. Experience Essay The famous Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti once said, â€Å"There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.† (whale.to/a/krishnamurti) Krishnamurti is addressing learning as a process in which an individual tries to gain certain knowledge for predestined purposes. He clearly believes that rote memorization is inferior to learning from experiences. Academic knowledge through textbooks can teach individuals theories about life. Life, however, deviates from theory frequently. The only way individuals are going to know about these deviations is when they experience the struggles and fruits of life on their own. [Similarly, in this compelling novel by Herman Hesse, Siddhartha learns that enlightenment cannot be reached through his 7 teachers because it cannot be instilled in an individual’s mind -enlightenment comes from the inner self and through the experiences in which one must obtain wisdom from.] he said it can be a little better In the opening of the novel, Siddhartha is influenced by outside teachings in his search for enlightment. His father and his associated community ideally want him to become a successful Brahmin, instead of joining the Samanas. Everyone else around him still has not reached enlightenment, and Siddhartha feels that residing with them will increase his curiosity regarding his presence in life.(Siddhartha to himself) [â€Å"He had begun to suspect that his worthy father and his other teachers, the wise Brahmins, had already passed on to him the bulk of their wisdom†¦ his soul was not at peace.† (3)] Siddhartha craves to better acknowledge the innermost essence of self and its connection to the world in a society. The knowledge passed on to him however does not explain this, which is why Siddhartha speculates the origins of the world and his place in it. When Siddhartha departs on his journey to achieve nirvana, he joins the Samanas and accustoms quickly to their lifestyle because of the endurance and discipline he learned in the Brahmin rituals. He learns how to free himself from the materialistic world he was living in, losing his desire for ownership and apparel. However Siddhartha is still unsatisfied. The path of self-denial does not provide an established solution for Siddhartha. He comes to the realization which is this: the Samanas have been just as unsuccessful as the previous guidance he has encountered. Siddhartha’s thirst for knowledge has only increased, as he tells his good friend, â€Å"I suffer thirst, Govinda, and on this long Samana path my thirst has not grown lessI have always thirsted for knowledge.† (15) Siddhartha is still curious, thus Govinda convinces him that they both should leave the Samanas and seek out the Buddha. During Siddhartha’s quest for enlightment, he and Govinda are looking for Gotama’s whereabouts. As they are taken in, Siddhartha is informed about a teaching called the Eightfold Path and the four main points in order to achieve the permanent solution of abstaining from the pleasures of the world. However, while Govinda is entirely influenced by these teachings, Siddhartha is still not satisfied. (Gotama to Siddhartha ) [â€Å"The teaching which you have heard†¦is not to explain the world to those who are thirsty for knowledge†¦its goal is salvation from the suffering.†(27)] Siddhartha is still unsatisfied, and desires to comprehend the meaning of life’s purpose in the world in an accomplished way. Like the Samanas, Buddha’s followers escape from reality without connecting to it. Most importantly, Siddhartha feels that he cannot achieve enlightment from an external source such as a teacher. He reasons that in order to reach enlightenment, one must learn only through experience and teachings by other mentors. Wisdom is gained through experience, while knowledge is taught. This is the reason he cannot accept Buddha’s teachings. At this point of the novel, Siddhartha knows he will have to depart his good friend behind to begin a search for the meaning of life which will be based on experience, rather than religious teachings. Siddhartha determines to set out on a life abstaining from meditation and to instead enter the material world to explore the physical pleasures of his body. In this new world of his, Siddhartha encounters a friendly ferryman, living his free life to its fullest. After crossing the ferryman’s river, he arrives to a city where a beautiful m istress named Kamala mesmerizes him. He believes she would be the most worthy one to teach him about the physical aspects of love, but Kamala will only instruct him until he proves he can fit into the materialistic world. With her guidance, Siddhartha takes up the path of the merchant and engages in business with a man named Kamaswami who taught him how to trade. While Siddhartha achieves the wisdom of the business world and experiences how to do business in the material world, Kamala becomes his lover and teaches him about every physical aspect of love. [â€Å"She taught him that lovers should not separate from each other after making love†¦so that no feeling of desolation arise nor the horrid feeling of misusing† (54)] Siddhartha renounces the spiritual path and exchanges the search for Atman to experience physical pleasures. However, Siddhartha and Kamala are both incapable to give and receive real love at this stage in the novel. Siddhartha has eliminated himself from the world completely and is not influenced by what the world has to offer him. Since both these external guides are unable to teach him wisdom, he knows he must now achieve wisdom on his own. This consciousness itself comes from his inner self. Siddhartha starts his path to seek enlightenment leaving the Brahmins, the Samanas, Gotama, and the material world becau se he feels unhappy with himself. As Siddhartha leaves the corrupted material world, he approaches a river and considers what direction his life has taken him. Ironically, the same ferryman whom he met years before introduces himself with the identity as Vasudeva. Siddhartha senses inner peace and wisdom within this man, and motivates him to obtain it as well. Eventually Siddhartha resides and works with Vasudeva until he comes to know his son was born. With his son, Siddhartha finally experiences love, but since love is a connection to the world, it threatens to distract Siddhartha from his search for enlightenment. It’s not until now when Siddhartha has gained wisdom on his own without any materialistic influences, therefore the love he expresses for his son becomes a test of this wisdom. (Siddhartha to himself) [â€Å"It is a good thing to experience everything oneself†¦as a child I learned that pleasures of the world and riches were not good†¦ but I have only just experienced it now† (80) ]Siddhartha implies that the Buddha’s teachings or any source of external guidance do not make one enlightened; they on ly transfer knowledge to the society around them. Siddhartha is aware enlightenment can only be reached if he will be able to accept love, and as difficult as it might be, to even achieve Nirvana. Successfully, Kamala and his son influenced him heavily and because of them, Siddhartha learned and experienced how to love the world and accept it as a whole. Siddhartha encounters many teachers of wisdom during his journey, but each fails to lead him to his goal: to seek enlightenment. The ferryman however, is successful and shows Siddhartha how to find enlightenment within him by blocking out all exterior guidance. [Vasudeva will not simply tell Siddhartha what he should know like the others, but a guide who will lead him where he wishes to go.] After leaving the material world, Siddhartha seeks for knowledge from the river he crossed and Vasudeva guides Siddhartha to listen to it for a better understanding of what the river communicates. Vasudeva does not tell Siddhartha what the river will say, but when Siddhartha discloses what the river has expressed to him, Vasudeva clearly admits that he too has received the same wisdom on his own. Now, Siddhartha realizes that he himself becomes the ferryman after reaching enlightenment. (Siddhartha speaking to himself) [ â€Å"The river is everywhere at the same time†¦ Siddhartha the boy, Siddhartha the mature man, and Siddhartha the old man [are] only separated by shadows, not through reality.† (87)] The river is compared to Siddhartha as it is considered continuous but yet always altering within, deeper below the body of water. Siddhartha now belongs to everything surrounding him instead of being classified to a particular group. At the end of the novel, Govinda returns to the river, still seeking enlightenment, and asks Siddhartha to teach him what he has learned. Siddhartha explains that neither he nor any other individual can teach the wisdom to Govinda, because spoken explanations are definite and can never communicate enlightenment as a whole. (Siddhartha to Govinda)[â€Å"When someone is seeking †¦he is unable to find anything†¦because he is obsessed with his goal.† (113) ] Govinda is confused just like he was when they met near the river after Siddhartha had considered suicide. This means he still does not understand the meaning of life because he hasn’t experienced the world, remaining a follower to Buddha. Therefore, Siddhartha’s ultimate attainment of Nirvana does not come from external guidance communicating the wisdom to him, but instead by experiencing an internal connection with the river, which encompasses the whole universe.

