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The primary goals of this team are to assist with the branding of AguaClara and publicize the research done by team members on social media platforms. |
SEMESTER: FALL 2016SPRING 2017
Team Member: Julien Morgan (jm2383)
Team Member: Ken Rivero-Rivera (klr227)
Team Member: Ashish Sangai (aas298)
Team Member: Andrew Kang Jeremy Candelas (ak694jmc599)
Team Research Advisor: Erika Axe (ena7)
Project: Merchandise
Basic Details
The PR team has designed merchandise for the AguaClara Team such as T-shirts, quarterzips, and even stickers. The merchandise is a way to help AguaClara spread its name on campus and help with recruitment of potential new members. The PR team had help from the AguaClara team who gave feedback and opinions on the merchandise, to make sure everyone is satisfied with the product.
What Has Been Completed So Far
So far, the PR team has designed a couple preliminary designs that give the general idea of what the merchandise will look like. Members of the PR team have called custom clothing distributors and have asked for design help and arrangements for a large team purchase. Most distributors will only accept a purchase as long as there are more than 35+ of merchandise being bought. The PR team has more designs being completed and will expect to be done and ready to order late September/ early October.
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Project
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Next the PR team will send out a survey to the rest of the members of the AguaClara team. The survery will give us the information needed to start an order of merchandise. The survey will ask each member for their Name, NetID, Size (shirt/sweater). In the survey there will also be a vote on the best preliminary design. There are three options: Long Sleeve Tee, Quarterzip, and a Baseball Tee (as seen below). After the surveys are sent out and the results come in, the PR team will finalize the design for the most voted on clothing. Then a member in the PR team will call the custom clothing distributor to check logistics (pricing, shipping fee, design layout, and quantity). After the logistics and design are finalized, the PR team will place an order for everyone in the AguaClara team that has ordered merchandise.
Any Problems Currently Being Faced
The PR team is having difficulty with putting the Cornell University Logo on the merchandise. AguaClara members want to represent Cornell as well as AguaClara. The PR will talk to the Cornell administration that is in charge of the branding of Cornell University. Another problem is that there needs to be more than 35+ orders to be able to place an order for the custom shirts. Members of AguaClara must know that the more we order in bulk, the cheaper it will be. Therefore, the PR team is giving the choice of one of three designs to choose from, in order to get the most amount of orders placed.
Project: Event Planning
: Event Planning (Within the team)
Basic Details
Set up team bonding events, such as a Barbeque and Bowling Night. These are set up to help the members of AguaClara get closer and more comfortable with each other. Most members do not get the chance to meet the other members in other research groups. So this will give members a chance to socialize and to get to know the people they are working with. There will be other public Cornell events on campus, that will help spread the word of AguaClara and help bring in potential new members interested in water treatment. Such events will include, Dunk Tank, Bake Sale, and Water Awareness.
What Has Been Completed So Far
So Far, the PR team planned to have both team bonding events and public events this semester at least once. The team bonding event are much easier to plan out because the event does not need to be registered with Cornell University. The members of the team will be contacted through email/slack to arrange an event such as BBQ or Bowling Night. The public events are much more complicated because it needs to be registered through Cornell. The whole process of planning an event on the Arts Quad or Ho Plaza will take at least a month due to Cornell policies.
Next Steps of the Project
The PR team will try to have a public event organized and planned by the end of the semester. PR will contact the Event Planning Cornell to start setting up a time and place for the public event. We will have team bonding events, most likely a BBQ, by mid October.
Any Problems Currently Being Faced
Project: Event Planning (Campus-wide)
Basic Details
The PR team is responsible for the representation of AguaClara on campus, so the best way to spread AguaClara's name is to set up events for any Cornell student, even non-members of AguaClara. These events are organized to help recruitment, campus presence, and overall image of AguaClara. The PR team is working vigorously to plan out events for the semester coming up, when the weather is warmer and the events can be held outside. Planning for Spring semester events must be organized and planned before the spring semester comes around because there are many other organizations/ project teams in Cornell University that will be planning events. World Water Week starts on March 22nd and will continue on throughout the week. This is the week that we are planning most of AguaClara events. The PR team discussed what events AguaClara will have planned for that week, as well as which other organization AguaClara will collaborate with to make World Water Week an eventful week. There are many other organizations with the same ideals as AguaClara such as, Take Back the Tap, CUSD, Concrete Canoe, CUAV, Global Health, ECO, and many more. Some of the events the PR team has brainstormed are Handprint Event, a school-wide Blue Out, a Photocampaign, a Conference/Colloquium, and Water Walks/ Relays.
Project: Photoshoot
Basic Details
The idea of the Photoshoot was to provide the AguaClara team with professional headshots, not only for the AguaClara Wiki page, but also for personal professional use. The PR team set aside two hours (2:30 - 4:30 PM) for four days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) to hold a photoshoot to take professional photos of the team members. The team members were able to sign up for a certain time with the Excel spreadsheet that was sent out a week beforehand. This year, a PR member, Andrew Kang, lent out his camera for the photoshoot. If no one has a camera available, both Uris and Olin Library allow people to rent out cameras. The team members were required to wear the AguaClara polo shirts for the professional head shot, but were allowed to wear professional attire for their own personal professional use. Before taking the head shot, each team members were required to sign a release form permitting AguaClara to have use of the photos. After 4:30 PM, the photographer would put away all polo shirts and release forms back into the box, then proceed to bring it downstairs to the cabinet in the laboratory.
Project: Social Apps
Basic Details
The idea of the social aspect of the PR team was to spread the name of AguaClara in and around the Cornell Community to increase its outreach. This would not only allow to increase the social awareness of the team's mission, but also make the team more famous among the students allowing for more people to apply for the team for the future years. If more people know about the team and talk about it, more people would like to apply for the team and we have a higher chance of getting more sponsors. So far, the team has focussed on three social apps: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The Facebook page tries to keep up by posting regularly and highlights the teams and sub teams. It also tries to inform the followers about current projects. It will play a major role in increasing awareness about the World Water Week and help us reach out to people about our events. A new Instagram handle was created this semester under the username: cornellaguaclara. This focuses on highlighting the work we do through frequent posts to help other people know what the team does and different sub-teams to know about other sub-team's works.
Project: Subteam Spotlights
Basic Details
The subteam spotlights provide a critical role in updating members of the AguaClara team and the general public about AguaClara's projects. It provides a simple and concise report of each team's project, goal, and progress. By reviewing each team and each part of the water filtration process, the subteam spotlights give people a general understanding of AguaClara and water sanitation as a whole. Essentially the weekly spotlights are a way to bridge the information gap between the general public and members of AguaClaraPlanning these event will take a lot of hard work, but that hard work would be for nothing if we do not get help from other members on the team. For Public events on Cornell Campus, PR team will need the help from other members to put in time and volunteer at the table.