Dunham31

Internship Final Report: Monadnock Travel Council

Justin W. Dunham

Franklin Pierce University

Background Information of the Organization

Description of the Organization

The Monadnock Travel Council was founded in 1990 and is a nonprofit organization that operates out of Keene, New Hampshire. The Travel Councils primary goal is to promote local area businesses and events, in order to attract tourism and boost revenue within the Monadnock Region. As of early May 2012, the Travel Council represents eighty-eight Monadnock area businesses, which range from quiet activities like apple orchards to heart pounding events such as racetracks.

Description of Products/Services

The goal of the Monadnock Travel Council is to provide a comprehensive travel promotion program for Monadnock Region tourism related businesses (J. Narkiewicz, personal communication, October 4, 2012). The Travel Council partners with the local Chambers of Commerce, the Monadnock Lodging Association, the Granite State Ambassadors, CTM Brochures, the State of New Hampshire Division of Travel as well as local Monadnock Region businesses, all to promote tourism and boost revenue within the Monadnock Region. The Monadnock Travel Council provides a great service for small businesses within the Monadnock Region. Since the company is nonprofit, a business does not need to spend large amounts of money in order to receive promotion. Instead, a business only needs to sign up to become a member of the Monadnock Travel Council and in return for becoming a member, the Travel Council will put the business on the website and push to promote any events held at the member business. The Travel Council uses all of their partnerships to promote events and those partnerships help to boost turnouts. Overall, the main goal of the Monadnock Travel Council is to promote local area businesses and events, which helps boost tourism numbers as well as revenue within the Monadnock Region.

Organization Philosophy and Practices

The mission statement of the Travel Council is to provide a comprehensive travel promotion program for the Monadnock Region tourism related businesses as well as provide a forum for communication in the Monadnock Region and to represent the region to other regions in New Hampshire, statewide, nationally and internationally (J. Narkiewicz, personal communication, October 4, 2012). The Travel Council works to uphold this mission statement by promoting New Hampshire, the Monadnock Region and Monadnock Region events and businesses, both with their website and information booths at large regional events. Without the service that the Monadnock Travel Council provides, the Monadnock Region could become one of the best kept secrets in New Hampshire. However, due to the hard work put forth by the members of the Travel Council, the Monadnock Region has seen improved tourism and economic success. These improvements show that the Monadnock Travel Council not only provides a much needed service, but also that the Council is doing a great job upholding their mission statement.

Organizational Structure

The Monadnock Travel Council consists of an executive board which includes a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Currently the people holding executive board positions for the Travel Council are: President, Jim Narkiewicz; Vice President, Heidi Hale; Secretary, Jim Narkiewicz and Treasurers, Eric and Pam Lorimer. Aside from the executive board, the remainder of the Travel Councils structure is made up of its members that they promote. As previously stated, the Travel Council also consults with the local Chambers of Commerce, the Monadnock Lodging Association, the Granite State Ambassadors, CTM Brochures and the State of New Hampshire Division of Travel. While the Travel Council does not consist of a typical, large organizational structure, the Council is still a large business that works with many different companies and organizations, all of which are essential to the companies organizational structure.

Employer Supervisor

Length of Service/Experience

Jim has been working with the Monadnock Travel Council since 2002. Throughout his time spent with the Travel Council he has held multiple positions. Jim was the Secretary and Board Member from 2002 until 2006, when he was promoted to acting President of the Council. After just one year of being the acting President, Jim was elected to officially become President of the Monadnock Travel Council, a position which he has now held since 2007. Aside from being the President, Jim is currently the acting Secretary for the Travel Council as well.

History with Company

Jim Narkiewicz has been an important member of the Monadnock Travel Council since 2002. In the ten years that Jim has been a member of the Travel Councils organizational structure, he has held two of the four executive board positions. Jim is a knowledgeable worker and has proved to be a large reason why the Travel Council has seen success in recent years. Jim has received many different certifications and awards which have helped him rise to the top of the Travel Councils executive board. Currently, Jims special certifications for the Travel Council and awards that he has won are as follows: he is a class of 2003 Granite State Ambassador, he is a Nationally Certified New Hampshire Travel Counselor, he has won the Granite State Ambassador Manager of the Monadnock Region Service Award in 2004, and in 2006, he was the Granite State Ambassador of the year. Jim puts a lot of pride and effort into his work with the Monadnock Travel Council, and that hard work and passion not only helped him become President, but also helped him become a successful leader and visionary for the Monadnock Travel Council.

Education Level

Jim graduated from New Hampshire College (University of Southern NH) in 1982 with a BS degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management.

If I had to do it all Over

Jim Narkiewicz can be quoted in an interview from October 4, 2012 as saying, I would love to have another intern to help with promoting Travel and Tourism here in the Monadnock Region of NH. It was great having an extra hand to help with the busy summer tourism season and preparing for the fall. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Description of Your Duties

Reiteration of Goals and Objectives

Over this internship experience I had a number of different goals and objectives that I was asked to complete. The first task that I was asked to complete was making updates to the Monadnock Travel Council website. When I first started working with the Travel Council, the President, Jim Narkiewicz, was upset that the webpage was out of date and that there was not enough information available on it. Jim was bound and determined to get me to do a complete makeover of the website, however, the work required to make all the changes that Jim originally wanted was much more than either of us had anticipated. Instead of giving up on the idea completely Jim then gave me a new goal with the website that was much easier to accomplish. My first few weeks working with the Travel Council were spent on the computer, adding in local area events to the webpage calendar and putting large area events on the websites homepage. Prior to my working with the webpage, the majority of events that were on the Travel Council calendar all took place in Peterborough, NH. For a business such as the Travel Council, having area events for only one town is not a good thing. The Travel Councils goal is to promote tourism to the entire Monadnock Region, not just one town in the Region. I spent a large amount of time in my first few weeks sitting at the computer, typing away, entering new events throughout the entire Monadnock Region. Even after I added all the new events to the webpages calendar, I would periodically go back on the webpage throughout the summer and add new local events. For me this was the first time I had done any work on a webpage, but the process was not hard to learn and it was certainly not too hard to do. Updating the webpage was a summer long process, but I was glad to do it and many of the executive board members commented that it was great to see such improvements.