Varieties Of English Accents Tyneside English English Language Essay

Varieties Of English Accents Tyneside English English Language Essay Tyneside English, otherwise known as Geordie, is one of the most distinctive and unique accents of the United Kingdom. This essay focuses on the phonology, lexis and grammar of this particular dialect, and the historical, social and geographical factors which have influenced its distinctive features. Phonologically, the features analysed are TH-fronting, glottalisation and centring diphthongs, grammatically I have looked at second person pronouns and double modals and the final feature I have analysed is a lexical feature, the term netty. Several academic sources have been used in this essay and thus a brief evaluation of the reliability of them have been discussed. Firstly, looking at the phonology of Tyneside English, a striking feature is TH-fronting, which historically, is a merger that occurs in several dialects, including Cockney and Liberian English. The labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/ are merged with the Early Modern English dental fricatives /ÃŽÂ ¸/ and /ÃÆ' °/, for instance the adjective three is pronounced as the adjective free. A geographical factor which may have influenced TH-fronting in Newcastle is a pattern of wave or contagion diffusion (Beal 2010:81). TH-fronting is an established feature of London speech and the feature is spreading westwards and northwards from London and thus is only just beginning to be adopted in Newcastle. As Kerswill claims, TH-fronting is adopted later the further North you go (Beal 2010:81). A social factor which may have influenced the spread of TH-fronting to areas like Newcastle from London is the popularity of the media, which have made people less oblivious than previous generations of a large range of accent features. Current evidence suggests individuals and communities imitate people when they meet them and thus adopt new forms of pronunciation, which appear to be extremely stigmatised features (BBC Voices). In addition, prejudice and stereotyping may be another social factor, as labiodental variants have traditionally been socially stigmatised and therefore tend to be avoided by middle-class speakers (Schneider 2004:192). Another phonological feature of Tyneside English is that of glottalisation, for instance the voiced alveolar plosive /p/ is accompanied by a glottal stop /ʆ/ in between vowels. An example of this is /hà ¦ÃƒÅ Ã¢â‚¬ pi:/, as opposed to the Standard English /hà ¦pi/. Beal (2010) states a geographical factor which may have influenced this: the diffusion of Estuary English from London to urban areas much further North, such as Newcastle. However, an alternative view concerning the origin of glottalisation is that it was first observed in the west of Scotland as early as 1860 and didnt occur in London until the beginning of the twentieth century (Pà ©rez-Guerra 2007:39). A social factor which may have influenced the distribution of glottalisation is the fact that Estuary English has been described as an accent of prestige (Anonymous 2006:2) as it is associated with Standard English. The imposed norm hypothesis states the standard variety has come to be regarded as superior due to social pressures (Long 2002:14), therefore arguably Estuary English has spread because it is perceived as desirable. Historically, the feature seems to have diffused to urban centres outside the south-east within the last 30-40 years (Kerswill 2003:11). In addition, Beal suggests another geographical factor which may have affected the distribution of glottalisation: diffusion of the urban hierarchal type whereby the variant starts in larger cities and then spreads out into the smaller towns (Beal 2010:80). In terms such as gate, which is categorised as a face vowel in John Wells Lexical Sets (1982), speakers of the Geordie accent use the centring diphthongs /IÉâ„ ¢/ or /eÉâ„ ¢/, rather than the Standard English /eI/. Watt and Milroy (1999) discovered only older, working class males used the diphthong /IÉâ„ ¢/, whereas younger Tynesiders used the monophthong /e:/ (Watson 2006:56). Watt and Milroy suggest a social factor which may have influenced this: younger Tynesiders are signalling that they dont wish to identify with their old-fashioned fathers, but still wish to be identified as Northerners (Beal 2010:19). A historical factor which may have affected this is the influence of Middle English. The diphthongs [ɆºÃƒâ€°Ã‚ ª] and [É ªÃƒâ€°Ã¢â€ž ¢] were a result of syllable lengthening, as the monophthong /i:/, derived from the Middle English /Ɇº/, was lengthened. A morphosyntactic feature of Tyneside English is the distinction between the singular and plural second person pronouns. In Standard English, no distinction is made, as you can refer to one person or a group of people. On the contrary, speakers of Tyneside English use you in the singular tense and youse in the plural tense. This is often perceived as bad grammar by speakers of Standard English. However Katie Wales (2006), suggests a social factor which influences the distinction is many dialect speakers have felt the loss of a singular-plural distinction in Standard English to be a disadvantage and so have initiated more plurals (Wales 1996:19). This is a valid argument, as the loss of the distinction does appear to be more problematic (Beal 2010:40), as no distinction can sometimes be troublesome, as it is not always clear to whom one is referring to. A historical factor which influenced the distinction is possibly the influence from the large influx of Irish people to Tyneside betw een 1850-1900. Geographically, Kortmann (2008) describes the term youse as Northern (Beal 2010:40). According to Standard English, only one modal verb can appear in each verb phrase as they lack an infinitive and therefore the phrase he might could do it is ungrammatical. However, in Tyneside English, this does not apply, as long as the second modal verb is can or could and thus the previous construction is perfectly acceptable. Forms such as he might could do it are not only quite common, but also serve specific pragmatic purposes (Fisiak 1997:1514). Montgomery and Nagle (1993) suggest a historical factor which may have influenced double modals could be the American and British varieties developing in tandem from some incipient grammatical structure in seventeenth century Scots, as the earliest recorded instances of todays double modals are in Scotland and Southern American English. (Fisiak 1997:1514). Sometimes, the meaning of double modals is different in Tyneside English than in Standard English. For example, the Standard English phrase The lift cant be working can also mean Th e lift mustnt be working in Tyneside English, meaning misunderstandings are almost guaranteed (Keuchler 2007:19). Moving on to lexical features, a common term used in Tyneside lexis is netty, meaning an outside toilet (British Library). A historical factor which may have influenced this is the influence of loanwords, although this is uncertain. It is highly probable that the term comes from a Modern Romanic Italian form of the word gabinetti, meaning toilet. However, John Trotter Brockett (1829), connects the Geordie word netty to the Modern English adjective needy. On the BBC Voices website, Yaron Matras points out that many local dialects in Northumbria have incorporated words of Romani origin into the local slang. Similarly, the British Library website suggests a geographical factor which influences the distribution of the term, claiming There has been a Roma presence for centuries in the Borders area and so it is not surprising this has influenced speech in the North East. Whilst producing this essay, the most helpful and reliable source available was the British Library Sounds Familiar? website. With several audio clips provided to investigate the Geordie Dialect and a case-study specifically on Geordie, the website gives an in-depth study on Tyneside English. Not only does the website allow the user to listen to voice recordings, it also gives the Standard English equivalent and a detailed explanation of the feature. On the contrary, a website which was less useful, was the BBC Voices website. Although the author of the website is the BBC which is an academic institution, the website used anecdotal evidence to support its claims. Furthermore, the information on the Geordie accent was limited and specialist terminology isnt used. Another website looked at was the Sounds Comparisons website. On one hand, this was a reliable source, as it had a whole section dedicated to Tyneside English and allows the user to listen to every vowel and consonant in the Geordie dialect. In contrast, there was no linguistic explanation to compliment the sound recordings, which meant it wasnt helpful when analysing the historical, geographical and social aspects of the variables. Finally, another source included in my research was the British Library Archival Sound Recordings website, which was the least reliable of the four. Despite the fact it allows the user to listen to local people speaking the Geordie dialect, the only explanation given is the topic of conversation, rather than a linguistic analysis. Overall, with the exception of the British Library Sounds Familiar? website, academic books were more informative and reliable, in particular Joan Beals An Introduction to Regional Englishes (2010). In conclusion, the Geordie accent has been described as a proud badge of cultural identity, as invasions of the North-East meant Newcastle was linguistically isolated from other developments in Northumbria. Moreover, the River Tweed is a significant Northern barrier against the influence of the Scots, meaning Newcastle has resisted centralising tendencies (British Library Sounds Familiar?) of Edinburgh. Tyneside English appears to have resisted dialect levelling which leads to a loss of distinctiveness in dialects (Beal 2010:2) as there are significant differences (British Library Sounds Familiar?) between Geordie and other local dialects such as Pitmatic.

Inequality Gender Stereotyping In Hong Kong

Inequality Gender Stereotyping In Hong Kong According to the Womens Commission (Woc) Survey on Community Perception of Gender Issues (2009), it finds that gender stereotyping is still prevalent in Hong Kong and gender inequality still persists in society. Moreover, the Chairperson Ms Sophia Kao also said The survey findings reflect that the concept that women are to take care of the family while men are to work outside is still deep rooted in society, leading the majority of the respondents to believe that womens contribution was confined to the family setting and understate their contributions to society in other areas. This affects womens development opportunities in different aspects such as employment and community participation. And under the long-term influence of traditional values, women themselves might also endorse some of these gender stereotypes. Besides, the survey also found that the public generally consider that women should focus more on family than their careers, while taking care of the family is the most im portant among the contributions of women. More women than men consider that women play a more important role in the family than men do. And educating and taking care of children was perceived by most women as the most significant aspect that undermines the development of their potential to the full. Above this survey, the conscious of gender perception about the different aspect had seemed to increase than the before. But I find it very interest point that female seems trend to accept and identify the role which contribute the family work and child care work. These stereotyping limit the development of the female. So the survey reflects interviewed female recognize housework limit their development. I feel that the reason why the female accept these stereotyping is due to the long term socialization and culture construction. These guide and control the female how to do the right expectation in society under invisible. Chinese traditional culture and value how to construct inequality of female Before five thousands year age in China, the period of patriarchy had begun to budded, the status of females were decrease. Moreover, since slavery society prevailed, the females become no autonomy and status. They lost their freedom and controlled by male. They become slave for man property. They also accepted the system of polygyny. When feudal system was formed, more regulation oppressed to the female and advantages to male. Then, Confucian though become social mainstream for discipline people how to do the right things especially control female behavior. Such as female, some discourse is starve to dead is small things but virginity is very important( à ©Ã‚ ¤Ã¢â‚¬Å"à ¦Ã‚ ­Ã‚ »Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ºÃ¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ °Ã‚ , à ¨Ã‚ ²Ã… ¾Ãƒ §Ã‚ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ºÃ¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¤Ã‚ §), it emphasize pure virginity is very important. If female can keep pure their virginity, they will be respected and appreciate. Besides, cripple feet (à §Ã‚ ºÃ‚ Ãƒ ¨Ã‚ ¶Ã‚ ³) was constructed a beautiful model and standard , it control female to go a step further. These regulation and discourse construct inequality but female are willing to follow because of moral standard. Chinese female tasted no end of bitterness in their short, mostly poverty ridden lives. In fact Chinese family life was marked by a shocking degree of brutality. The Confucian emphasis on filial piety and loyalty was a euphemistic prescription for absolute subordination