Nicole Brennan's Individual Contribution Page
Semester 1 Contributions
October 2011
I have worked on apparel: figuring out what needs to be done to get t-shirts made, making a survey/collecting responses, getting forms, designing the apparel, etc. I am hoping to have final designs by next week so we can order them. I have also planned out with Alex what the best ways are to spread the word about AguaClara and the means of doing so. I have planned a brochure design with Alex and also planned out the poster that we are going to present on October 21st for ACSF. I'm working on the logistics of how to create and print this poster. I've also been spreading the word to other students (mostly environmental engineers) about AguaClara and how to get involved.
December 2011
The Public Relations team attended several events this semester to spread the word about AguaClara, the work that we do, and how to get involved. AguaClara went to the Interdisciplinary Sustainability Student Summit in NYC, Campus Sustainability Day, and the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future presentation. Alex was the only PR team member present at the ISSS, but we were both at the other two events. Campus Sustainability Day wasn't as successful for us as we had hoped, as not many people came by, but we were able to tell some students about how to get involved and we also interacted with other sustainability groups on campus. The ACSF allowed us to meet a lot of alumni and gain potential supporters. We brought the demo plant and our new poster to both events. We finished the poster just in time for the ACSF event and we can re-use and/or re-print this poster for future use.
We also produced other media in the form of a blog, business cards, and a brochure (work-in-progress). The business cards were distributed at the ISSS event and there is a template that can be used in the future. The blog can be found from the AguaClara homepage, and we plan to publish important news on this blog and distribute it to alumni to keep them up to date. We recently wrote an article on the Stacked Rapid Sand Filter that has just been implemented in the field. The brochure is something that we hope to finish up next semester. We have an idea for the format of it but we ran into some trouble with how the brochure would be folded.
We have a SMART team of students joining us on the trip to Honduras in January. Their goal is to create a public relations strategy for AguaClara so that we can better learn how to market the project. I think this plan will be a great asset to AguaClara and will help the PR team do our job better. Many of the students are business students, and seeing the project first-hand will hopefully enable them to successfully create our strategy.
Lastly, we just ordered stickers and apparel will be finalized and sent to us by the end of January. The stickers can be put on water bottles or anything of the sort and have the AguaClara hand/water drop logo on them. They were done through moo.com if they need to be re-ordered in the future. The apparel was ordered through campdavid.com and once the marketing director has sent the finalized art, they will be ordered and delivered for the start of the spring semester. If we decide that there is more demand for the shirts they can also be easily re-ordered.
Our goals for the beginning of the semester were to effectively spread the word about AguaClara and market ourselves as 'doing good things' as opposed to 'being smart engineers.' I think we did a good job of achieving this goal. My primary goal for next semester is to get AguaClara's name further out into the community.