Service Learning

Organizational Proposal



Submitted by:
Sabrina Lowder and Kyle Ormond


Information Technology/Management Training Program
SLCC Communications 1010
January 31, 2014

Shaylee, Chase, and Adrienne learning how
to do a box step.
Table of Contents


Section Page


Overview.......1


Project Description .... ..... 2


Group Assets .. . 3


Group Limitations.....4


Recommendations.....5


Conclusion....7


Works Cited......8




1

Shaylee, Kyler, and Chase cleaning up
some Christmas decorations
OVERVIEW
The problem that we noticed when visiting the Sandy Senior Center, was that there
weren't any employees under the age of 30; they wanted to see fresh faces, to interact with the
next generation.
Our proposal to solve the problem was
to bring in high school volunteers to clean,
interact, and just help out. They loved the idea
of high school students helping out around the
center, even spending time with them. We
knew interacting with kids would brighten
their day tremendously.
We solved the problem by bringing ten
respectful, fun, and driven high schoolers to
the senior center we would not only be helping
the Senior Center by cleaning and taking down
decorations, but wed also be able to hopefully
make someones day. The best part is that it
wouldnt just be about helping the senior citizens, but wed be helping the high schoolers -
hopefully broadening their horizons on what they think about senior citizens.
We will attend the sessions given by the senior citizens, take down Christmas decorations,
run our own pool game, clean up a bit, and participate in a social dance class where the seniors
will be teaching us instead of us teaching them. Like I said, the great thing about this is that we
wont only be helping out the Senior Citizens and the center, but well also be helping the
2

Kyle dancing with his partner
students. Giving service is a good way to learn more about your community and to help
teenagers realize how big the world really is. Overall, it will be beneficial for all parties.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Our purpose was to bring a little joy into our community and give back to the people who
arent as recognized. We started out by
visiting the Sandy Senior Center and talking
to the head of volunteering, Autumn, who was
so kind and excited about our service project.
We set up our date for the 31st of
December and then held our pre-meeting the
next day. At the meeting, we told all of our
volunteers that they were to act with utmost
respect for everyone in the center and to be on
their best behavior. We started the day at 10
a.m. with a tour of the center - we saw their
billiards hall, thrift shop, cafeteria, recreation
room, and art room. After that, we were a part of
a hypnosis class ran by two older women who were more than happy to have us there. We then
cleaned the cafeteria and started taking down the Christmas decorations. Once we were finished
with that, We ran a little pool tournament in the billiards hall for an hour, went to lunch, and
then came back for social dancing and more cleaning afterwards. Our group left the Sandy
Senior Center with a sense of pride knowing that they had brought smiles to the elderly of their
community, and were able to leave a spotless center at the end of the day.
3

Sabi and Adrienne taking the
Christmas tree down
GROUP ASSETS
Our first group asset was that we were able to really understand and respect the
generational differences that we had to work with in our project. Generational differences act as
a communication barrier because, The era in which
people have been raised can shape the way they
communicate (Communicating At Work, Adler,
Marquard, and Lucas, 35). Id say that most of the
seniors are Baby Boomers whereas our volunteer
group consisted of Millennials so we ran into a few
issues with communicating. Our second group asset
was that we were able to use downward
communication easily and effectively to get out
information to all our volunteers. Downward
communication is a type of communications that
comes from superiors down to subordinates (Communicating
At Work, Adler, Marquard, and Lucas, 35).
Understanding Generational Differences contributed to effective team work because it
helped our team members know what would be considered proper behavior when at the center.
For instance, we wouldnt use the lingo of 2013 like lol, swag, or sick when talking with
the seniors because our lingo differs so much from theirs. Using downward communication
contributed to effective team work because it was the easiest way for Kyle and I to get the
information from the Sandy Senior Center to our volunteers. Autumn let us know what was
4