After I finished adding the new events to the webpage, Jim gave me my second largest job, creating a newsletter for the Travel Council to distribute to their Yankee Magazine leads. Yankee Magazine is a New England based magazine that offers tourism tips for the Region, New England food recipes and much more. For the Monadnock Travel Council, it is the perfect magazine to be involved with. The Travel Council takes out an ad in Yankee Magazine every time it is published. In the ads, the Travel Council puts in a notice that if people would like more information about the Travel Council or the Monadnock Region, to please contact a certain number or person. Yankee Magazine gathers the names and addresses of people that respond and sends those names to Jim and the Travel Council. My job was to create a newsletter that included large area events for the upcoming two months, along with a large description of one of the biggest events in that two month period. My first job was to create the newsletter and include two months-worth of events. After I had the newsletter format down, my next job was to update the newsletter two more times. I ended up producing three newsletters over the course of my internship, one for the months of June and July, another for July and August and a third one for August and September. Once I had completed the most recent version of the newsletter I would send that version to Jim, who would then take that newsletter and mail it out to all the people that had requested more information about the Monadnock Region and Monadnock Travel Council. The newsletter was a very useful tool for the Travel Council and I think that they will continue using it in the future. Creating the newsletter was my favorite part of the internship process because I enjoyed having the freedom to make it look however I pleased. Jim gave me complete freedom on what the overall outline should look like, all he required of me was that I include a write up about the Travel Council and that I include the events that he gave me for the upcoming two months. Aside from those two requirements, I was able to include pictures wherever I wanted, use the font type that I found most fitting and create an overall layout that flowed smoothly. Working on the newsletter was by far my favorite part of the internship process, not only was it the most fun to do, but I think that it was the most beneficial task I accomplished for the Travel Council overall.

Jim wanted me to be able to work at booths that the Travel Council sets up at certain events over the summer, so he suggested I take a course to learn how to deal with tourism in New Hampshire. If I hadnt taken the course, I would have still been able to work at the booths, however, Jim thought it would be very beneficial for me to learn not only how to deal with visiting tourists, but also why people tour New Hampshire. On June 11th and 12th I went to the Cheshire County Historical Society in Keene, and took part in the Granite State Ambassador training workshop. The Granite State Ambassadors is an organization of only a small group of full time members, much of the G.S.A.s workers are volunteers that have completed the training and have become an official Granite State Ambassador for one year. In order to remain a Granite State Ambassador, one has to work a designated number of hours at one of the Granite State Ambassador booths, events or information desks throughout the State. The main goal of the Granite State Ambassadors is to keep tourists coming back to New Hampshire and encourage those who have not visited to come and spend some time anywhere in the State. Essentially, the Granite State Ambassadors do the same job as the Monadnock Travel Council, however, the G.S.As encourage tourism throughout the entire State, while the Travel Council focuses on tourism within the Monadnock Region. The training that I took part in consisted of two, seven hour classes. In these classes I learned about why people visit New Hampshire, how to deal with a tourist that may be upset, tips on how to read into peoples interests/lifestyle in order to give them good tourism tips and a lot of other useful information that ended up helping me later on when I was working at the Travel Council booths.

Once I finished my Granite State Ambassador training, Jim asked if I could get started on creating a Youtube video for Monadnock Region events. Jim told me that he had been thinking about doing such a thing for a little while, but had never had the time or knowledge to do it himself. I personally had never created a video before, but I knew that I could figure it out rather easily. Working on the video was certainly a fun project at first, but it took quite a while to get it completed and over time it started to lose its fun and become more of a hassle. It became a hassle because I had never worked with video before and knew very little about what I was doing, so other than getting it started and set up, the process was quite challenging. Over time I figured out how to get my transition time down perfectly and how to properly e-mail the video to Jim so he could look at it before it went online. Those two tasks were the hardest for me to figure out, getting the transitions correct was hard because it was very time consuming. I would sit and watch the video over and over and write down what slides went a little too fast for me to read or what slides had too much time. I would then have to go back to the design of the video and adjust the timing of the slides at hand and hope that I got my timing right when I watched it again. The other struggle I faced with the video was getting it to properly send to Jim so that he could review it before it was posted. I personally am not the greatest with technology, so figuring out how to e-mail a file I had never worked with before posed quite a problem. After a few unsuccessful e-mails I finally got the video to Jim and he loved it. He of course asked me to put in a few more events, and make a few minor changes here and there, but other than that he was thoroughly impressed. All that Jim was really planning on was having a blank screen with the events just typed up and scrolling through as people watched it. However, I put a picture to every event so that instead of a blank screen, people had something to actually look at that was related to each particular event. I liked how the video looked with the photos in the background and so did Jim, however, these photos created another problem because I had to adjust font colors to make sure that the words stood out from the picture. The font colors were another problem area when making the video, but in the end the video looked great and I was extremely happy with the result. One other thing that Jim wanted on the video was some music in the background. I tried, but was unable to figure out how to add music. Jim then asked a friend of his to help add some music in the background. The overall video came out great; it had all the summer events that were happening in the area, a related picture in the background and music playing throughout. I was happy with the result and Jim was also very pleased.