of young to old and, more important for our purposes, female to male. Indeed, the structure of the Chinese family looks very different depending on which genders perspective you choose to view it from. The dominant male perspective conjures and unbroken lineage with power, property, and esteem passing in orderly and gradual fashion from generation to generation. From the female perspective, family life appears dramatically opposite. During her lifetime a Chinese female lived in two distinctly different families respectively her natal and marital homes. Instead of an unbroken lineage, the woman was never in her lifetime fully a member of any family. Her name was not even recorded in her fathers genealogy, and when she died only her family name surname was entered in the genealogy charts of her husbands fa mily. In this system and discourse characterized by filial piety, womans life was described by the three obedience(à ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã¢â‚¬ °Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¾Ã… ¾) respectively to her father during childhood, to her husband during marriage and to her son during widowhood. Above these traditional cultures, systems discourse, they construct people how to do the right things related the gender role. These constructions have oppression of the female. Some post-modernism scholars theory explain why people accept discourse and moral standard under invisible According to West and Zimmerman (1987), most people find it hard to believe that gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and are the texture and order of that social life. Yet gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone constantly doing gender. Based on these assumption, we also find more discourses are recognizing man has power of domination, female should believe in her role as the subordinated being in the process of socialization. Then, Horrocks (1997) states ideological and cannot be neutral as it claims. In other words, there is no objective truth since science is still constructed within political parameter. However, we still have not discussed why these discourses work so effectively that most of us do not attempt to challenge them. That would be answered by Michel Foucaults explanation about the reign of power. According to Madan Sarup (1993) quotes from Foucault that power produces reality, it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth, so it is not possible for power to be examined without knowledge, it is impossible for knowledge not to produce power because the exercise of power constructs the new object of knowledge too. Moreover, according to Foucault (à ¦Ã‚ ¥Ã…  Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¤Ã‚ §Ãƒ ¦Ã‹Å" ¥1995), power is not as centralized, authoritarian and organized as the sovereign one. However, it regulates the most intimate and minute element through multiple processes from different locations. It formulates the production of docile bodies through discipline which made possible the meticulous control of the operation of body including its movement, gesture and attitude. It also assumes the constant subjection of the force of the body and imposed upon them a relation of docility-utility. In addition, it produces subject and practiced bodies, docile bodies that may operate as one wishes with the techniques, the speed and the efficiency that one determined. The above disciplinary practice of power is epitomized in Foucaults description of an architectural device called the Panopticon by Jeremy Bentham. According Foucault In Discipline and Punish (Foucault, 1977), he makes the following explanation about Panopticon. Each Individual, in his place, is securely confined to a cell from which he is seen from the front by the supervisor; but the side walls prevent him from coming into contact will his companion. He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication. Thus, as Foucault (Foucault, 1977) remarks in detail, the whole design has the effect to induce innate state of consciousness and prevent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. The power is visible but unverifiable because the inmate will constantly have before his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon. However, he/she never knows whether he/she is being looked at in any particular mo ment. From this one side effect, he/she must assume that he is always under surveillance. Thus, surveillance is everywhere wherever inside or outside the panopticon thereby homogenous effect is producing for innate to discipline them. Besides, a poststructuralist Judith Butler (Butler, 1990) applies Foucaults emphasis into the field of gender representations. She illustrates from Foucault that the juridical system produces the subject that are represented and constituted through discourses. As we have remarked that discourses are naturalized as a belief through the practice of power which cannot be challenged, it will be concretization as a foundational promise to exclude those who fail to conform within the normative requirements. Then, Butler (Butler, 1990) also argues that gender is a cultural means by which the biologically determined sex is produced and established as pre-discursive, prior to culture, a politically neutral surface on which the culturally constructed gender acts. Butler (Butler, 1990) also says in the later part of her book Gender Trouble that the notion of identity and coherence is not a logical and analytical feature, but rather it is socially instituted norm of intelligibility. Thus, we believe that our identity is a core that sustains through temporal change. Illusion of being and substance cultivated by that the grammatical formulation of subject and predicate reflects the prior ontological reality of substance and attribute. The metaphor of substance leads people to believe that one can be a sex or gender. Furthermore, Butler (Butler, 1990) explains that there is no gender identity that underlies the expressions of gender. The apparent identity is performativity constituted by the very expression that is said to be its result. Thus, Butler (Butler, 1990) said, there is no being behind doing, effecting, becoming; the doer is merely a fiction added to the deed the deed is everything. Hence, the idea of gender is relational and contextual since it is a repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance, of a natural sort of being that the acts, gestures, enactments in gender performance are performativity in the sense that the essence or identity that they otherwise purport to express be fabrications manufactures and sustained. So, it becomes what one puts on his or her body, how one behaves and presents in front of people are only the gestures based upon the regulations under gender division in a particular cultural context with regardless to any ontological truth. From the Foucault theory, we know that the complex differential power relationships extend to every aspect of our social, cultural and political lives. In the analysis of gender identity of Butler, we also see that power also extends to the aspect about the construction of our gender identity. The whole process of power relationship involves the manner of subject-position, and securing our asset not only by the threat of punitive sanctions, but also persuading us to internalize the norms and values that prevail within the social, or in the theories of Butler, the patriarchal order. How to increase gender sensitivity of social work practitioners in Hong Kong Firstly, according to Foucault (1991), he said that Penopticon like as a metaphor for social control. Disciplines success is due to its simplicity, hierarchical observation, normalizing of judgments, and their combination such as prison, penitentiary, rehabilitation center, hospital, social worker, school, etc. It was combining punitive system with normalizing practices. It forces people fulfill the social expectation and make the right things through punishment, surveillance and reinforcement under invisible. So, we need to understand us may be one of the surveillance institutions causing this phenomenon. So, we need to aware of gender sensitivity of social work practitioners. As a gender sensitivity of social work practitioners, the worker need to become aware of and take an objective look at the belief system, reflect the gender biases and judgmental convictions. Moreover, the worker realizes how the culture has influenced the belief system and recognizes that gender and sexual de finition do not have to conform to societal norms. Besides, the worker facilitates self-actualizing behaviors for clients rather than socially prescribed conduct. In the counseling aspect, we need to be aware of the dangers inherent in conforming to social stereotypes and to recognize our own, possibly unhealthy, rigid, gender beliefs and behaviors. If gender biased by cultural definitions of male and female roles, counselors may facilitate social conformity, rather than individual growth and self-expression, with their clients. Moreover, Gender stereotyped intervention negatively impact clients. As a result, the counseling process may turn into oppression imposed on the actual client. Most unfortunately, those who deviate from the cultural norm tend to be denigrated and discriminated against. So the counselors may employ different clinical techniques and make disparate diagnoses and treatment plans based on assumptions about gender. The clients may disclose certain information based on the therapists gender. Counselors who also ascribe to rigid definitions of appropriate gender roles and sexual conduct may tend to help clients conform to cult urally acceptable behaviors and practices rather than helping them to define individually appropriate roles. Besides, the goal of gender-sensitive psychotherapy is helping clients to become aware of and confront limiting gender-role stereotypes and creating a more equalitarian and empathetic society by expanding choices for both sexes. In the advocacy, based on the Womens Commission (Woc) Survey on Community Perception of Gender Issues (2009), the stereotyping of gender is still serious. The social worker still educates public through community work for deconstruct the role of gender and spread both equality of gender. Moreover, the social worker also organizes some groups for man and women. They are educated to become leadership and increase their gender awareness. As a result, they similar the seeds continuous spread to others even though to participate social affairs about the both equality of gender. I believe that through the different aspect to increase people genders awareness, the both equality of gender will achieved in future. Conclusion Several thousand Chinese culture and system is the deeply socialization construct the gender role. It makes the inequality of gender till today. Although many research reflects the equality of man and women had improved. But the gender awareness is not still enough. If we are thoroughgoing to change this inequality, we will make more and more effort in gender affairs.

Saint Augustine Essay -- Biography

Many consider Saint Augustine of Hippo a main figure in the development of orthodox Christian doctrine during the early Christian Church. Augustine was born in Northern Africa in AD 354. His father was a pagan and his mother a Christian. Though his parents were not extremely well to do, they had enough money to allow Augustine to obtain an education in the liberal arts. This education will eventually affect how he sees Christianity, especially concerning the use of neo-Platonic ideas in Christian theology. Augustine converted to orthodox Christianity late in life. He struggled with the many earthly things he needed to give up for a complete conversion of body, mind, and soul. It is in Confessions that Augustine shows the world this struggle with and eventual conversion to orthodox Christianity. Though the conversion did not come easily, Christianity held a variety of appealing ideas for Augustine that influenced how he viewed the world in which he lived. In turn, the late conversion of Augustine allowed for his non-Christian experiences and study to have a strong effect on how he viewed orthodox Christianity and the number of heresy-sects of Christianity that continued to thrive during his lifetime. His education also created a unique view for Augustine concerning the use of pagan philosophies in Christian doctrine. Finally, all of the experiences and views of Saint Augustine eventually had a profound influence on orthodox Christian doctrine and philosophy. Augustine was actually born a Christian and taught Christian doctrine by his mother Monica while still young. However, born Christian and not interested in pagan religions, Augustine was also not particularly interested in orthodox Christianity either. He ... ...that it is God's mercy that will save him, nothing else will. Because of this belief, God's mercy becomes an important aspect of orthodox Christian belief. Augustine found Christianity appealing on many levels, though the main attraction was the ability to use logic to understand religion. Augustine also understood that God's words came in many forms, and he was not afraid to search out pagan ideas that fit into Christianity. Augustine is often seen as a major contributing force to the doctrine of orthodox Christianity. His learning and life experiences influenced his ideas about God, Christ, and religion. In turn, it is these ideas that have a long and lasting impact on orthodox Christianity. Both Catholics and Protestants believe that Augustine was correct in his views on orthodox Christian doctrine. His ideas are still used today to study Christianity.

