The internship doesn't just focus on a certain area or job, it is many different responsibilities. It is more along the line of operations management with some focus in sales, communication, and business management. There are 3 interns this summer and we all have different responsibilities. I am the assistant volunteer coordinator and I am in charge of a pro-am event. We worked from May through the middle of August with very long weeks, and I logged my duties for each week below.
I was on vacation with my family so I didn't start working until two weeks later than the other interns. So I was a little behind on what was going on so I had to catch up pretty quick. The Voluneer Coordinator helped to guide me along and get me started on my responsibilities and expectations in the upcoming weeks. She showed me where things were located and how to use the computer and phone. This day was mostly spent overviewing the job, the facility, and my jobs. Since I am the assistant volunteer coordinator I was in charge of helping with registering volunteers and using the computer databases. So my first week basically revolved around getting caught up on registration forms, filing papers, entering records into the computer, and making phone calls. I also did some work with excel helping our director of marketing by creating two spreadsheets for our organizational chart and summer golf show records. I began working on my big project of creating the volunteer and player manual to pass out before the event. This is going to be a very long process to gather the necessary information for it. At the end of the week we had a short meeting with the director of marketing to just get everyone up to date on what we have been working on. It was a lot of information to take in, but I feel as if I'm ready for the job and will enjoy it.
Week Two: 6/4-6/8 Hours: 9am-5pm
After getting adjusted to work and expectations in the first week, I was used to work and given more things to work on. We had a staff meeting with all the office workers to discuss future plans and what we need to accomplish. Later on in the week, I went to my first business meeting where we met with the three companies that are apart of the Pro-Am event I am the head of. This was very insightful to see how meetings are conducted. I began to get more in depth with the computer and the different databases. I was given the records from our sponsors and their contact information and had to enter them into our system. I did more work with entering in volunteers and signing them up. The biggest project of the week was creating the committee time shifts. This means that I had to type of the different volunteer committees that work the event, enter in the days, and put in the times of their shifts so the committee directors can assign workers into those spots. Another project I worked on was looking up articles on the internet about the tournament in the past year to create a tournament notebook to keep on record. Jamie Farr was in the office this week to shoot some commercials for the local radio stations and I had to type up the script for what he was to say. On Friday I typed up letters and I labeled and sent them out to households that were interested in housing a player for the tournament. It was a very long week to say the least, and it kept me very busy. But I had some great experience and I got to meet Jamie Farr.
Week Three: 6/11-6/15 Hours: 9am-5pm
The week started with Media Day on Monday and this took up nearly the entire day. This is a pretty important day for the tournament. There is a golf scramble held in the early morning, a lunch and awards after play, and it concludes with a press conference with the defending champion of the event in 2010. I was there at 7am to help with checking players into the event with the other interns. After the scramble started, another intern and I loaded up equipment to take to the Boy's and Girl's Club for a golf clinic. The defending champion, Ne Yeon Choi, as well as her friend and caddie were also going to be present. She answered questions from the kids and then helped to instruct with chipping and putting. Adam and I set up the equipment and supervised during the clinic. It was a fun time being there helping with the kids. After the clinic we loaded up the equipment and went back for the press conference at the golf course. Tuesday and Wednesday was back in the office taking care of volunteer stuff on the computer. I also helped the marketing director with coming up with a list of possible local restaurants that would donate items for our raffle at the end of the tournament. I also wrote up a sponsor spotlight to cover the new Hollywood Casino that opened up in Toledo. Thursday and Friday was mostly spent at the local mall in Toledo. I had to go store to store talking to the managers and asking for donations. Every year during tournament week we have a Gala Dinner and Silent Auction so we ask local businesses to donate an item for it. This wasn't as easy as I thought, because most people were not interested in donating and some had to go through corporate headquarters which was a real pain. I have no problem talking to people, but I seemed nervous at times because I was trying to make my pitch to get them to donate. Everyone was polite to me and respected what I was doing.