Upon completion of the Youtube video project, Jim had me do some hands on work in the community. I was well prepared for dealing with the public because I had completed the Granite State Ambassador training early on in the summer. The Travel Council sets up an information booth at the Cheshire Fair every year, and Jim asked if I would be comfortable working at the booth on my own. I told him I was a little unsure of working entirely alone, so he found a way for me to get a little practice in before the Fair. Keene held a Street Fair on Main Street in July, and the Travel Council set up an information booth. Jim offered to stay at the booth with me for about six hours while we handed out brochures, pamphlets and other various types of information. Working at the Street Fair with Jim really helped me gain the confidence to work on my own at the Cheshire Fair. I had a good time working at the booth, it was relatively simple, if people came by and asked if we had certain types of information we would tell them either yes we do or no unfortunately we do not. It was very helpful having Jim with me because sometimes people asked questions about tourism in the area which I was unable to answer. I felt a lot better about working at the Cheshire Fair after working with Jim at the Street Fair, and when August came around I was ready to work the Monadnock Travel Council information booth on my own. Working at the Cheshire Fair was harder than the Street Fair simply because I was on my own. I was also not completely aware of everything that the Travel Council was handing out at the booth, so on occasion, people asked if we had a certain map and I told them I didnt believe so, only to find out a little while later that we did actually have that map available. I was however, able to offer some good advice to one woman who was looking for hiking maps in the area. I knew what to tell her because of my G.S.A. training. At the training, a representative for the State of New Hampshire Fish and Game Department came and gave a presentation. In this presentation I remembered hearing that on the States website, there are hiking maps of every region in New Hampshire. On one particular day while I was working at the Cheshire Fair, a woman asked if we had any hiking maps. After we both browsed through all the maps available, I told her that since we couldnt find one right then, if she still wanted, she could go home and go to the States website in order to find hiking maps of all the regions in New Hampshire. I was proud of myself for remembering that piece of information and it felt good to help that particular woman out. I enjoyed my time working at the information booths, both at the Street Fair and Cheshire Fair.

After the Cheshire Fair there was not much time left in the summer, and therefore, not much time left in my internship. For the last part of my internship, I worked on two final projects. The first project that I began work on was creating an updated lodging information packet. Jim told me that someone had made an information packet of all the local lodging many years ago, but the packet had been completed so long ago he was unsure if it was even still accurate. The packet simply contained the names of local lodging, how many rooms were available, smoking or non-smoking, pet friendly or not, address and telephone number. The reason for creating this packet was to help area lodging owners in the region refer guests to other lodging if theirs was full. I am not entirely certain if Jim finalized my revisions on the lodging packet. I spent quite some time checking online to see if the lodging information on the old packet was still accurate, marking down what lodging places were not in existence anymore, and writing down some new lodging that I found within the Monadnock Region. I sent the updated list to Jim, however, he never replied to that particular e-mail and I got no further than just making suggestions on what the updates should be.

My second and largest project at the end of the summer was creating a rack card for the Monadnock Region. This project was enjoyable to me because it was similar to creating the newsletter which I did at the beginning of the summer. Jim had a basic idea of what he wanted the rack card to look like; he wanted a collection of local area pictures on the front, with a list of Regional events for the entire year on the back. It took me awhile to get the entire rack card project completed. Jim had a collection of pictures which he wanted me to use on the front of the card, however, it took him quite a while to e-mail me the pictures and I was forced to create a dummy version of the rack card first. My dummy version simply laid out the basic design of how I wanted the card to look, it had no accurate dates on it, nor any local area pictures on the front. My dummy version actually proved to be quite useless once I received all the correct events, dates and pictures from Jim. Jim sent me more events than I had anticipated as well as more pictures than I had made room for, so after all my work on the dummy rack card I had to essentially throw that out and start fresh in order to get the rack card completed. The majority of my work on the rack card was mostly playing with font sizes to make sure that everything was small enough to fit but was still large enough to easily read. This task proved to be quite a challenge but my final product looked good and Jim was happy with it. I was told later that the printing company may have to make some adjustments to it in order to get it to print correctly, unfortunately, that was the last thing that I heard about the rack card. Originally Jim told me that the card would get passed out at the Pumpkin Festival in Keene, however, I heard nothing more from Jim about the status of the rack card and to the best of my knowledge it was not passed out at the Pumpkin Festival.

Quality of Instruction

My quality of instruction was good at times, and lacking at others. Jim was very insightful when teaching me how to work with the website, however, he was not too informative when I began working on creating the newsletter, making the Youtube video or creating the rack card. The reason Jim was not too helpful with those tasks was because he had never done them before either, which is the reason why he asked me to work on them. I was able to figure everything out on my own when I was working with the video, newsletter and rack card, but all of my problem solving came from my own knowledge, not the instruction of Jim. Jim was however, very good at teaching me how to deal with the public. He is currently the manager at the Days Inn hotel in Keene, so he deals with the public on a daily basis. Jim was very insightful in teaching me how to talk with and feel comfortable talking to people that you have never met before. For the jobs that I accomplished over the summer, talking with strangers did not seem like it would be a necessity, but in the times where I worked at the information booths, Jims expertise and advice was very helpful.

Self-Start or Directed

All of the tasks which I completed over the summer were directed tasks. I worked to add in any type of work/detail that I thought may be useful when working on a project, however, I was never coming up with new projects on my own. Jim and I met every Monday at the Days Inn in Keene, to sit down, discuss the work that I had completed the previous week, and then get a list of tasks he wanted me to accomplish during the upcoming week. I personally had no problem with being given a list of objectives to accomplish, it gave me something to work towards every week and I actually preferred that style of workload.

Problems Encountered

I ran into a handful of small problems throughout my summer of work. The most consistent problem that I ran into was getting font sizes to be small enough to fit all of the information, but large enough so that the information could be read easily. Getting the font size to be just right was a hassle with the newsletter and rack card. The project that gave me the most trouble however, was the Youtube video. Working on that project just seemed to be one problem after another, and the reason for that was because I had never created a video before. Some of the problems I had with the video were: not being able to read the information on the slide due to the font color not standing out on the background picture, slide transitions being too fast, and background pictures being so pixilated that you couldnt tell what it was. Out of all of the problems however, the biggest challenge that I faced with the video was getting the music to play in the background.