The Wonderful Bedroom Essays -- Descriptive Essay Examples, Observation

The Wonderful Bedroom Have you ever wondered how something so simple as your bedroom could have so much meaning? How a place where one usually just sleeps and doesn't return until the next night, could be so special to someone? It does make one think, once stopped and thought about. To some, it means as much as a gym does to a basketball player or as much as a tree does to a monkey. But then there are also those who still think of their bedroom as just a place to sleep and prepare themselves. I guess things have different meanings for each person, but for many including myself, their bedroom ranks near the top of the list. A bedroom is meaningful because often it is where one grows up, where lots of time is spent, and where one can bring out there inner-most self. A bedroom is not something that changes from day to day, but rather something that is pretty permanent. Many people grow up in the same room that they spend the first part of their life in. It is something that people grow attached to and become accustomed to, like a college student becomes accustomed to studying. For this factor, change is not so much a good thing but rather a thing of frustration. It is nice to have a place to call home, and better yet, a place to call one's own bedroom. Once one is settled, it is usually of best nature to stay settled. Through this settlement, it is easiest to see how much of importance one's bedroom may mean to them. My bedroom has meant a lot to me due to the fact that I have been in the same place for the majority of my years. Another important reason on this subject is that there is usually a lot of time spent in one's own room Besides the ten hours of sleep everyone gets a night in their room, there is often a gr... ...all sorts of things to do and eventually time slips away along with the boredom. A bedroom is full of wonderful surprises and often has much more meaning than one may imagine. In just a simple little corner of a house, it can tell you so much about a person. Is the person a pack rat, organized, and clean, or are they simple-minded, just waiting to open their eyes and explore? Perhaps there are things that go far and beyond the word "special". A room can tell ones whole life story, but yet again maybe it is just thought of as a place to catch some Z's. No matter what the case, this simple little place they call one's bedroom can and usually does have much meaning. So, next time you're lying in bed trying to fall asleep, ask yourself, does my room really have much meaning to me, and if so, how much, or am I just thankful for this comfortable bed to sleep on? Â   The Wonderful Bedroom Essays -- Descriptive Essay Examples, Observation The Wonderful Bedroom Have you ever wondered how something so simple as your bedroom could have so much meaning? How a place where one usually just sleeps and doesn't return until the next night, could be so special to someone? It does make one think, once stopped and thought about. To some, it means as much as a gym does to a basketball player or as much as a tree does to a monkey. But then there are also those who still think of their bedroom as just a place to sleep and prepare themselves. I guess things have different meanings for each person, but for many including myself, their bedroom ranks near the top of the list. A bedroom is meaningful because often it is where one grows up, where lots of time is spent, and where one can bring out there inner-most self. A bedroom is not something that changes from day to day, but rather something that is pretty permanent. Many people grow up in the same room that they spend the first part of their life in. It is something that people grow attached to and become accustomed to, like a college student becomes accustomed to studying. For this factor, change is not so much a good thing but rather a thing of frustration. It is nice to have a place to call home, and better yet, a place to call one's own bedroom. Once one is settled, it is usually of best nature to stay settled. Through this settlement, it is easiest to see how much of importance one's bedroom may mean to them. My bedroom has meant a lot to me due to the fact that I have been in the same place for the majority of my years. Another important reason on this subject is that there is usually a lot of time spent in one's own room Besides the ten hours of sleep everyone gets a night in their room, there is often a gr... ...all sorts of things to do and eventually time slips away along with the boredom. A bedroom is full of wonderful surprises and often has much more meaning than one may imagine. In just a simple little corner of a house, it can tell you so much about a person. Is the person a pack rat, organized, and clean, or are they simple-minded, just waiting to open their eyes and explore? Perhaps there are things that go far and beyond the word "special". A room can tell ones whole life story, but yet again maybe it is just thought of as a place to catch some Z's. No matter what the case, this simple little place they call one's bedroom can and usually does have much meaning. So, next time you're lying in bed trying to fall asleep, ask yourself, does my room really have much meaning to me, and if so, how much, or am I just thankful for this comfortable bed to sleep on? Â  

Justice in Plato’s Republic

Plato Republic presents the concepts of psychic justice and psychic virtue. This is different from what in normally observed as justice and virtue. Thus, when apparently good deeds are ostensibly rewarded, and, correspondingly, evils deeds are punished, that is considered to be justice. But Plato is suggesting that appearances are deceptive, and that true justice and virtue are not so easily recognizable. The matter needs to be considered by essences, not appearances. In this way is derived psychic justice and virtue. And when we arrive at the latter understanding we overcome the contradictions found in the first view. For in the apparent view evil seems to be rewarded, while virtue is punished, in the normal course of life. The object of Plato is thus to convince that the just life in preferable to the unjust. As in all the dialogues of Plato, the argument is presented as that of Socrates, and in which the Athenian philosopher systematically overcomes all possible objections to the proposed thesis. Republic is possibly the most elaborately presented argument of Plato, and is also the longest. This essay argues that all the objections raised, by the friends and acquaintances of Socrates, regarding the principle proposition stated above, are answered comprehensively. Evidence seems to contradict the claim of Socrates that the just life is always to be preferred, and this is the principle objection raised by all detractors. In Book I the objection is raised by the rich host Cephalus, and by the cynical Thrasymachus. Cephalus is not confrontational, but merely smug in his conviction that wealth has allowed him to practice virtue. Socrates confounds him by asking whether he would return a lethal weapon to its rightful owner when it is certain that he is not in the right frame of mind and will commit mischief with it. Thrasymachus is intolerant of the dialectical method of Socrates, and demands a positive answer to the question of what justice is. He himself volunteers the positive opinion that justice is the interest of the powerful. Socrates makes the argument that no act is in the interest of the powerful, but is necessarily in the interest of the weaker. For example, the potter makes pots for those who have no inkling of the art of pottery, but would nevertheless like to use one. The potter (the strong) is successful if he can satisfy the non-potter (the weak). Since justice must be equated with success, the just act is committed in the interest of the weak. By a similar argument, the just act cannot inflict harm, neither to the just subject, nor to the recipient of justice, and in this way Socrates refutes the other claim of Thrasymachus that the unjust are happy, while the just suffer. This is the substance of the argument the Glaucon and Adeimantus have so far absorbed, and are only partially convinced by. They remain in the company after Thrasymachus and Cephalus have departed, and are the principal agents to take the argument forward. They proceed to raise the same challenge of Thrasymachus, but in a less confrontational way, and with an earnest inclination to find out. Socrates’ conclusion that the just are rewarded while the unjust destroy themselves seems to them to utterly contradict plain evidence. Glaucon cannot accept that acts of justice are desired â€Å"both for their own sake and for the sake of their results† (Plato 45). Everyone knows, he suggests, that the virtuous act is undertaken with a dread of unpleasant consequences. He puts forward a picture of two extremes; on the one hand there is the rich hypocrite who the world recognizes as virtuous, and on the other the poor and virtuous man who is also castigated by society as evil. This is not far removed from reality, and Glaucon pleads where the benefits of justice and virtue are in view here. Adeimantus stresses the same point, going further to quote the poets who maintain â€Å"that honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty; and they are quite ready to call wicked men happy†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Ibid 53). Socrates at this point brings forward the crux of his argument – it is a ploy to consider the macrocosm before the microcosm. Justice and virtue must prevail in the Republic before it is possible at the atomic level of the individual. If the Republic is just, then its virtues will be far more visible than it would be in the case of the individual, and this due to its size. The workings of the state are more open to examination then the workings of the soul. In this wise Socrates is prepared to embark on an epic reconstruction of the Republic. Much of this discussion in phrased in terms of â€Å"should be†, but it is important that we remember that it is not political science which Plato is attempting. The Republic is put forward only as a mirror to the soul. It is phrased in terms of â€Å"should be† because justice is the quest, and the just Republic is necessarily constructed on what ought to be. Once justice is located here, and recognized, it throws invaluable light on the corresponding map of the soul. In the end Glaucon and Adeimantus are convinced that there is justice in the Republic. Each step in Socrates’ argument is built on the idea that the unjust, as a league, are incapable of any constructive effort. Even while refuting Thrasymachus, Socrates has argued that the unjust are against both their own kind, and their opposite kind (the just), while the just, at the very least, are in favor of the just. Therefore, all that is constructive and beneficial stems from the virtue of the just. On this crucial argument Socrates bases his reconstruction, and therefore justice is seen to prevail in every facer of the Republic. What exactly this justice is Socrates confesses not to know, yet there are three other qualities that must precede it – wisdom, courage and temperance. Each member of society has a requisite knowledge which answers a calling in life, and which is necessary for survival. The sum of such atomized knowledge is the wisdom of the state. The highest calling of all is that of the guardians of the state, and in them is the greatest wisdom, for they guide all others and thereby secure the greatest good. In particular, they determine the education, and they censor the arts, knowing what is conducive to the whole. Courage is in the defenders of the state. Temperance in distributed throughout society, for everyone must know the right measure of things. Socrates argues that both wealth and poverty are detrimental to the artisan. Wealth makes him inattentive to his art, while in poverty he cannot afford the means to practice. Therefore, the circumstances that prevail in a healthy Republic forces temperance on one and all. If this is a just Republic, argues Socrates, where justice, wisdom, courage and temperance prevail, than justice must be that which is left after wisdom, courage and temperance have been extracted from the whole. Having identified justice in the macrocosm, Socrates goes on to find its correspondence in the microcosm, which is in the soul of man. He distinguishes two types of knowledge, one guided by the rational principle, the other following the appetites, or the gratification of the five senses. Just as the higher wisdom of the guardians in the state guide the knowledge of all others, so the rational principle of the soul controls the appetites, and this makes for the wisdom of the soul. In the case of the Republic it has been shown that if each individual is allowed to function properly in his own calling then this constitutes justice in the wider body politic. Similarly, when the rational principle of the soul guides every facet of the human to function properly, then not only has the individual attained to justice, but also to health, for then each part is in harmony with the other and there is no discord. In this state justice, wisdom, courage and temperance prevail together, and as in the case of the Republic, justice is that which remains after the other three. We call this psychic justice, because we do not see it for itself, but only discover its existence after examination of the human psyche. It is not possible to refute the existence of psychic justice, and all the objections raised against it have been answered completely by Socrates. It is only a question of how worthy one considers it to be. It is not only a question of following the argument, but also of perceiving the inner import of it. Socrates therefore provides three answers to the same question, suited to the attitudes of the questioners. Cephalus must only be disturbed from his smug righteousness. The confrontational Thrasymachus can only be refuted with hard logic, for he cannot be made to comprehend. In Glaucon and Adeimantus, however, Socrates senses a desperate willingness to learn. â€Å"[T]here is something truly divine in being able to argue as you have done for the superiority of injustice,† he tells them, â€Å"and remaining unconvinced by your own arguments† (Ibid 58). The analogy of the Republic is introduced only to answer this honest query. In effect it is the same answer arrived at as the previous two, but nevertheless is special because it allows scope for inner comprehension. This is what Glaucon and Adeimantus come to in the end, and it is far more worth while to them then to merely follow logic. Of course appearances will continue to deceive, and Socrates maintains throughout that he still does not know what justice is. But if the only acquisition is a strengthening of faith in the higher justice, then the gain is substantial. To conclude, Plato introduces the concept of psychic justice, the purpose of which it to contradict the popular notion that the wicked and unjust reap the fruits of the world, while the just are easy prey for the evildoers. He introduces the analogy of the Republic, which is presented as the macrocosm that mirrors the microcosm that is the soul of man. In this way he identifies the justice that prevails in the Republic, and then finds the counterpart justice in the soul of man. In my opinion, psychic justice is to be considered above the apparent notions of justice, because appearances deceive. Plato raises his argument on the essential considerations of the human soul, and it is thus irrefutable.