Week Four: 6/18-6/22 Hours: 9am-5pm
For this week I continued to help our marketing director with the gala dinner and silent auction items. I was making follow up phone calls to businesses I spoke too. I also made calls to local restaurant about making a donation for our auction as in gift certificates to be packaged with other items. Some of the office work was a little slower than normal because our boss was out of the office spending time with his family so we just all kept to ourselves while he was gone. I was able to get a head start on the volunteer and player handbook that is passed out before the tournament week. These handbooks need to be looked over, edited, and updated with new information for the tournament. The volunteers get their handbook when they pick up their uniforms and it covers all details about the tournament. All players also get a handbook when they arrive at the tournament. I also have the weekly task of entering in new volunteers to the database. We get volunteer registration forms every day and many call in and sign up. Its a long process to go through all the pages and enter in their info and where they want to work. I had two meetings during the week; volunteer committee directors, and caddie director. The volunteer meeting was with all the people in charge of the different volunteer jobs and how the process was of getting their schedules finished. I met with the caddie director because we use caddies for the pro-am events during tourney week, and I was to send out flyers and get them signed up.
Week Five: 6/25-6/29 Hours: 9am-5pm
The week got off to a slow start on Monday because of computer problems. Something happened with my computer over the weekend and I lost several programs from my computer and I couldn't connect to the Internet. Our maintenance guy wasn't able to come in till the afternoon on Tuesday. In the meantime, I began labeling envelopes with addresses to all registered volunteers about some new items available for purchase. I also went downtown to pick up some office supplies at Home Depot to re-stock all of our needed supplies. I also made over 80 phone calls to volunteers that had not paid to volunteer. We needed to make sure they were still planning to volunteer and then we could get their uniforms ordered. That was a very long process because I left messages for many people and they didn't call back. Everyday I had to make follow-up phone calls. I don't understand why people can't check their messages and get back to me as soon as possible since it is important. Once my computer was up and running, I was able to catch up with my volunteer registration forms. The ladies that are in charge of the tickets asked me to help them out and create a spreadsheet for when they delivered tickets. I was to have a sheet with the company name, date, number of tickets, and the type of tickets so we could keep track of everything. It seemed that things were changing in the office and people were realizing that.
Week Six: 7/2-7/3 Hours: 9am-5pm
This was a very short two day work week because of the 4th of July holiday. Our boss decided to give us 3 days off and enjoy our week. For Monday I helped our marketing director with deciding the lunch menu for the Pro-Am events during tournament week and then typing them up to be sent out in an email. I also had to make more follow up calls to unpaid volunteers and local restaurants about donations. On Tuesday I entered in more volunteers and edited some of the time shifts for the different volunteer committees so that volunteers can check their schedule online. I also created an order form for a Callaway jacket that was available for purchase, and then I had it posted to our online site. People could then order it from their and then mail the form back to our office. Before the end of the day, I ran off copies of the clubhouse tickets to be used to certify clubhouse access to volunteers for the tournament.
Week Seven: 7/9-7/13 Hours: 8am-5pm
We started working an extra hour and sometimes even longer starting this week. Being up an extra hour earlier was tough for me since I was commuting from Tiffin to Toledo every morning. I would leave Tiffin around 6:30 every morning. Due to our long break, I had many messages and emails left for me to tend to regarding donations and volunteers. The phone was constantly ringing because volunteers and people were calling about the tournament and other questions. They would ask us anything and everything and would get upset if we didn't have an answer right away. This week was things started to take shape and more preparation was being done for the tournament a month away. I sat in on the meetings for the two pro-am events that I was helping with to understand what was expected of me, and what I needed to have ready for them. I also had a lot of mail to go through concerning jacket orders, caddie forms, and volunteers. I sorted out all of them and then made spreadsheets to keep track of caddies and the jacket orders. We were very short on standard bearer volunteers, which are typically kids that walk with each group of players and carry a sign that posts their score. My boss printed out a list of past standard bearers from 2010, and told me to go through and call them to see if they would be interested. After looking through the list I had nearly 120 people to call! My boss and I also started the volunteer newsletter to send out to all the volunteers to keep them up to date with information and let them know about anything important coming up. The biggest project of the week for me was the volunteer and player handbooks. We needed to get them finalized and taken to the store to get printed off. I was working with the marketing director to make sure I had all the changes made and updated information. It was important to have these correct because it has all vital information regarding the event and information for the players to use. I was able to get it finished and taken to Kinko's to get printed in time for the tournament.