Methods Used in Problem Solving

The method that I used to solve nearly all of my problems was trial and error. I was not able to ask Jim for much help when I ran into technological problems, so in order for me to fix any issues I had to play around with things until I got the result that I was looking for. Some tasks were not that frustrating for me to try and figure out. For example, getting the font sizes to be just right was not a terribly hard thing to do, but, in some cases trial and error was a very frustrating technique. Getting the Youtube video to be properly e-mailed to Jim was one of the very frustrating tasks because I was using the trial and error method of problem solving. I sent Jim anywhere from five to six e-mails before I finally figured out how to properly attach the video so that he could view it on his computer. The other headache that I faced throughout the process of making the video was getting the music to play on the video in the background. In order to accomplish this task Jim had a friend of his attach the music, however, attaching the music was only half the battle. Once the music was attached, I had to figure out how to save the music file onto my computer so that I could attach it to the original video, which only existed on my computer, and then post the original version on Youtube. Jims friend put the music on the video through an e-mail, and unfortunately, I was unable to post that e-mailed video onto Youtube. Due to the music being on the e-mailed version of the video, I had to figure out how to copy the music off of the e-mail and attach the song to the original version. After quite a struggle I figured out how to attach the music and got the video posted on Youtube. The trial and error process of problem solving was a big headache overall, but once I accomplished the task I was working on, it felt good knowing that I had figured out how to solve my problem all on my own.

Realities of the Internship as Compared to Preconceptions

The biggest reality of the internship for me was that working from home is not easy at all. When I found out that the Travel Council doesnt have a designated office or building, I was excited because I realized I would be working from the comfort of my home all day long. I thought that working from home would make things less stressful and possibly even help time go by faster, however, I quickly learned that both of those were wrong. The biggest reality that I faced was that working from home disallows any type of disconnection between work and relaxation. I found that since I was working from inside the house all day long, there was no chance for me to drive home from work, sit down and finally relax. All summer I found myself being unable to separate my free time from my work time and I ended up feeling more stressed out than ever before. If I had found an internship that had an office or building, I would have been able to have my work spot and my relaxation spot, but since I was working from home for this internship, my relaxation spot became my work spot and I was unable to fully relax until my internship process was complete. Working from home also made the day go by a lot slower to me. I believe that this was also due to my inability to separate work from play. I found myself constantly wishing I could just quit working, leave my room and go downstairs to relax for the day. However, I always managed to stop myself from losing focus and kept focused long enough to make sure I got my work for the week completed. One last reality that I found was that there was a lot more computer work involved for me than I had anticipated. I knew that since I was working from home most of my work would be on the computer, but, I did not anticipate that I would be sitting at a desk for hours every day typing away on my computer. Personally I am used to working outside during the summer, so sitting in my room daily, staring at the computer was a big adjustment. I grew somewhat accustomed to it near the end of the summer, but seeing that I may be in for a long term career of working on a computer was not something that had crossed my mind at the beginning of the summer.

Conclusion

Goals and Objectives Achieved

During my internship process I achieved many different goals and objectives. In order for me to officially receive the internship position, Jim asked if I was able to complete three tasks; they were: creating a newsletter, creating a Youtube video and making updates on the website. Over the course of the summer I accomplished all three of those tasks, along with several others. I was pleased with the progress I saw in myself over the course of the internship. At first I was not entirely sure how to go about completing those three tasks, but I worked hard and never got discouraged and by the end of the summer, making the rack card and making updates to the newsletter became almost second nature. Aside from the newsletter, video and website updates, I also created a rack card, began to create an updated lodging information packet and worked with the public at the Travel Council information booths. Over the course of the summer, I accomplished several different objectives both big and small.

Learning Experience

I learned several things from interning with the Monadnock Travel Council. What I learned about most was dealing with technology; figuring out how to get fonts to look the way I wanted, making things fit just right and creating an overall smooth and professional look for all the things I created on the computer. I also learned a lot about how to deal with the public from the Granite State Ambassador training I completed. I was unaware that dealing with the public would be something I would need to learn how to do at the beginning of the summer, but I am glad that I attended those classes and I found the information I learned there to be very helpful, not only for this internship process, but also for when I enter the working world in just a few short months.

Most Valuable Experience

To me personally, I believe that the most valuable experience that I had throughout this internship was learning how to update the website and work with the webpage. I feel that this was the most valuable experience because today, everything is online. In this day and age, if a company does not have a website, or if they do not have an updated and reliable website, that company is bound to struggle. I enjoyed learning how to make necessary updates to the webpage because I believe that the skills I developed over this summer can help me find a full time job in the future. The big goal of marketing is to promote a companies goods/services, and in this day and age, with peoples reliance on technology, if a company does not have a good website its success will be very limited. This is why I believe that working with the webpage was the most valuable experience I had over the summer. A webpage is a necessity for companies now, and since I have developed the skills to work with a webpage, I feel that I have made myself a valuable resource to any company that may require help in the near future.

Person(s) Most Helpful

To me, Jim Narkiewicz was the most helpful person throughout my internship process. If there was ever a job that Jim wanted me to do, he would always put in a little bit of background research in order to help me understand either what I was supposed to be doing, or how I was going to accomplish the tasks at hand. As I said before, Jim was not much help when it came to accomplishing technology based tasks, such as the newsletter or video. However, he was always able to tell me little pieces of information that helped me figure out how to start the project and even though he always allowed me to have freedom when creating pieces, he always knew what information he wanted included, and gave me ideas on what ways that information could be presented best. Jim was my go to guy all summer long, he always had answers for me and if he was unsure of an answer he would find out who to talk to in order to get the answer. Even though I was on my own to problem solve technological issues, Jim always offered a helping hand whenever I needed.