Poetry & art Essay

Poetry is a form of art. Though I want to be an Economics Major in the University of Penn, I am a young aficionado of poetry and prose at heart. I would love to develop my skills through a disciplined and distinguished writing program and Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences offers to cater my aspirations. Believing that one must be a great reader before becoming a great writer, I indulge into books of every genre to harvest more knowledge. Literature brings out in me an overwhelming joy and I wish to carry my fondness for reading and writing into my college majors. The uniqueness cultivated by Penn’s English Department is perceptible by the de facto of education, wherein the emphasis is on creative writing. Through this facet of the University, I want to channel my passion for poetry into academia. As a Founder and President of our school’s Poetry Club, if accepted, I plan to visit the Kelly Writers House religiously, and satisfy my perpetual craving for literature. I can picture myself grabbing a turkey-and-cheese sandwich, without mayonnaise, at the 1920 Commons, and rushing off to the Kelly Writers House, carrying an armful of books by Maya Angelou and Eric Schlosser. Gathered in a close circle of chairs, my fellow literature lovers and I share professional works, with our own daring lines of free verses, swap suggestions, compliments, and light-hearted laughs. During these workshops, my very soul seeps steadily through an invisible tube from brain to ballpoint, the not-so-simple phenomenon of input-output fabricating ink on paper, a painting made of letters. On my way to a morning class on modern American poetry, I pass Oldenberg’s famed Split Button and acknowledge Mr. Franklin, sitting upright in his chair. After the lecture, Professor Josephine Park and I conduct research by analyzing the influence of conflicts between America and East-Asia. Being in the Penn family, I converse with colleagues, sisters and brothers that destiny lacked to give. I tutor secondary school students about reading and writing through the outreach program. Having been featured in a myriad of written works and publishing my own collections, I roll up my sleeves and organize literary pieces in the weekly undergraduate magazine, First Call. As the evening sinks, I bike to the Van Pelt Library, sit cross-legged in my favorite armchair and finalize the touches on a Second World War paper. Traveling to the other parts of the City of Brotherly Love, I gather up with study group friends for our fine dinner. When I reach home, my roommate chatters about the highlights of her day. I then read an article from The Daily Pennsylvanian. Turning off the lights and setting my alarm clock for 6:00 am, I drape my jogging shorts and shirt on a chair for the morning. Before drifting off to sleep, I reminisce those final months when I submitted my application to Penn and smile in the quietness of my room, happy to be here at last.

Organising An Event: Market Research Essay

INTRODUCTION There is a proverb that says ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’ This is very true, I will support this theory. Planning is an essential part of everyone’s life. I will look at a time schedule of a typical school child. For instance, a school pupil will set his or her alarm clock to go off at 7.30am. This is so that he or she can give him or herself around half an hour to use the shower and get ready for school. He or she will then be ready to have breakfast and leave for school around 8.30am in time for school at 9am. The pupil’s time has been valued and organized in such a way that he or she can make it on time for school lessons, otherwise if the pupil did things in their own time, he or she would never make it on time for school and miss out in what the teacher has already taught (This is the negative consequence and therefore in this case, failure). Even school lessons are planned. For example, a student may be in school from 9 to 3pm i.e. 6 hours. Therefore, the school may plan the students’ timetable in such a way that the student gets half an hour for break, an hour for lunch and about 50 minutes for each subject. This way, the tutors can plan what they want to say in the 50 minute interval and not spontaneously run into other tutors time and students’ breaks. Similarly when holding an event, in this case a business conference, it is important that every aspect of the event is well managed, analyzed, rehearsed and assessed to ensure that everything goes according to plan. Some of these aspects can include the consumers. The consumers are the ones who are going on the trip to the conference so firstly, their safety is the trip administrators’ top priority. For example all aspects of the consumers’ health and safety have to be reviewed like if they have any medical histories, current/past allergies and many more. This is the nature of things that have to be carefully considered in order for trip to go well. The intentions of this essay is to successfully report upon all stages of the business conference planning process from the start i.e. whether the event has the potential and the required resources to enable it to go all the way to the end, i.e. giving an account on personal experiences from the trip and future recommendations. Simply it will be divided into three parts: a beginning, middle and an end. These three stages will be: 1. Market Research: This will lead to whether the event has the potential to go on at all or not. 2. Planning: If it is confirmed that the event can go on, it will then be safe to proceed. Planning and analyzing all aspects of the event from start to finish can then occur. 3. Finalizing the event, the event and finalizing the report: Once the event is flawlessly planned, it can successfully take place. Once the event is over, post-event experiences and remarks can be included in the report to conclude it. STAGE 1: MARKET RESEARCH- VIABILITY & FEASIBILITY OF THE EVENT CONSUMERS The people who are going to use the service (i.e. the AS level business studies students who could potentially want to go on the trip) need to be aware of this upcoming event. Therefore it is important that they are aware of the reason for the event being held at the first place, to let as many people as possible understand why they need to come to this conference trip. In order to find out this information from people, a survey will need to be carried out focusing on the target population researching whether or not anybody will be interested in coming on this trip. This target population is the AS level Business Studies Class of Marlborough school in St. Albans. However, this can be time-consuming to carry out and the decision of whether the AS level students can travel abroad for the business conference trip is down to their parents. So waiting for the students to ask their parents to grant them permission and give them the green light can waste time especially when they forget. Also, if the students cannot find the survey researcher to answer whether or not they can go on the trip can throw away even more precious time. Therefore it can be deduced that, an even more tangible, more effective method of communicating this message and obtaining this information as soon as possible without hesitation would be required. FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS Previously before the school summer vacations i.e. 18th June 2007, the event organizers of the year thirteen business studies students decided on a financial aim at the meeting. This was to obtain the most cheapest yet superb value for money costs going towards the trip. Therefore, they brainstormed capitals of the world that would meet their goal, also which would offer a great diversity of businesses, for the year twelve business studies class to obtain case studies from. Capital destinations which were suggested and seemed suitable included Prague, Cape Town, Budapest, Rome, Barcelona and New York. Due to Travel and Tour companies including â€Å"European Study Tours,† language barriers can be prevailed over, meaning that the trip could still be feasible in any of these locations, making the short listing and elimination process a little more difficult. Theoretically, the further the location from Marlborough school, the more expensive the trip will cost to travel too. This meant that destinations such as New York will have to be eliminated from the potential choices list automatically since it is the furthest away from the United Kingdom, although the city has a wide range of medium to large sized organizations. As a result, the choices of destinations were narrowed down to those either in Asia or Europe. Budapest, as opposed to Prague and Rome which were all located in Europe, did not seem like they had much to offer in terms of business diversity. Therefore, it remained Europe: Prague, Rome and Barcelona. Since these three locations were large cities and also located in Europe, them being the nearest to England, they all seem convenient. However, due to the costs the travel and tours companies would offer for them, as well as the length of stay the trip required and the dates, Prague was selected. This was the most affordable and convenient at two hundred and twenty- nine pounds for three nights offered by â€Å"European Study Tours.† Therefore, the event organisers had obtained a budget covering the compulsory costs including travel to Prague, accommodation and the conference event. At first meeting back after the school summer vacations i.e. 24th September 2007, the event organizers of the year thirteen business studies students decided that the Prague trip should take place in the spring term. This will be at the middle of the 2007-2008 academic years i.e. February 22nd 2008, where the gaps between the spring season will be occupied by some examinations mainly taken by the target consumers of the trip i.e. The lower sixth form business studies students. Financially, this is ideal. If the trip was to take place in the Autumn/Winter term, due to the Christmas Holidays, the costs of the travel to Prague by air travel will rocket up due to popularity. Likewise, if it were to take place in the summer term, costs of air travel will, again shoot up because of the long summer vacation approaching just around the corner. Therefore, by selecting Prague, travel costs have been minimized. FEASIBILITY OF THE EVENT Quotes have been obtained from â€Å"European Study Tours,† and so it is safe to reveal the news about the Prague conference trip to the lower sixth form business studies class. It was needed to know the popularity of the event, despite the budgets. Also, on the 24th September 2007, the event organisers discussed revealing this news to the target consumers. Notice was given to the whole group by the event head organiser, that the lower sixth form business studies students were divided into two separate classes at two different times; an afternoon class and a morning class due to their great size in total. Therefore, the event head organiser proposed that three group members must inform the morning class and another three people must inform the afternoon class. The reason being was for a confidence boost since making a speech to a large number of people can possibly intimidate some of the event organisers. So, group members without assigned responsibilities at the time, volunteered to reveal the news concerning the Prague trip to the lower year business studies students. To inform the morning class were the assigned informants: Laura Port, Adam Mead and Sunil Rajput. Also, to inform the afternoon class were the assigned informants James Dillon, Joe Medlin, and Adrian Daniels. In addition, unexpected informant, Louise Conyard, also joined the other three informants. As a result, the morning class informants reported that â€Å"a majority of the wanted to go.