Week Eight: 7/16-7/20 Hours 8am-5pm
This week we added another person to the workforce to help us prepare for the tournament only a few weeks away. A practicum student from a local high school started to work for us because it was part of her high school credit. She was unpaid and helped work in the office for half days during the week. Her and I worked together on many things because at the time I was the busiest intern and needed her help contacting and recruiting volunteers. I also helped get her started by showing her how to use the online database for volunteers and how to answer some typical questions that may be asked. We began going through the list of all the standard bearers from 2010 and called or emailed them. This is also the week where my biggest and most stressful task was introduced. The man that has been in charge of the standard bearer committee and scheduling them was to busy with his job to do it this year. My boss decided that I should try and do it, this was the first time an intern was in charge of a committee. He came and showed me the spreadsheet he used and how to set up the times so it was my job to determine when the volunteers could work and schedule them accordingly for the entire tournament week. I got a good start on it with the amount of people we had signed up but I had to wait for at least 50 more people to sign up in order to complete it. Because of the shortage of standard bearers, a competition was started by our bosses for us interns to go out and recruit as many people possible by contacting local organizations or people we knew. This was a fun process and allowed us to help get enough volunteers for the tournament. We had until August 1 to get as many as we could. The transportation committee was nearly full but there were many of the members that had not completed their driver release form that enabled them to drive the rental vans. I went through the list and contacted them to go online and fill out the form and send it in to our office. Our marketing director had invitations made for the Gala dinner and they arrived during the week. On Friday we spent the whole day labeling the table numbers on the cards so that people knew what table they were to sit at. There was some 1,500 people invited to this big event! After that long process we put them in individual envelopes and then packaged them all together by company to have them shipped out to the corporate offices. This was by far the busiest week and most stressful.
Week Nine: 7/23-7/28 Hours: 8am-9pm
Monday we had to come in a little earlier to the office because we had to pack up all our office supplies and move out to the golf course. We moved all our stuff and things to prepare for the event out to trailers and storage trailers set up on the golf course grounds. The moving company was coming around 9 that next morning so we needed to have everything boxed up and ready to go. Before we left I had to process all credit card charges we had to pay for volunteer uniform orders, tickets, and jacket orders. Tuesday we moved everything over to the course and then spent most of the day unloading the truck, and then getting things in order. Later that day us interns made a trip across town to a warehouse to pick up items for a pro am event for tournament week. Wednesday we were all settled in and I was back to work on the computer. I had to check up on my participants for my pro am events, and make sure that their teams were registered online. Some companies did not have their teams complete so I had to contact the company to double check that they were still going to get a team. I also had to work on the standard bearer schedule and that took up most of my day. I continued to get more people that signed up and our competition was getting many more kids. I printed out a master spread sheet of all the people and the times they were available to try and make it easier for me. I knew I would have to continue to make changes but I wanted to get as much done as possible. Thursday was spent finalizing more of the committee schedule shift times. Uniforms were delivered to the church down the street where they were to be passed out next week. We had to unload the boxed and get them sorted. Friday and Saturday I worked on more of the schedules online and called more people about being a standard bearer.
