The next week began with one last major project on our table. We were to make a DVD out of all the photos and film that were taken during that week. I was in my glory. I love putting those kinds of things together. I have never done that exactly but I was quite excited to learn such an amazing marketing tool. After countless hours of reviewing footage and pictures, labeling teams and awards, and going over songs and how exactly we were going to put this all together my boss go an email at the end of the week. The email included a DVD already made from the one of the guys that took the pictures for the tournament. Although we have already spent a while on this project this gentleman’s work was very good. The entire office reviewed it and we all came to a consensus to use his DVD. But I got to make changes!!! I got make sure all the teams were showed, well at least all the ones we have pictures of, I got to move things around, and like my boss said “put a little player touch to it”. It was nice that all my hard work didn’t go to waste and I still got a pretty good idea of how to make the DVD. The rest of the week consisted of wrapping everything up. Got all the papers together, thank you letters and just talked about the job offers I received throughout the internship. That Friday night we went to a local crab house where the office took me out to dinner. It was a great way to conclude an AMAZING internship. From the experience, to the people I got to work with, a long with all the experiences I could possibly have in the future; I couldn’t ask for anything better!!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
July 31-Aug 3 (20 hours)
Since it was so busy these past two weeks my boss gave me Monday off. It was great to get a break but Sunday and Monday just felt so empty. We both agreed that we felt so weird to finally have the tournament over. We had spent so much time, well all of our time on this and it was just amazing to see it come and go very successfully. I went back to work on Tuesday where Andy (my boss) and I did a lot of talking and reviewing from the tournament. I thought it was very good that we discuss the tournament, what people said and our own personally opinions. We had kind of been doing that the entire week but it was really good to sit back and then go over it all. Several things were brought up during this time but what we really focused on was the next step. Just because the tournament was over doesn’t mean that the work was over. We made a list of things we would do the next couple of days. Along with follow up we also had another tournament coming to town on Friday. It was a lot smaller men’s fast pitch tournament. So while we didn’t have too much planning for this one we did have to provide some things. So once our list of what I was to do and what Andy was to do to follow up our World Series I started making sure all the hotel rooms confirmed for the umpires we had coming into town that weekend. We have a very good relationship with our hotel, which allows doing such things as get rooms compensated for our umpires to lessen the expense. While I made sure the rooms were compensated I also gave the hotels the name of the umpires in which they would be hosted. That way there would be a less chance of confusion when they were checking in. Little things like that are very important to make sure of in order to make sure we wouldn’t have more to take care of later.
Wednesday and Thursday was full of checking off stuff on our list. The main project I worked on was auditing our report from the major World Series tournament. I primarily checked the advertisement part because I spent so much time with the transferring of money and orders. I kept a very diligent copies and records of all the transfers. So with most of them I just had to double check the accounting office’s statement with ours.
Once I audited our report I made a very thorough account of who still owed us, what they owed, along with all their contact info. After my boss and I went over it all I sent it to our accounting office. Though I didn’t see that particular job being difficult I did enjoy doing. I loved that they allowed me to follow up on stuff I was working on this entire summer as well as them trusting me enough to get all our money in.
July 23-28 (90 hours)
The games lasted up until Saturday night. All the days were quite the same besides that day. That day started off the same but it was a great day for PR. And while every day I made it a point to network and personally go up to teams and families to see how they were enjoying their time as well as thank them for coming.Yet, the last day was our last face to face chance to making a good impression to get them to come back next year. At the last day there was only six teams left ad six games left. This really gave us a good chance to watch the games and thank the coaches after each game. Once our tournament director announced and awarded the girl/s from that team it was my job to post their name and award on the internet. I’ve learned so much about their computer program.
Its one they use at all their tournaments, for all sports, and all year round. I’d be able to use it if I just work a weekend tournament for them again or if I go to work for USSSA as suggested they wanted.
After everything started to wrap up we ended the day pretty normal and went for a late dinner. And while all of us were exhausted we couldn’t help but talk about everything that happened that week. It was a great way to informally overview the week.
July 21 & 22 (18 hours)
Sunday was a little different. I began the day at the office; making signs for Coach’s check in, responding to last minute emails and phone calls. But once that was over myself, my boss and the regional tournament director all went on quite extensive site visits. We went to all three park sites where we met with the park and complex managers and double checked out the fields made sure the breakaway fences were up, the mounds and bases were at the right measurements. We also spent a good portion of the day delivering the last odds and ends to the site of our Mom’s meeting, Coach’s meeting and check in, and Opening ceremonies. All in all this weekend was quite busy but definitely not as crazy as the tournament week was.
July 16-20 (45 hours)
When I got back from time with my boyfriend it was right back to work. During this week I began by working on invitations to our rendition of a coach’s meeting but for team moms. My boss and I decided it would be a great idea to build relationships with these teams by 1st providing a meeting just for moms (definitely one of the first that I know of) and by personally inviting them to let them know just what we intended to offer. After writing up the invitations and emailing them to all the team contacts I then had to run over to our local mall to meet with the General Manager, their mall Marketer/Special Events and her assistant marketer to go over exactly how we wanted to run this meeting as well as see what they had come up with.
During this time I also had to stay very connected with one of our partners, the Delmarva Shorebirds. The Delmarva Shorebirds are a local triple A baseball team for the Baltimore Orioles here in