Week 2 of Work Experience and Loving It!

I had my second day at Swimming WA today and loved it!

Once again, I woke to hear about road disasters! this time the trains weren't all running and were having a huge impact on traffic. There was no way I was going to be late for work experience!

I arrived a good half an hour early, which was a relief, and also gave me time to grab a bite to eat, settle with an early morning coffee, and once again embrace my surroundings.

I was greeted by a familiar face in the car park. It was nice to be smiled at and remembered. It's been over a week since my first day, as Clare was away in Melbourne for the weekend and i couldn't do my usual Monday, so was nice that I'd left an impact on somebody. Sadly, I don't remember HIS name! I know I will get better at remembering names in the weeks to come.

Most of the stuff were running late this morning, exchanging tales of how painful it was waiting for non-arriving trains or being stuck on the freeway. It was nice to be included.

This week I was given an office to share with another lady, Meg. I already knew who she was, as her son is one of WA's most promising swimmers. It was such an honor to be sharing space with the mother of such a talented athlete. What was even more impressive, was she knew who Tom was!

Meg handles all the memberships, keeps records of results, times and personal bests. She works from 8.30am to 5.30pm on week days, and most weekends as well! She was incredibly busy, but would take the time to offer me some friendly conversation throughout the day. She explained her background was working as a PA for different politicians, until she started a cottage garden nursery business. Meg seemed to be the walking encyclopedia of WA swimming.

Clare was cheerful when she saw me. I sensed she had already thought up some challenging tasks for me, and she had.

The Junior State Championships were held last weekend. I was given the results, a frighteningly small amount of information, and I was to come up with a press release about the weekend's events.

This is where I was thankful for my experience in swimming. I firstly planned out what information I did have, researched how Swimming WA normally presents its results, found out what I could about the junior swimmers, and put together a substantial piece of copy, that I was pleased with.

It was very rewarding to get this email response from Clare:

Exactly what I am after!!! Thanks so much!

I will save it and we can add to it on Monday once we get the other info.

I will come in and see you about article number two!

The next task was similar. I had to write an article on all the WA swimmers who represented Australia at the Pan Pacs Swimming in California. I loved how Clare trusted my familiarity with the athletes, and only gave me their first names. "Make sure you find out what medals Blair won, and don't forget to talk about Matt!".

In no time I had my next article penned.

Another encouraging email from Clare:

Let me know how you go adding this into the article you wrote this morning...you can amend Simon’s comments if you need it to fit. Let me know if you need any assistance.

Sorry to bombard you..but I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think you could handle it! You are a big help to me today!

Cheers

Clare

I was then given a media release that was put together by a local swim club. It was poorly written, and my job was to edit it and make it suitable to publish in the Swimming WA newsletter. Any published material will look like it is generated by Swimming WA, so its professional style is essential.

Initially, Clare was going to get me to learn how to use their newsletter software on Monday, but I was on a roll.

I had a crash course on the use of a programme called WYSIWYG editor. Clare explained it was an application she had learnt at uni and she had introduced it to Swimming WA. They utilise it for their newsletters and webpage.

I love using it. It was very user-friendly and similar to what we use to blog with.

I uploaded the articles I had written, with great ease, and even some photos! Clare was impressed to come in and find out I had worked things out for myself, with very little supervision.

Clare really has been wonderful. She has been patient and encouraging. I love her passion and enthusiasm for what she does, and she has been inspiring me.

I go back on Monday, to put my timetable back to normal. We have to meet a few deadlines with the newsletter, have material to review, more and more to learn!