† (I.e. Laura Port, Adam Mead and Sunil Rajput). Also, the afternoon class informants responded that â€Å"the whole class put their hands up to go on the trip. † (i.e. Joe Medlin, James Dillon, Adrian Daniels and Louise Conyard). Therefore, it can be deduced that the conference event trip to Prague is highly feasible in terms of popularity. SMART AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Therefore, it was now necessary to establish SMART (i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) objectives. These objectives will act as a guide for the whole group of event organisers, to monitor their progress on meeting certain deadlines. These are: * To provisionally book sixty-five year twelve business studies students including the supervision staff and the year thirteen event organisers with ‘European Study Tours’ by Monday 15th October 2007: This will secure places for the approximate number of people who would like to go, but not certain can afford to go on the Prague trip. * To plan and implement all fundraising activities by Wednesday 31st October 2007: The current travel and accommodation budget of two hundred to two hundred and sixty pounds is not affordable by everyone. So, therefore the bar needs to be raised as much as possible before informing the parents of the final cost of this in the letters. * To have raised sufficient funds to pay for the coach fees by Tuesday 20th November 2007: Funds will need to raised, to pay for the coach. This is a fixed cost and not variable, so including it among the travel and accommodation costs will be difficult and it will make the trip seem even more expensive. It is difficult because it cannot be calculated exactly how much the coach will cost per student, since at the end of the day, the number of students going on the Prague tip can vary. * To have all letters to the Parents of the year twelve business studies students concerning the Prague trip, by Wednesday 30th November: The parents need to be aware of the cost of the trip at this time as the holiday ‘Christmas’ is rapidly approaching. Some people spend money to purchase Christmas gifts in advance, and so informing them about the year twelve business studies students Prague trip a month before, can encourage Parents, guardians or whoever will want to pay for the trip, to monitor their finances carefully. * To have all sixty-pound deposits in by Thursday 20th December 2007: As the Prague trip will be a couple of months away, the number of students going will have to be certain by paying deposits, so the planning process of the trip can proceed. * To have secured by Monday 15th January 2008, four guest speakers (ranging from medium to large sized organizations), to share their perspective of business planning and a typical day for them: People in Businesses have tight schedules, and so most people need to be conscious of things in advance otherwise they may make other plans to fill up their schedule. In this case, the potential guest speakers will need to be contacted and arranged for suitable dates, to give their inspirational speeches to the year twelve business studies students. * To have arranged an evening for Parents to discuss matters concerning the Prague trip for the year twelve business studies students, by Thursday 31st January 2008: As around this time, the trip will be rapidly approaching with only two to three weeks to go. Therefore, final preparations will have to be made including the parents of the year twelve business studies students, to discuss any problems they have concerning the trip, as well as hearing the Prague trip’s programme in detail. * To have designed and printed out guest speakers’ programme and evaluation and feedback sheets by Monday 11th February 2008: The year twelve business studies students will need to be aware of what the guest speaker is going to emphasize on, so that they will know what to listen out for when taking notes, making it easier for them to organise them. At the end of the conference, the year thirteen students will need to obtain remarks based on the event, and so the easiest way to do it, instead of asking everyone who participated later, is to hand out feedback sheets for them to fill in straight after the event. Since the ‘SMART objectives’ have been established, the ‘SMART aims’ can now be stated as well, as all the objectives contribute towards these. These aims are: * To plan and execute the Prague Trip (from start to finish) within twenty-seven weeks. * To ensure that the Prague Trip is feasible in terms of the year twelve business studies students. * To ensure that the Prague Trip is viable in terms of the year twelve business studies students. * To provide the year twelve business studies group with an abundance of case studies to apply in their end of year examinations. * To arrive in Prague to run conference event safely, and to return to Marlborough School safely. VIABILITY AND FURTHER FEASIBILITY OF THE EVENT Since that a majority of the lower sixth form Business Studies students wish to take part in the trip. This may mean that fixed costs will be more difficult to meet; compared to having a few consumers i.e. the lower sixth form business studies students. However, having numerous consumers can be advantageous when it comes to bulk purchase of the â€Å"European Study Tours† service, as this could qualify for a discount eventually reducing the costs per person. Although there is a possibility of a discount from the travel and tours, it is not worth taking a risk and waiting till all the finances are in before finding out. Pressurizing the consumers i.e. the lower sixth form business studies students, to pay within an unreasonable deadline is unethical. This will not be fair on them since the event organizers who have proposed the idea of the trip are the ones convincing them, and their parents or guardians. In the long run, this will only put the chances of the consumers deciding to go into jeopardy. This will only aggravate the state of the situation, eventually repelling the consumers. Moreover, analysing the potential scenario situation in a deeper perspective, the inter-relationship of the consumers’ parents and the school will be affected. Also, this may even heavily influence the decision the parents make, regarding giving permission to let their child go on future trips with Marlborough school. Most significantly, the year twelve business studies students are less likely to have suitable case studies resources to use in their examinations, and the event organizers may have to consider the event unviable, thereby calling it off entirely. As a result, time is a very important element in this trip to Prague. Any mistakes or situations that could arise during the administration of the trip cannot be undone because it is impossible to go back in time. It is crucial that everything is organised carefully by the event organisers. Therefore, in conclusion, at the 1st October 2007 meeting, the event organisers reached a verdict to hold a fundraising event. Here, the bar can be lowered to make it easier and faster to meet the deadlines of the variable costs finances, thereby reducing time constraints. This is as there are time constraints to when all the finances can be collected by. Also, at this meeting on 1st October 2007, all of the event organisers proposed fundraising events to investigate into its feasibility and viability. James Dillon and Joe Medlin suggested a school taxi service transporting students to various destinations like parties, outside school in return for a reasonable fee to raise money. Sunil Rajput and Adam Mead came up with a cake stall to raise money. James Wardy and James Flaherty came up with the idea of a football tournament. Louise Conyard, Laura Port and James Lindsay decided into bag packing at a local supermarket. Laura Port and James Lindsay is employed with the supermarket giant â€Å"Sainsburys,† a contact which would be very useful for this fundraising activity for the whole group. Finally, Adrian Daniels and Michael Garvis looked into Muj’s idea of a â€Å"Halloween† themed disco, as the holiday was only a few weeks away making it more sense to do it. At the following week’s meeting i.e. 8th October 2007, all the event organisers reported upon their idea’s feasibility and viability. Adrian Daniels and Michael Garvis reported on the Muj’s idea, which was also included in the investigation, into a â€Å"Halloween† themed school disco. Michael Garvis calculated an estimated budget if this ideas was to be chosen and become a reality. However, plenty of students were required to turn up for the event and to pay the price of around three pounds per person for admission to break-even and produce profit. But this was not for certain to happen, so the even needed to be inviting as possible and promoted as much as possible to ensure that a lot of people turn up. In addition, Adrian Daniels found out that the school hall was not free of charge, although all the event organisers were part of the Marlborough School Students. By the fact that the hall is being used for profit-making reasons, money will be required to be able to hire. Therefore, another fundraising activity would be required to raise start-up capital to be able to afford the hall, which would not require start-up capital. The school hall is the venue of the disco, so it would be essential to run the disco. However, this was not going to be necessary as Muj looked into sponsoring of the event. He asked his local costume store in Watford for sponsorship in return of customers. Through sponsoring, another fundraising event would not be necessary anymore, since the costume store will cover the hall costs in exchange for giving them plenty of customers. Alternatively, Adrian Daniels carried out some secondary research. He interviewed the student â€Å"Elke Cooper† a current year thirteen student with previous experiences with organising a similar event, a â€Å"Valentine Day’s† Ball. She mentioned several essentials to consider. However, she emphasized on the fact that â€Å"the advertising of the event had to be very effective to the target audience as much as possible, including the Marlborough School Newsletter.† Also, in terms of the event taking place, she pointed out that the event cannot be carried out during half term since the school hall facilities will be booked and used by local sports clubs. In addition, the school students may have other arranged plans and might prefer doing something other than going to the Halloween Disco. On the other hand, she also explained that the event could not happen after half term on the actual Halloween day. Halloween Day on the 2007 calendar is on a Wednesday, which is on a weekday. Unfortunately, for the event organisers, Halloween day is not a national holiday but a normal school day for students, meaning the only available time to run the event would be after school. Marlborough School starts at nine in the morning and closes at five past three in the afternoon. After a long day of hard work, the students will feel exhausted and would want to go home to relax. They would want to get rest, so later in the evening they can go â€Å"trick or treating.† However, due to the winter season, the sky gets dark very fast. So, students can bring their costumes to school and after school, they can get ready whilst the disco hall gets prepared. Finally, the event can take place when it is slightly dark, some students catch the coach to school in the morning and back from school, so running this event after school on Halloween Day may not be an option at all. As a result, the event is neither feasible nor viable. James Dillon and Joe Medlin reported back on their text service idea. They suggested that services income is estimated to be around a hundred pounds, due to students who may require a ride to various upcoming parties over Friday and Saturday night. However, it is not certain that these students will require rides to parties that may or may not take place, since they can always be cancelled at the last minute. Therefore, this fundraising method may not seem very reliable in producing over a hundred pounds, thereby not worth doing since there are other potential fundraising methods more likely to bring in more income. Moreover, at the meeting i.e. 8th October 2007, Joe Medlin and James Dillon suggested that they may require more drivers within the trip organizing group. This is so that the event organisers would not have to raise extra capital to pay drivers outside this group, which can lead to less net profit. So, in addition to Joe Medlin, Sunil Rajput, James Wardy and Adam Mead all volunteered to help, who are also qualified drivers over the age of seventeen. However, relying on all these drivers to be present when needed to give rides is not a risk worth taking. As a result, although this fundraising method may be feasible, it is certainly not viable. Alternatively, James Wardy and James Flarherty gave feedback based on their research into a football tournament. This fundraising method seemed feasible due to similar past fundraising methods†¦ â€Å"Hamza Bhandari,† a previous year thirteen business studies student was contacted on 6th October 2007 by Adrian Daniels, one of the event organisers. Hamza was interviewed about his past part in the participation in the school fundraising events. He replied that â€Å"a penalty shootout was run to raise money, eighty pounds was raised in total.