Sabi dancing with her
partner
available for us to do and helped us with the direction of the project; we then planned our
schedule and activities to hand out to the volunteers.
It is very easy to mix up meanings of words and phrases when youre working with two
different generations, especially since youre going straight from Baby Boomers to Millennials
with no Generation Xers in between (Communicating At Work, Adler, Marquard, and Lucas, 36).
This line of downward communication was great because it helped us ensure that everyone knew
exactly what would be going on at the project. Its hard to argue with the need for giving
instructions, describing procedures, explaining rationale, and so on (Communicating At Work,
Adler, Marquard, and Lucas, 15). If we hadnt had used this direct line of communication, it
would have been impossible to get our project done.
GROUP LIMITATIONS
One of the limitations that we had an issue with dealing with was our poor
communication as managers, and a major part of that was the psychological barriers
(Communicating At Work, Adler, Elmhorst,
Lucas, 63). The other limitation that we had, as
managers, to deal with was our difference in
Feminine and Masculine language use
(Communicating At Work, Adler, Elmhorst,
Lucas, 87).
The concept of psychological barriers is
about how a persons emotions and
psychological being can affect how they
communicate. These are the issues that interfere
5

with peoples willingness to listen as well as their mental capacity for effective listening (Adler,
Elmhorst, Lucas, 63). The concept of Feminine and Masculine language use is about how the
type of language, usually depending on their gender, a person uses can affect their
communication. Some social scientists suggested that conversation between men and women is
a kind of cross-cultural communication in which members of each sex are not speaking different
dialects but genderlects (Communicating At Work, Adler, Elmhorst, Lucas, 87).
When working in a group, one must make sure to examine and understand the different
language being used to communicate in an effective way. One must also make sure, that when
going into a communication situation that they have cleared their head of any psychological
barriers and are ready to focus on the task at hand.
Feminine and Masculine Language Use is about the specific characteristics of dialect that
are used by each gender. People, not only females, who use Feminine Language, are more likely
to use rapport talk. This type of communication is used to create connections, establish good-
will, show support, and build community. On the other hand, Masculine Language is known as
report talk, which focuses less on feelings and relationships and more on information, facts,
knowledge, and competence. One could say that Feminine Language use is less to the point and a
little indirect, but Masculine Language use is much more open and obvious. Both have their own
pros and cons, but if one understand each type of language, it is much easier to understand the
message that each person is trying to send when communicating.
RECOMMENDATIONS

If we were to do this service project again there are a few recommendations Id suggest. Things
that needed improvement were all doable through better management. Planning the exact schedule would
help to be more timely as well as productive. Finding a management strategy that matches both of our
6

Chase having a great time with his
partner
styles would have been great, reducing conflict, and unnecessary stress. If we were able to better each
other instead of clashing together we would have seen much higher results.
Specific Remedies
The solutions we would recommend would be to follow the One Minute Management Methods.
Not just because it is a specific management style we have learned about but because I feel we could have
benefited from the simplicity as well as preciseness of the methods. Although I feel a one minute
reprimand would not have been helpful in working with my partner, I think the one minute goal setting
would have helped the project tremendously. A meeting with all of the volunteers before the service even
started would have been extremely useful for
multiple reasons: It would have kept us organized,
would let the volunteers know what was expected of
them, and keep everybody timely.
Integrate explanations
As managers, we should have used better
horizontal communication especially when
coordinating tasks and resolving conflict between
the two of us. With better horizontal
communication we would have been able to
communicate better as well as indirectly affect our
volunteers.
We should not have used as much
Asynchronous Communication. In these low speed channels there is a lag between the transmission and
reception of messages (Communicating At Work, Adler,
Elmhorst, Lucas, 10). It would have been more beneficial to
talk face to face more instead of relying on information by text, which in Sabis case is difficult because
of her constant abbreviations.
7

Nathan and Kyle putting away Christmas
decorations
CONCLUSION
In conclusion I would say that our service project was very successful despite minor
management flaws. We were able to
serve the elderly as well as spend time
with them, as weve learned being there is
half the battle when it comes to serving
people. Our assets were a fun loving
group of kids that really showed interest in
the service project, as well as managers
that were enjoyable, helpful, and made
great leaders. Our limitations included
our incomplete planning and organization,
and ability to mesh management styles.
Our biggest recommendation
would be to have a set plan on what you want to
accomplish as well as extra services in case of early
completion.

8

Works Cited
Adler, Ronald B., and Jeanne Marquardt Elmhorst. Communicating at Work: Strategies For Success In
Business and the Professions. 11th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.