by Rachel
It’s been exactly one week since our assembly and I’m still in awe that we actually pulled it off, and pulled it off well! Leaving for spring break we only had about 13 RSVPs and, as my airplane took off, I wondered if it was such a good idea that I was leaving.
The day of the assembly was absolutely chaotic. We had to wake up far too early for someone who had been sleeping in every day until 11 for the past week. Samantha, Kristen and I met early at the house to do a couple of last minute things and make sure that everything was in order. Once we were at Minnetrista it was just go, go, go! Registration was supposed to go from 12:30-1:00, but people started showing up at noon and came until after 1:00pm. One of our panelists was late, but I was too stressed about making sure people were being checked in properly that I couldn’t even worry about that. Once we finally closed shopped at the registration tables we had 37 participants in total. I couldn’t believe it; we were actually pulling this off and it was going well! Actually, it was going even better than I expected!
Unfortunately, I had to spend most of my time manning the doors and running here and there to make sure everything and everyone was where they were supposed to be. The little that I heard of the panelists speak and the questions asked were pretty good. I think the most interesting part, by far, was during the break out sessions for the small groups. We had placed tables in the lobby for the panelists, and they ended up getting into a debate about healthcare themselves! Luckily, Jordan happened to be walking by and heard what was going on so he grabbed a camera and filmed away. I’m so glad we got that on film and I think it will be such a great touch to our documentary!
I am so proud of everyone in our class for doing such an amazing job. I think Kristen, Samantha, and I really learned a lot about what it takes to plan such an event, and the rest of our class did an awesome job helping us pull off everything, especially the small group discussions, which weren’t always the easiest to get through. The fact that it took WIPB months and months to plan and hold their deliberative democracy assembly and we did it in just a little over two months makes it even better. It took a lot of long hours, not to mention stress, but we did it and our hard work definitely paid off!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Laura's Reaction
by Laura
Hello, I'm Laura one of the Telecommunication students. I'm sorry I haven't written to you lately; I've been conducting various interviews and have been caught up in TCOM land. Let's get right to it, shall we? This semester has been... well I can't quite find a word to describe it, which is a big deal for a girl who's job it is to make conversation. You see, I'm the host, writer, and producer for the film. I have been involved in telecommunication since I was little, and I have never found an outlet in the academic environment that has allowed me to accomplish everything I have ever wanted to do professionally in one experience. So you see, I without a doubt can say I very much enjoy the experiences here at the Virgina Ball Center. There have been however, shall we say, hiccups. Like that one time we were rookies and traveled to Indianapolis for the first time and forgot camera batteries, a lighting kit, and other miscellaneous items --all of importance -- naturally. Not the best feeling when you have a doctor staring at you asking what you'd like to do. Or this past week when we had our assembly. Our classmates have been working on this one day for months (no exaggerations) and a light breaks, a microphone breaks, batteries are left behind, and we don't bring enough tapes. That was a fun problem solving activity. So you can see this has been quite and experience.
Hello, I'm Laura one of the Telecommunication students. I'm sorry I haven't written to you lately; I've been conducting various interviews and have been caught up in TCOM land. Let's get right to it, shall we? This semester has been... well I can't quite find a word to describe it, which is a big deal for a girl who's job it is to make conversation. You see, I'm the host, writer, and producer for the film. I have been involved in telecommunication since I was little, and I have never found an outlet in the academic environment that has allowed me to accomplish everything I have ever wanted to do professionally in one experience. So you see, I without a doubt can say I very much enjoy the experiences here at the Virgina Ball Center. There have been however, shall we say, hiccups. Like that one time we were rookies and traveled to Indianapolis for the first time and forgot camera batteries, a lighting kit, and other miscellaneous items --all of importance -- naturally. Not the best feeling when you have a doctor staring at you asking what you'd like to do. Or this past week when we had our assembly. Our classmates have been working on this one day for months (no exaggerations) and a light breaks, a microphone breaks, batteries are left behind, and we don't bring enough tapes. That was a fun problem solving activity. So you can see this has been quite and experience.
We have met so many memorable people along the way. Everyone from senators, state representatives, doctors, pharmaceutical representatives, and yes, the average Joes. Each with their own story. Each with their own viewpoint, own agendas. But each joining together to solve, what some have told me, is a crisis in the United States today.
Stay tuned, I'll let you know the ins and outs of the film, some of my favorite moments, and the little secrets behind the doors to the TCOM editing suite.
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