†It was successful as a substantial amount of money was raised i.e. eighty pounds. Therefore, it can be predicted that the football tournament is very likely to succeed, due the very similar â€Å"penalty shootout† used to raise funds. It can be predicted that the football tournament is very likely to succeed, due to the very similar â€Å"penalty shootout† used to raise funds. It can be deduced that the event is feasible. As a result, to ensure that the event was viable, James Flaherty and James Wardy spoke to a Physical Education department member, Mr. Lucas, about availability of the school gym facilities to carry out the fundraising event. However, similarly to the â€Å"Halloween School Disco†, the hall must be hired again due to the fact that it is after school hours and the event is held purposefully to make profit. However, it was said also that there would be no time available during school, on break and lunch times. Therefore, the only time to carry out the event would be after school, meaning far less people would be available to stay and also willing to take part, particularly because there is a fee involved for participation and some people may prefer to go home instead. Consequently, this event is considered to be not very viable. Another potential fundraising event was bag packing, which was investigated by Laura Port, James Lindsay and Louise Conyard. James Lindsay was given permission by Sainsbury’s to do the bag packing on the Saturday of 20th October 2007, and the Saturday of 3rd November 2007. However, a disadvantage of this date is that unfortunately most of the event organisers (i.e. the year thirteen business studies students) work on this day. This means that it will be difficult getting everybody to take time off work successfully to take part in bag packing. Although not every single event organiser is working on a Saturday, but having only a few people to help out can significantly reduce the amounts of profit made. And so, the numbers of people present to help need to be maximised, in order to maximise the profits made from the bag packing. But the bag packing activity will not be for the whole day. So, if the event organisers working on a Saturday morning and sacrifice their time after work to help out, their work will not clash with bag packing, and therefore both can occur with no problem. On the other hand, those working afternoon shifts on Saturdays can help out in the mornings to contribute their share of bag packing. This flexibility even enables those without employment on a Saturday, to choose whenever shift (i.e. in the morning or afternoon) they feel is more suitable for them on the day. Previously, the last year thirteen was successful working twelve ‘o’ clock to five ‘o’ clock in the afternoon, and producing eight hundred pounds according to ‘James Flaherty’ on the 8th October meeting. Therefore, a similar time to do the shift can recreate the success last year. Another situation arising from selecting this fundraising event is that, the Sainsbury’s that gave James Lindsay permission is based in Garston. Marlborough school is based in St. Albans and so theoretically, this is where most people live and so a local Sainsbury’s branch will be more convenient. This also applied to the event organisers, where the majority was found to reside in St. Albans. This can be a problem because those who do not live near or in Garston will have to commute with a cost which may include paying train fare, arranging lifts or even using own car’s petrol and also paying for a parking ticket for the long hours of bag packing. Ultimately, this will add up towards the overall costs that each event organiser would have to pay to go on the Prague trip. Nevertheless, Laura port one of the event organisers, devised a solution to the problem. Fortunately for the group, she is in contact with the St. Albans Sainsbury’s branch, and so found out about doing bag packing over there. Laura found out that she needs to appeal with a letter to this branch convincing enough to let the bag packing event happen over there. As a result, it can be deduced that this fundraising event is very feasible as ‘James Lindsay’ was granted permission to do it at his local branch at ‘Garston’, and very viable due to last year’s profits from the event, told by ‘James Flaherty’ i.e. eight hundred pounds. Finally, Sunil Rajput and Adam Mead commented on their research in doing a Cake Stall to raise money. Adam Mead informed the manager and found out that he had to obtain the canteen staff’s full approval before running the event. The canteen staff responded that the event can take place during break time and lunch time. After the entire assigned event organisers contributed their research into potential fundraising activities to increase the finance available for the Prague trip, a vote was made by the organisers to decide the top two activities that should be used for fundraising. Each organiser wrote their top two choices on a piece of paper, and folded it up to prevent any organiser from seeing this so that it would not influence their choices. The majority votes won which were the ‘Cake Stall’ and ‘Bag Packing.’ More votes were made to decide which activity was going to be the fundraiser, this time the whole group votes by hand. Majority votes ruled, and the ‘Cake Stall’ was chosen. Without delay, plans were made to achieve and end this fundraising as soon as possible; to meet the Prague trip aim was ‘To complete fundraising events by the end of October’. Therefore, Sunil Rajput and Adam Mead were assigned to confirm to the canteen staff that the fundraising event was going to happen. James Lindsay was assigned to write up a brief column in the Marlborough School newsletter concerning the Cake Stall and the reason for doing it. Toyosi Akinola was also assigned, to write a letter to the school head. Tinashe J. was assigned to inform the school office about the cake stall, asking if the school reception can be a collection point for the cakes. On the other hand, everybody needed to decide on a date to carry out the event. As a result, the whole group selected ‘Friday 19th October 2007’. On this day of the week, year thirteen have plenty of free time, since that there is a free period in the morning (i.e 9.00am- 10.00am) , plus a one and a half period (i.e. one hour thirty minutes) of General studies, which also leaves plenty of time to spare before the sixth form lunch time (i.e. 12.25am- 1.05pm). This schedule will enable the event organisers to serve cakes during the lower/higher breaks (i.e. 10.00am- 10.20am and 11.00- 11.20am respectively) and the lower/higher lunches ( i.e. 12.20am- 1.05pm and 1.20pm-2.05pm respectively). Also, with this day being the following week, sufficient time was created to advertise the upcoming cake stall to the school effectively. One of the main methods use to promote the cake stall was the posters that the group were asked to design, and assess at the next meeting before duplicating them to put around school . An example of one of the posters put around the school grounds was: (see next page) The cake stall needed cakes to sell for profit in the cake stall. This was not included in the poster because it might put people off buying cakes from the cake stall. Therefore, the whole group came to a decision to bring in as many cakes, biscuits and other related confectionary such as cookies, whether cooked or purchased. Also, in the newsletter column that ‘James Lindsay’ was assigned to compose, included that The following meeting was on Monday 15th October 2007. Toyosi Akinola was successful in convincing the head to permit the cake stall sell to happen with his fantastic letter. And so this was the official confirmation to let the cake stall take place on the upcoming Friday. As a result, the promotion of this stall had to be more effective. So, the event organisers all contributed in phrasing a memo to all teachers in the school. This is how the memo turned out: CAKE SELL Please read this out to the class (Teachers) As part of their A-level Business Studies course, the year thirteen business studies students need to organise an event. They need to hold a cake sale on Friday. And to reduce the costs of this event, they need to hold this in Pascal Hall in 19th October during both breaks and lunch time. The teachers informing the students about the cake stall will ensure that they are all aware of it, even if they do not spot the posters being posted up around the school. However, those who were absent to hear this memo may find out about the cake stall through the posters or their friends through word of mouth as ‘gossip is a great traveller’. Also, the event organisers brought in their poster designs and showed each other. Then the whole group decided what could be done to improve them before putting them up around the whole school. This is what one of the posters looked after amendments have been made: The more improved versions of the poster did not include the fact that the event for was for the profit-making purpose to raise funds for the Prague trip. This part of the poster was not necessary and it had to be brief and straight to the point for people to read the whole message. However, if it was made long some people would be put off and walk away from the poster, thereby missing out on the essential message that the cake stall is on the upcoming Friday. James Lindsay failed to submit the memo to all of the teachers concerning the Cake stall. However, the newsletter column composed by the event organiser head was released by Friday, at the end of the school week. This backed up James Lindsay and the message concerning the upcoming Cake Stall got through to all of the students who picked up a newsletter in their form rooms. These newsletters are usually handed out by the students form tutors, and so the chance of them receiving the newsletter was very high. The event organiser chair decided that all of the event organisers needed to a break time and a lunch time each, be it a lower or higher one. The lower and higher break and lunch time shifts had to be evenly distributed to all the event organisers, to make it fair on everyone. So everybody volunteered to do combinations of lower/higher breaks and lower/higher lunches to suit their own flexibility. When it seemed that too many people were in one group, (i.e. a lower/higher break or a lower/higher lunch) then event organisers such as ‘Adrian Daniels’ changed group for the sake of fairness, by changing from a lower lunch to an upper lunch. As a result, this was the outcome for the Cake Stall schedule for Friday 19th October 2007: Lower Break Upper Break Lower Lunch Higher Lunch (10.00-10.20) (11.00-11.20) (12.20-13.05) (13.20-14.05) Adam Lindsay Lindsay Adam Laura Wardy Laura Adrian Louise Dillon Wardy Joe Adrian Toyosi Dillon Muj Michael Flaherty Toyosi Tinashe Muj Joe Flaherty Louise Tinashe Tinashe Michael The Cake Stall schedule was put together in a a way, that there will be sufficient ratio of event organisers selling and supervising, to the consumers (i.e. the school years on break or lunch time, like the years seven, eight and nine out for upper break). This way, there would not be too many event organisers at the Cake Stall at one time, or too little event organisers at the cake stall to cope at one time. Although there was an equal number of event organisers out for each cake stall except the ‘upper lunch’, it did not matter because any body free at the time of the ‘upper lunch’ can give additional help if needed. So even if one person turned up to help the ‘upper lunch’ and make all the cake stall time schedules equal, it was adequate and fair. Thursday 18th October was the date set for the event organisers to hand in their cakes. There were various ‘cake hand-in points’ to take the cakes too, because the canteen would only hold the cakes for the day of the cakes stall. Some of these points were the school ‘reception’ and the ‘business studies department office’. These places were selected so that the cakes could be kept secure. Preservations were not a situation as all the cakes and other confectionary had expiry dates displayed on them. This date was also the day before the big cakes stall sell, so if anybody forgot to bring in the cakes on the actual day (i.e. Friday 19th October 2007) they could bring them in, in advance. However, if anybody forgot to bring them in on Thursday, the following meeting on Thursday acted as a reminder. The finances concerning the cake stall were also discussed at the 15th October 2007 meeting. The following meeting was on Thursday 18th October, the day before the cakes stall sell. Laura Port was assigned by the event organisers’ chair to collect ten pounds worth of change from the bursar. Change was required for the cake stall to start-up with, otherwise waiting to make adequate money through the cake sells in order to give the consumers (i.e. school students) change can be time consuming. The school students break or lunch time is for a limited time only. So the school students would want to be able to buy their cakes, have their break or lunch, and then finish in time for their next lessons. The event organisers also agreed that the cakes will sell from prices ranging from twenty-five to fifty pence. The prices of the cakes and the other confectionary were to be confirmed for the next meeting. ‘Michael Garvis volunteered to bring in some margarine containers to collect the money made from the cake stall in. ‘Petty cash’ or coins will mainly be used by the customers to pay for the cakes and other confectionary, so there would not be a need for a cash register. The ratio of event organisers to customers will also be sufficient enough for them to supervise the money right in front of them. The ‘year eight’ group was due to be absent for the day, which could possibly affect the rate of sales, and more significantly, the rate of sales. ‘Joe Medlin’ and ‘Adrian Daniels’ volunteered to collect the money made from the cake stall at the last sell, at upper lunch, to the treasurer. He or she can calculate how much has been made and keep the funds safe for future use i.e. costs going towards the trip such as coach fees. The finance issues concerning