Application of Skills and Knowledge from Business and Related Course Work

The classes I have taken which I found to be the most helpful throughout my internship were Introduction to Marketing and Excel Spreadsheets. Introduction to Marketing was helpful because I was able to apply much of the terminology and concepts to what I was doing. I kept things in mind like the Four Ps of Marketing, (Product, Price, Placement, Promotion) when I was creating the newsletter and Youtube video. Even though I was not using all four of the Ps, I still always thought about how those four factors really help to generate business. I kept my focus on advertising the event, clearly stating when and where it was occurring, and making sure that my promotion of the event would catch peoples eye. Introduction to Marketing taught me the overall application of skills that I used over the summer, however, my Excel Spreadsheets class helped to teach me how to deal with a computer and taught me some tricks that I used to accomplish some tasks throughout the internship. Even though I did not set up any spreadsheets for the Travel Council, I did use a computer for the majority of my work. My Spreadsheets class helped me to gain confidence in working with a computer and taught me some tips which helped me to complete my work a little faster than I would have had I not completed the class. Spreadsheets helped me to understand how to complete the work that was required of me, but Introduction to Marketing helped me to understand what I needed to do in order to catch the eye of consumers and promote the Travel Council in a positive light.

Impact of Internship

The internship process did help me see what direction I may want to go in for a career. I truly enjoyed creating the newsletter and rack card, and those two tasks made me realize that I would enjoy a career in advertisement or promotion. While working with the computer all day is not my most preferred job, having the freedom to develop a newsletter that was going to go out to the public was really a fun and exciting project. I enjoyed trying to put myself in other peoples shoes and think of how my work would be perceived by someone else. After completing the internship process, I believe that I have found that a career in advertising or promotion would be the best fit for me. I embraced the struggles and worked to overcome every bump in the road. Advertising or promotion now feels like a good fit for me, and I never would have known that had I not done this internship with the Monadnock Travel Council.

LOGS

May 14, 2012

Hours: 10am-10:45am

I had my first meeting with my boss Jim Narkiewicz today. Jim is the President of the Monadnock Travel Council as well as the Manager of the Days Inn Hotel in Keene. I met him at the Days Inn and he taught me how to log in to the Travel Council website so that I can make some necessary and as he said, long overdue changes and updates to the webpage. We also discussed what tasks I would work on completing before our next meeting on Monday the 21.

May 15, 2012

Hours: 2pm-4:15pm and 7pm-9pm

Today I worked on making updates to the Travel Council website. My largest task that I accomplished was adding new upcoming events to the websites main page. I had trouble getting the dates and times to look exactly right at first, but after a while of messing around with different things I got the dates and times to look just right. I believe the work I did looks real good and real professional, I am not sure however if I should add some pictures or not. Some of the previous events on the website have a picture to accompany them, but I am not sure how to do that or if Jim would even want me to add pictures to the events. I am thinking about asking him at our next meeting. I also worked later at night tonight since all of my work is from home anyways. At night I just did some simple fixes to the webpages Fairs and Festivals link. Jim told me that some of the dates were wrong and various other things needed to be updated on that page, so I worked on that at night.

May 18, 2012

Hours: 10am-1pm and 2pm-3pm and 7:30pm-9:30pm

Today I added the Thorne Art Gallery events to the general calendar on the website. Jim told me that a lot of people who go on the Mondanock Travel Council website enjoy art showings, so he asked if I could put Keene State Colleges Art Gallery, The Thorne, on the calendar. I also added some similar small events to the general calendar as well. Some of the dates and times for the showings at the Thorne were confusing and hard to put in, but I did the best I could and I think that people will be able to figure out when there are showings and what subject/topic will be being shown at that time. I also added events from the Mariposa Museum to the small events calendar. Some of the events for the Mariposa are hard to give detail about because the Mariposa Museum website doesnt have very good descriptions of the events, but I did the best I could and I am happy with the end result. Later at night I also looked at other websites that are similar to the Travel Council website in order to find any extra events that may not have been on the Travel Council website. I looked at the Peterborough Chamber, Keene Chamber, and southwestnh.com websites in order to find any events that I could add to the Travel Council website. I found a small amount of events that were not on the Travel Council website, so I added them to the events calendar. Things are going smoothly so far and I feel like I have developed a good understanding of what I am doing.

May 21, 2012

Hours: 10am-10:30am and 1pm-4pm

This morning I had my second meeting with Jim. We met at the Days Inn again which is where we will meet every Monday to have our weekly meetings. He gave me my jobs which I should work on completing by next Monday and I went home to get started on them. Today I was able to stop working on the website and take on another, more interesting and hands on task. I began working on a newsletter that the Travel Council would like to send out to people in order to inform them of local area events. The newsletter is fun to work on because I have free range on the design of it. I first started with drawing a basic layout of what I would like the newsletter to look like, then I worked on creating a template on the computer that matched the layout I had drawn. I also found a good group of pictures that I think would look real good at the top of the newsletter and saved those so I can add them in later. The largest problem I have run into so far is actually getting my drawn template to fit on the computer template. It has all been a fight for space to make everything fit the way I originally envisioned but I was able to get everything to fit so far and I am proud of the way it looks. I will work on adding actual information and dates in tomorrow, hopefully I will be able to get everything to fit just right.

May 22, 2012

Hours: 10:30am-1:30pm

I finished my newsletter today. I added all the information and dates onto the newsletter and of course ran into many problems trying to get everything to fit the way I had originally envisioned. I worked with the space I had and actually had to delete a few things. Originally I wanted to have four pictures at the top of the newsletter, but due to space limitations I had to delete one of the pictures. I am happy with the way it came out overall and I hope that Jim will like the design I came up with. I loved working on the newsletter, I had a lot of freedom to work on the design and it was a very fun, hands on project.

May 23, 2012

Hours: 10:30am-1:30pm

Today I added a new date to the website which I was unable to find before. After I added the date I began working on creating a video that can be put on Youtube. Jim wanted to make a video because it will be yet another way to promote area events online and it will also be a new way for the Travel Council to promote events. They made a video in the past but it was not very good and it is way out of date now. Jim wanted me to make a video that included all of the area events that will be going on over the summer this year. I have never personally made a video before but I have a program on my computer that I can use to make a video. It should be a very straight forward project, all Jim wants me to do is have the event name, date, time, and event website with a related picture in the background. I am eager to keep working on and complete this project because it should be just as fun as the newsletter was.