Week Ten: 7/30-8/5 Hours: 8am-? 82 hours
This was a very long week in the office for me. I logged 82 hours of work this week! I was in the office most of the time to deal with volunteer questions and answer phone calls while the others were out on the course setting up. It wasn't my ideal thing to do because I like to be more hands on and be involved and not sit in the trailer all day. Monday and Tuesday I stayed in and registered late signees for volunteers and added more to the standard bearer schedule. We also had many different deliveries for the clubhouse and items to be used on the course. Wednesday was uniform distribution day and it was very hectic. We had to go down to the church with all the committee directors that were there to have meeting and answer questions about volunteering. All the people came in throughout the day to pick up their orders and finalize payments if needed. I also won the contest for getting the most people signed up for standard bearers with 22! The other interns weren't even close.Thursday we were back at the trailer and brought back the uniforms that weren't picked up. I had to stay inside again to be there when people showed up to pick them up. I answered phone calls and also worked on the standard bearer schedule. Friday I finalized everything for my pro am for the next week, made final adjustment to my schedules and standard bearers. Sunday I had the standard bearer schedule completed and sent it out in a mass email. It was such a relief to have that finished and to relax the rest of the day in the office. It was such a long week and I was constantly multi-tasking. Next week I knew would be much better with the tournament week starting and we didn't really have to do much since we were all finished.
Monday afternoon was my first pro-am that i was in charge of. I had to set up the registration area, get prizes set up, and prepare the banquet room tables for after play. In the morning I was in the office answering phones and helped answer questions from the LPGA players that arrived. I also helped with the standard bearer people to make sure everything was in order and we had enough kids. Judd, our tournament director had a surprise for me that day! My favorite women's player is Natalie Gulbis and he brought me outside to the practice area and introduced me to her! I got to talk to her and get a picture, It was awesome to meet her! Tuesday was my second pro-am event that was held at the prestigious Inverness Golf Club. I had to be there at 7am for registration and team check in. Then I went back to the office to load up the prizes for the players. I set up the banquet room prizes and was there when the teams finished. I collected the score cards and gave them to the people at Inverness. The dinner was great and it was a good day. I was able to speak some with Jamie Farr himself because he always participates in the pro-am events. After the event, I went back to the course and helped get a few last minute things prepared for the celebrity pro-am the next day. We got off work early around 5 because that night was the Gala Dinner and silent auction. Wednesday I was there in the morning to assist in standard bearers and make some adjustments to the schedule for them. This was the biggest day for all of us workers because we had to take care of everything for the celebrity pro-am. I also set up tables and chairs in the pavilion for the after play party that day. The rest of the day we were able to watch the action on the course and answer the phones in the office. Thursday was the start of the tournament and the atmosphere completely changed. People were less stressed and in a better mood because the LPGA took over running the operations aspect for the weekend. We were less busy in the office but had a lot of phone calls regarding tournament questions. I had to be a standard bearer for a group for 18 holes because people didn't show up. That was a fun experience getting to follow the ladies around and watch them play. After that was over I was stuck in the office for the rest of the day. Friday through Sunday was basically the same thing everyday for me. I assisted in the standard bearer schedule and making sure people were in order for their tee times. I had to stay in the office most of the time to answer the phones while the other interns got to go out and watch the players. I was able to switch with them some and go follow Natalie Gulbis! My parents came up for the weekend so I spent some time on the course with them. Sunday afternoon our winner was announced and we all got to be out there for the winners ceremony on the 18th green and set up the table and chairs. I felt so honored when I was out there in front of all the people because I was part of such a great event. I was introduced by my boss and it was just a great feeling! Sunday evening was spent cleaning up the course and taking down tents and signs. Once we got most of the stuff taken care of we had a little cookout with the workers and volunteers to unwind. It was a long week and all the hard work we did paid off and it was a successful tournament.
Week Twelve: 8/13-8/14 Hours: 8am-1pm
The tournament was now completed but we had a few more days of work to clean up and pack up to move back to our original office. Monday all of us took down tables and chairs, sponsorship signs, umbrellas, and water coolers and packed them up on the moving truck. We had to unload everything from the office trailer and storage trailer on to the moving truck as well. We made the trip across town to the office and unloaded all the boxes and left them there for the next day. Tuesday we all came in and got to work on taking things out, and putting them where they belong. We stored everything back into the garage and arranged that room because it is always a mess. We all got our desks in order and everything was back in place. This was the last day for all 3 of us interns. After we finished all the members of the office went out for lunch as our last time together. It was very bittersweet because of the time we spent together this summer and I wouldn't be seeing them anymore. They all had gifts for us to show their appreciation for our hardwork. I left from Toledo for the last time and my internship was over.