the cake stall had been discussed and sorted. So next were the health and safety concerns for the sale: The event organisers agreed to arrive ten minutes early before the cake stall sell. This would allow enough time to setup the cake stall in the hall before any commotion is caused by the consumers (i.e. the Marlborough school students). Also, it was agreed between the event organisers that the cake stall queue had to be organised, to prevent the consumers pushing each other about to get into the line. However, if the cake stall was not so popular and only a few students turned up, it may not be necessary to create a queue barrier. Since there is a chance of fights arising from the queue, a risk assessment is to be created to evaluate how severe incidents could potentially become during the cake stall. Then suitable health and safety measures can be carried out to protect the consumers and customers, (i.e. the school students) the cakes and other people like the teachers. As the cake stall is a business, the Government’s health and safety procedures have to be observed: http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/EnvironmentalServices/HealthAndSafety/hs_riskassessments.pdf Therefore according to the ‘Health & Safety at Work Act 1974’, employers are to take â€Å"reasonably practicable† precautions in various areas to safeguard employees. In this case, the event organizers are to consider suitable safety measures in the cake stall to protect all the stakeholders, which include the customers and the teachers. To do this it must be ensured that good judgment is made about the extent of risks that could happen at the cake stall, and its consequences. In regards to the legal governmental health and safety Governmental requirements, the ‘Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1992/1999’ has also been considered. It states that: â€Å"Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of: à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ The risks to the health and safety of his/her employees to which they are exposed while they are at work; and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ The risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him or his undertaking: For the purposes of identifying the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions†. The findings must be recorded if five or more are employed. In this case, a risk assessment must be drawn up by all the event organisers for the cake stall, in order to produce health and safety solutions for the event. Therefore, a risk assessment will be carried out. CAKE STALL RISK ASSESSMENT LOCATION: ACTIVITY: SELLING CAKES PASCAL HALL, AT STAND, AND OTHER MARLBOROUGH CONFECTIONARY SUCH AS SCHOOL COOKIES PEOPLE AT RISK: MARLBOROUGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, CUSTOMERS, CONSUMERS, TEACHERS, CANTEEN STAFF. POTENTIAL HAZARDS: FIGHTING (E.G QUEUE PUSHING) EXPIRED CAKES AND OTHER CONFECTIONARY EXCITED CUSTOMERS NOISE NUTS IN CAKES, COOKIES, MUFFIN, ETC TABLE LEG WET ADJUSTMENTS FLOOR MOPED BY CLEANING STAFF POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES: SLIPPING TRIPPING OVER STAIRS FOOD ALLERGIES TOE INJURY BLINDING FOOD CONTAMINATION EXISTING CONTROLS: FRESHLY BAKED CAKES/BISCUITS CAKES AND OTHER CONFECTIONARY PURCHASED WITH A VALID EXPIRY DATE RISK RATING WITH EXISTING CONTROLS: HIGH MEDIUM ? (Major Injury: Fighting) LOW NEW CONTROLS REQUIRED: QUEUE BARRIERS (To be improvised with chairs) TEACHER SUPERVISION ENSURING THAT THE HALL FLOOR IS COMPLETELY DRY BEFORE CAKE SELLING BEGINS CAKE STALL TABLES TO BE KEPT FIRMLY TOGETHER IN POSITION RISK RATING WITH NEW CONTROLS: HIGH MEDIUM LOW ? (Major injuries: tripping over stairs, food allergies {all cakes that are purchased from stores like ‘Asda’ are not 100% certain to contain traces of nuts in them) ASSESSOR NAME†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦JOB TITLE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. SIGNATURE †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. DATE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦DATE TO BE REVIEWED†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. The cakes and other confectionary prices were also decided on at the meeting: (i.e. Thursday 18th October 2007) Fixed Costs à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Hire of Hall 0 Ten pounds worth of change 10 Cake Stand Tables (school property) 0 Money containers (complimentary of ‘Michael Garvis’) 0 Cakes and other confectionary (donated) 0 Napkins ( Complimentary of ‘James Lindsay’) 0 Total 10 Variable costs (per customer) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Little Muffins 0.25 Plain Cupcakes 0.30 Cupcakes with icing 0.40 Big muffins 0.55 Big Cookies 0.40 Biscuits 0.20 Mini Fairy Cakes 0.20 Flapjacks 0.20 Small Cookies 0.20 The cake stall took place on Friday 19th October 2007. No incidents/accidents happened due to the new improved controls introduced from creating and making risk assessments. The follow-up meeting was 29th October 2007. The cake stall sale was reviewed. The event organisers discussed that the ‘plain cupcakes’ were not so popular during the break times, and therefore were not selling well. As a result, ‘Louise Conyard’ took initiative and sprinkled some icing on top of all of them to add value and sped up sales. This simple action helped to sell all of them. There were certain cakes that were selling well and not selling so well. And so, it was discussed between the event organisers that more of these high in demand cakes could have been purchased during the day of the cake stall to boost sales. This would have also have boosted profits. Also, it was mentioned during the meeting that the cake stall was not as popular as anticipated. This may have been due to the fact that promotion was not as effective as required, and that insufficient posters may have been posted up around the school. In future, marketing of the event would need to be more effective if another fundraising event had to take place, to raise additional funds. However, some of the Marlborough school students may have preferred bringing their own snacks to school or buying other snacks in school, and bringing their own packed lunch to school or buying school dinners from the canteen. This competition between the canteen and the cake stall during the break and lunchtimes could have definitely hindered sales. Not all of the cakes sold at the end of both breaks and lunches, so event organisers including ‘James Dillon’ and ‘Toyosi Akinola’ discussed their idea of how they went round the school trying to boost sales with a tray of cakes and other related confectionary. This was highly successful since all of them were sold! As a result, two hundred and twenty four pounds in total was produced from the event. It was considered that this could be used to pay off the trip’s fixed costs, including the coach fees. However, this was insufficient capital to meet these costs. ‘Adrian Daniels’, one of the groups of event organisers contacted the ‘South Mimms Coach travel service’, a very good, long-term coach supplier for Marlborough School. The quote that Adrian received was that: â€Å"Two coaches including baggage space to transport approximately eighty people would cost five hundred pounds. This will include parking spaces and waiting time at the Luton Airport and Marlborough School.† – A South Mimms Coaches representative From the look of the amount of funds raised from the cake stall, around half of the coach fees have been raised. Therefore, an additional fundraising event will be required and the objective â€Å"to implement all fundraising events by Wednesday 31st October 2007† would have to be extended the maximum an additional month, otherwise it could clash with the deadline to have all the letters to the parents concerning the Prague Trip out. As a result, the second place fundraising event chosen was ‘Bag Packing’, and this alternative will also be used to boost the current funding towards the Prague Trip of two hundred and twenty-four pounds. Laura Port volunteered to get in contact with the Sainsbury’s branch in St. Albans, whilst James Dillon also agreed to get in contact with his local Sainsbury’s branch too, at Garston. Therefore, in order to meet the next objective, this event would have taken place by the end of November. Since at least two Saturdays are required for the whole group to carry out bag packing, and the first fundraising event (i.e. the cake stall) has taken place before the end of October, So far accomplishing the objectives to date, the Prague trip is proved feasible. Since the critical parts of the event organisation process are out of the way, it is possible to proceed with planning the rest of the event and careful monitoring; that everything goes to plan and progress is monitored vigilantly. Most significantly, the finances will have to be watched, since they determine whether or nor the trip will take place entirely. Therefore, a letter to the parents will need to be released by the end of November, making them aware of the upcoming deposit deadlines and other details relevant to the Prague trip. At the first meeting back after the school summer vacations i.e. 24th September 2007, the event organizers of the year thirteen business studies students decided that the most appropriate solution to communicate the message about the Prague trip to the parents would be to write a formal letter as soon as possible. This would explain to the parents as well as the students: > What the event is about > Why they should go on the trip > What is required for the trip to occur > When it will take place and end > What the trip co-coordinators’ are aiming to attain for the students who go on the trip > The eventual benefits > Keeping both parents and the student up-to-date with the most recent news regarding the conference trip. At the end of the letter, an optional ‘cut-out’ permission slip can allow for the student and the parents to agree on whether or not he or she can go on the trip, backed up with their individual signatures. All the event organisers agreed to design a letter being addressed to the parents of the year twelve business studies students concerning the Prague Trip. All the best aspects of the whole groups’ letters’ were to be combined in fashioning the perfect letter. An example of a letter design of one of the event organisers was: Re: Educational Trip to Prague Dear Sir/Madam, We are proud to inform you that the Year 13 Business Studies students are organizing a business conference that will be great benefit to your child’s education, particularly in AS level Business Studies. At the end of the course, students must write a Business Studies exam based on ‘people at work.’ In this exam, they will have to apply that knowledge of what they have learnt during the year, including applying and referring it to real- existing business firms. The exam is worth 33.3% of their final AS grade in the course, so the information they can obtain from companies to apply in case studies to fulfil their exam specification requirements is vital. Various guest speakers representing the different business firms will come in and give an inspirational talk to the students about what their job role is on a typical day as well as their personal experiences. The students will be given plenty of opportunities to take notes and questions, so they will most definitely make the most of their stay their. They will also visit businesses like a beer factory and also have time to do some Prague sightseeing while they are appreciating the scenery of places like the ‘Prague Castle,’ etc. The trip to Prague, the capital city of Czech Republic will take place on Thursday 21st February till Sunday 24th February 2008. Coaches will arrive and depart on time to their airport, so please ensure that your child gets to the departure point at a suitable time. We will ensure that you will be informed about most recent news regarding this trip, so we will keep you updated. Communication is very important, especially when there are time constraints. Therefore, it is vital that when it comes to communicating, it is done effectively so that all the event organizers are motivated to persevere to accomplish the Prague Trip objectives. Time could be constrained even more if they are demotivated to meet these goals, which makes communication crucial for the event to succeed. Although all the event organizers may have the potential to succeed as a unit (i.e. a ‘pseudo’ team), but however if they are all not organized well enough and fail to contribute to the team where they may specialize, for example bringing in imaginative concepts to which everyone going to the Prague trip can alert each other whenever when in Prague, then the whole group is at risk of collapsing. Therefore, the event organizers need allocate one another job roles where each other fits in or works best. But before this can happen, the whole group needs to be aware of the Prague trip schedule from start to finish, so that everybody will realize at which point in this schedule they can take an active role in. As a result, a Gantt chart will be created to meet this need.