May 24, 2012

Hours: 9:30am-12:30pm

I finished the initial Youtube video today. It is nowhere near being completed, I just finished the overall layout of it. I have all the events that need to be included as well as all the information. My pictures are good but I am not sure if I am satisfied with all of them just yet. It will take a lot of jazzing up before I can say that I have completed the first draft of the video, but for right now the video is complete in whole.

May 25, 2012

Hours: 10:30am-1:30pm

I made the corrections to the newsletter that Jim asked me to make. He had a few changes that he wanted to see made and also a couple of things that he wanted me to add in. He also wanted me to make what I would consider a special edition of the newsletter. He asked if I could add a big special about a birthday for a local museum in Keene at the bottom of the newsletter. It was very hard to make enough space to get all the information as well as the picture at the bottom of the newsletter, but after some maneuvering I was able to get all of the information in and everything looking good. I also put in a little more time on the video, I ended up taking one picture completely out of the video because after looking at it a handful of times I decided that the writing was not popping out enough and it was far too hard to read. I scraped that one picture and found a completely new one that I was able to get the writing to really stand out on. It is only a small adjustment for right now, but overall I think that little adjustment now will help prevent big problems later on.

May 29, 2012

Hours: 10am-10:15am and 11am-1:45am

Met with Jim at the Days Inn again. We discussed what changes should be made to the newsletter in order to get it ready to be sent out. After our meeting I went home and got to work on making the revisions that Jim and I talked about. I had a real big struggle today trying to get everything to fit with all the changes that Jim wanted to see. I had to really get aggressive on decreasing font sizes and decreasing picture sizes, but everything is still perfectly visible and I was able to not have to delete any aspect of the newsletter so I was very happy with that.

May 30, 2012

Hours: 10:30am-1:30pm

I made a small fix to the events calendar. I had the wrong date for the Strawberry Festival which I added not too long ago, so I had to go in and make sure I fixed that. After that change I started working on making final touches to the video. I added some transitions to help spice the video up a little bit and I also added a few new slides and events. When I was adding the new events I realized I forgot to put the Old Homestead Play on the Travel Council website, so I quickly went online and added that event as well as the Bands at the Bowl events to the events webpage. Since I added the Old Homestead to the website it got me thinking and I realized I didnt have that event in the video either. I then added the Old Homestead Play to the video and got a good picture for the background of that. So I added a good amount of new slides to the video today and got a good start on making it a finished product.

May 31, 2012

Hours: 10am-11am

Today I had to make a few last little changes to the newsletter. Apparently on the last revision I made I took out the part at the bottom that says for more information please visit our website, so I just had to re-add that to the letter and move a few things around again to make enough room. I also had to make a wording change to one of the parts I had at the bottom. I originally put Members of the MTC and Jim asked if I could change that to MTC Member Information.

June 6, 2012

Hours: 12pm-3pm

I went to my first full meeting of the Monadnock Travel Council today. I met a core group of all the other head members and sat around and listened in on the meeting that the Council holds once every month. After the meeting I met with Jim and we went over what my weekly responsibilities will be. One of the biggest things we discussed was making a few last changes to the newsletter before it is all set to be sent out. He said that he wants me to insert a logo for the State of NH because they wanted it to be added, he also asked if I could insert the NH tourism slogan Live Free and (insert your word here). The word that we chose to add at the meeting was Live Free and..Meet Monadnock because we are the Monadnock area. He also wanted me to add a new closing sentence at the end of the informational paragraph, so I will work on coming up with a better closing sentence than what I have now.

June 7, 2012

Hours: 10am-1pm

Today I worked on adding new Inns, Bed and Breakfasts and Hotels to the lodging information on the website. I had a lot of trouble at first figuring out how to get change information/add information to the lodging section of the website. However, I played around with it for quite a while and eventually I figured out how to add all the things I wanted. After I figured out what I was doing I started the process of updating information in that section as well as adding new information.

June 11+12, 2012

Hours: 9am-4pm

On the 11th and 12th I attended the Granite State Ambassadors training seminar in Keene at the Cheshire County Historical Society. I went to this two day training because Jim thought it would be a good idea for me to learn about the tourism of New Hampshire and some other tips that may help me when I am doing work for the Travel Council. It was an interesting training, very laid back and relatively fun. I learned some good things about the tourism of NH but what I also learned was how to deal with guests tourism booths. I personally will not be working at a tourism booth, but I know that I will be working at a booth for the Travel Council at the Cheshire Fair near the end of the summer and I will need to know how to deal with guests then. Since I have completed the class I am now and official Granite State Ambassador and can work at large NH tourism events for the next year if I wish.

June 20, 2012

Hours: 10am-12pm

I have slowly been working on the Youtube video almost daily, trying to get it all finished up to see if Jim likes it. I have been making only relatively small changes, such as changing font colors, editing slide transition times, changing pictures and things of that nature. I have finally finished the video to the point where I would consider it a good first draft. Today I tried to email the video to Jim and I ran into a lot of problems. I have never emailed a video so I am not sure if I did it correctly but I will ask Jim when I see him next if he got it. After sending the video I finished up my job of checking the lodging section of the website to make sure that all the names, locations, and information is correct for all the lodging information.

June 25, 2012

Hours: 10am-1pm

I had my weekly meeting with Jim today to discuss this weeks work load. After meeting with him I went right home and began working on the edits that he wanted to see made on the video. Fortunately, I sent him the first draft of the video successfully and he was able to view it and give me feedback. It has unfortunately taken too long to get the video on Youtube, so I need to take out the June events and now add September and October to the video. He also said that he would like me to add the event websites to the bottom of the slides on the video. That will certainly be a long process but it will look great in the end.

June 27, 2012

Hours: 9am-12pm

Today I added the months of September and October to the video. I also added a slide that the State of NH wants added, there Live Free and..Meet Monadnock slide. The State wants the Live Free and.. added to all NH tourism things this year is because it is their new big marketing strategy. So every NH tourism thing needs to have the Live Free and.. somewhere in or on it. The work that I got done on the September and October months is far from final, but it is a start so now all I need to do is edit it to finish it up.

June 28, 2012

Hours: 9am-12pm

Today I put all the finishing touches on the Youtube video. I added transitions as well as all of the individual websites to the bottom of the slides. I also made a few wording changes that I feel will really make the whole thing more professional. I changed the ending slide from we hope you enjoy the Monadnock Region this summer to we hope to see you enjoy yourself in the Monadnock Region soon. I have emailed the video to Jim and now am just hoping that it is all set and ready to go right onto Youtube.

July 3, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

Today I officially got the video uploaded onto Youtube. I had a big struggle in the beginning because Jim had a friend of his put some music in the background of the video. I had to save the video with the music on it to my computer and then try and figure out how to get the music off of the emailed video to me onto my official video on my computer so that I could save it and upload it on Youtube. I was not able to just take the emailed video and upload it, so I had to figure out how to save it to my computer so I could upload it. I finally figured out how to get the music onto my official video and after that it was a breeze putting the video on Youtube. After I figured out the music and uploaded the video I worked on making another newsletter. I changed the newsletter from June and July to July and August. I updated the events on the newsletter to fit accordingly and I also added a big thing at the bottom about the Hillsborough Balloon Festival.

July 5, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

Today I looked at all the Bed and Breakfast/Hotel listings to make sure that a recently updated list of local lodging matched the locations that were written down on the website. That job wasnt too hard at all because all I had to do was look at the information on the updated list and make sure that what was written on the website matched that. The next project I will most likely have to do is work on adding any lodging places that are on the updated list but not on the website to the website so that people will know all the local lodging in the area.

July 9, 2012

Hours: 10am-1pm

Today I had a meeting with Jim to discuss my workload for this week. He now wants me to update the newsletter from July-August to August-September so that he can work on sending them to his Yankee Magazine leads. After I got back home I started working on making that update to the newsletter so that he can have plenty of time to send them to his Yankee Magazine contacts. He also asked if I could change the pictures that I have at the top of the newsletter just to give it a new look.

July 11, 2012

Hours: 12pm-3pm

I went to my second monthly Travel Council meeting today. We discussed numerous events that are coming up and talked about finding new ways to promote the Monadnock Region. We also talked about ways to get people to come back to the Monadnock Region after they come to large area events, such as the Pumpkinfest. Of all the ideas brought up about bringing people back, the best that I heard was making a little brochure and handing it out at the gates so that people know about the smaller events that go on in the Monadnock area. Hopefully they go through with the idea because I think that would be a great idea to bring people back to the area.

July 12, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

Today I worked on adding the events that we talked about at the meeting yesterday to the website. After I added the events to the website I worked on creating a catchy paragraph for the Cheshire Fair to add to the August-September newsletter. I also did a quick spell check on the newsletter because Jim found a few mistakes on my last newsletter so I wanted to make sure that didnt happen anymore. I also found some new pictures to put on the newsletter and made sure that the overall layout matched all the previous newsletters.

July 16, 2012

Hours: 10am-2pm

I had my meeting with Jim today and we went over what I will be working on this week. We had a brief discussion about a few last changes I need to make on the newsletter to make it finalized. The biggest thing we talked about was me creating a brochure which we talked about at the last monthly meeting. Jim said that he would send me a bunch of pictures that he has collected from local area events so that I can put them on the brochure. Hopefully my brochure will be good and get published and passed out at the Pumpkinfest this year. I made the changes Jim asked for on the newsletter and emailed that to him so that it is hopefully finished.

July 17, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

Today I did a little side work to finalize the lodging section on the website. I went over the list of updated lodging and compared it to the online website. I made a separate list of ones that are all set, meaning that the lodging is on the website and updated list and all the information is correct, and a list for ones that are not on the website but on the list or on the list but not website. I plan to use these lists to talk to Jim next time and ask if he wants me to add places to the website or take them off.

July 19, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

Today I added a bunch of new events to the Travel Council website. I researched a few other websites that post local events to see if there were any new events that were not posted on the Travel Council website. I found a few new events and I added them to the website. I also put in a lot more time researching to see if I could find some exact dates on a few events that I was unable to find earlier in the summer. One event that has taken me the longest to find is the Winchester Pickle Festival. I am able to find information on it from last year, but so far I have been unable to find the exact date for this year. I am having similar problems with a few other events which I have been researching to try and find exact dates for.

July 20, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

I added a few more events to the webpage today. Jim sent me an e-mail with some more events that will be happening in the area. I added those events and then started to work on an outline for the brochure that Jim asked me to work on. Jim will send me pictures that he wants me to put on the front, but for right now I am just using a bunch of random pictures in order to set up an outline and get a basic idea of what I want it to look like.

July 21, 2012

Hours: 9am-3pm

Today I worked at a booth at the Keene Street Fair. The Travel Council had a booth at the fair and Jim and I handed out flyers, area maps and other propaganda that promotes local area events. I personally dealt with many customers who were asking what the Travel Council does and other questions such as that. This was a good warm up for me because I will be working at the Cheshire Fair soon and I will have to do the same type of things then.

July 23, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

Today I finalized the dummy brochure. I like the set up that I have right now. Once I get the e-mail from Jim I will have to change it around some but I think that the overall set up is great and has a good, neat look to it. I am thinking of sending the dummy brochure to Jim just to see what he thinks of the outline.

July 25, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

Today I put together a rough draft of the Hotel and Lodging information flyer for Jim. I am not sure if he really wants me to complete this particular project, but since he brought it up I figured I would put in some work on it to see if he wants me to really go through with the whole project. The Hotel and Lodging project is just a set up so that people that work at the hotels and lodging areas in the region are able to refer guests to other lodging if the need be. It is a simple set up that just has things like smoking or non-smoking, address, how many rooms and other useful information like that. All I have done so far is set up an overall guideline of what the names are and where they are located. I will have to talk with Jim to see if he really wants me to finish the project.

July 27, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

Today I added events to the webpage that I found for September and October that are happening in the area. I found a few of the events on the similar websites that post area events. Jim also sent me some more events which he either found online himself or found by talking with the event coordinator. I also made some changes to the dummy brochure which Jim asked me to make. I did send him the e-mail of the dummy brochure and he liked it but had a few placement changes he wanted to make. Now I am waiting on the official pictures to finalize the brochure.

July 30, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

Today I added events to the State webpage. Jim noticed that no Monadnock Region events were on the State webpage and he asked if I could add some of the large ones. The State finalizes the webpage and sends out brochures quarterly and he realized that is there are no events for the Monadock Region on the website, therefore no Region events would be on the brochure. I added things like the Pumpkinfest, Cheshire Fair and Art in the Park because those are all very major events in the area. Hopefully this brochure will help to bring in more people for all these events.

July 31, 2012

Hours: 5-8pm

Today Jim and I brought tables from the Best Western Hotel in Keene to the Cheshire Fair Grounds to set them up for the Cheshire Fair which starts tomorrow. We also went to Dicks Sporting Goods to buy a new pop-up tent for the booth. The Travel Council used to have a tent but it got ruined last year during a storm, so they needed to purchase a new one. Jim and I set up the tables and the tent so that everything will be ready for the booth and the Fair tomorrow.

August 1, 2012

Hours: 10am-11am and 4pm-9pm

Early this morning I went to the Fairgrounds to meet Jim and help him set up all of the magazines, pamphlets, maps and other propaganda that the Travel Council gives away at the booth. After I helped him set up real quick I was able to leave until four o clock when I had to come back to work at the booth. I worked from four until nine at night. At nine another member of the Travel Council showed up and helped teach me how to close up the booth. From now on I will be opening and closing the booth by myself, but since this was my first time I needed some help learning how to do it all correctly. Working at the booth was really not too bad, I didnt have many people stop in but it was a pretty good first experience working all by myself.

August 2, 2012

Hours: 4-10pm

Today I worked at the booth at the Cheshire Fair. I had more people stop in at the tent today than I did yesterday, but it was still a pretty slow day.

August 3, 2012

Hours: 4-10pm

I worked at the Fair again today for the same amount of time as yesterday. I had more people stop in again today than either day Ive worked before. I talked a lot more with people this time, I am getting more comfortable with working alone and I am actually not minding the work at all.

August 4, 2012

Hours: 10am-4pm

I opened the booth today and worked the early morning shift rather than the late night shift. I had a lot more people stop in today and I talked with a lot of people as well. I am not sure if the rise in people is because of the time of day that I am working or if it is because I am working on Saturday rather than a weekday.

August 5, 2012

Hours: 10am-3pm and 5pm-6pm

Today was the last day of the Fair and I opened the booth again and worked until 3 o clock. There was a lot of people at the Fair today due to it being the last day and also the Fair always has the Demolition Derby on Sunday and that brings in a lot of people. Even though there was a lot more people than normal today there was still only a small amount of interaction at the Travel Council booth. Not many people stopped in but there was still a good amount of people that stopped and took some information. After 3 I left for a little while and walked around the Fairgrounds until 5 when I met Jim at the booth and helped him take it down and bring all the tables and the tent back to the Best Western and to the Days Inn where the things belong. I had a good time working at the booth at the Fair, it was easier than I anticipated and it was also a lot more fun too.

August 13, 2012

Hours: 9am-2pm

Today I began adding all of the official pictures to the brochure. Unfortunately I had to pretty much scrap my dummy brochure because a lot of the final pictures were bigger than the ones that I threw on the dummy one. I had to do a lot of readjusting and restructuring, but I got a good start on it and I am liking the way it looks so far. I also began adding all of the event dates onto the back of the brochure. That will be the part that takes the longest because there is a lot of information to fit on the back, I will have to play with the sizing quite a bit Im sure.

August 15, 2012

Hours: 9am-1pm

I finished the first draft of the brochure today and I sent a copy to Jim to see if there are any changes he would like to see made. I like the way that it came out overall and I certainly hope that Jim likes it just as much. Getting the events to all fit on the back of the brochure was not as hard as I was thinking it might be, it still took quite a bit of adjusting but it wasnt too big of a hassle.

August 23, 2012

Hours: 9am-12pm

Today I made the revisions that Jim wanted to see made on the brochure. I figured out how to do some new stuff which I wasnt able to figure out before. I found out how to make the text on the top of the brochure bend and I really like the way that the brochure looks with that revision. I hope that this is the final revision that needs to be made, but if there are any more changes they will be small and wont take too much time to fix.

Projects

Youtube Video

The Youtube video which I created for the Monadnock Travel Council can be found at www.youtube.com. In order to watch the video, click the website search bar and type in monadnock travel council. The video that I created has a screen shot of a firework on it and next to the video, it says created by Justin Dunham. The video is just short of six minutes long. The video can also be accessed by copying the following URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um7ezxSrdqc

Website Updates

Since I accomplished my website updates so long ago, they are no longer on the Travel Council homepage. However, in order to view the work that I did accomplish, type in www.monadnocktravel.com. Upon reaching the Travel Council webpage, click on the Events tab on the left hand side of the screen. In the Events page, click the backward arrows next to the current months at the top of the screen in order to go back to the months of June through August. Once at the months of June-August, select any day of the month that has an underline underneath it and view the events and event details of that particular underlined day. While I did not add every one of the events in the months of June through August, I did add quite a number of the events in those months and those events are what I did to accomplish the webpage update project that I was given at the start of the summer.