Review of Well-Being Festival Preliminary Letter of Inquiry

In my last blog post I reflected upon the Well-Being festival preliminary budget that Dr. Giannoulakis had given to me for review.  In this blog post, I will provide my review for the second document: a preliminary letter of inquiry (PLI).

Lack of Research:

Dr. G and I have discussed this already but it is important that any proposal submitted to a potential sponsor be equipped with research to support the project's goals and expected outcomes.  In the first sentence, it is stated that the Sport Administration Graduate program at Ball State looks to provide students "with experiential learning opportunities that are grounded in sport administration theory."  One or several theories should definitely be included regarding how the students will be engaging in experiential learning and how the participants at the Well-Being festival will be engaged.  Now that Dr. G has submitted a case study of the "inspiration behind this project" in Greece, the National Cancer Survivors Day event can be used to describe analogous goals to the Well-Being festival in Muncie.

Sustainability of Event:

Any time that one embarks on a new project that could be replicated in the future, it is critical to explain the structure of how the event will be sustained.  The only sustainability measure mentioned within this proposal is that of money from the first event being earmarked for future festivals.  I believe that further information can be given on the Grant Members to explain why this event can be sustained even without the existence of all current Grant Members in the future.  This is extremely difficult without an inaugural event as a foundation, but any future signs of support from either the Grant Members or other entities will paint a better picture of sustainability.

Estimates and Specifics of Promotion and Collaboration

I found the "Population" section to be quite intriguing, but I think the section would have been more powerful with estimations of specific group sizes.  Obviously without a previous event it would be difficult to gauge exact attendance, but by looking at similar events and comparing the community populations, one could formulate a ballpark range of participation from residents, schools, and volunteers alike.  I also think that there should have been more specific information on how the organizing committee would staff volunteers and perform presentations in local schools.  Providing some more specific information on how the event would be organized will give a potential sponsor a much stronger sense of the initial discussions about the event.

To summarize, I felt that the proposal (with its 2,000 characters per section limits) did quite a good job of providing the first snapshot of the project as a whole.  Adding a sentence or two on the points mentioned above and cutting out a few unnecessary words could help make this proposal even stronger.

Review of Well-Being Festival Budget

In Week 3 of our collaboration, Dr. G shared with me his plan for organizing and executing a Well-Being Festival to be held in Muncie in Spring 2015.  The event would be held ideally at the Minnetrista gathering place in Muncie and would feature several events throughout this one-day multipurpose event focusing primarily on four major pillars: physical activity, wellness education, alternative therapies, and entertainment.  Not only would the event be a Ball State-sponsored event, but it would be an experiential learning opportunity for students in Dr. G's event management course who would take on the management of the event.

To give me a deeper understanding of the plans for the event, Dr. G shared with me a preliminary budget and grant proposal.  I have provided my feedback for the preliminary budget below, and will give my feedback on the grant proposal in a future blog post. The overall budget for the event is projected to be $20,000.

Budget-

Graduate Student:  This area of the budget ($2,000) interested me because I was curious if this would be a graduate student hired solely for the purpose of this event or whether it would be a current graduate assistant within the sport administration or other department that would have an additional amount added to his or her stipend.  Based on the current pay structure among Ball State graduate assistants (between $750 and $1,000 for 20 hours per week) monthly I wonder if this graduate student would be hired for a two-month period or whether the student's employment would be stretched out over several months.  I think that this is an important distinction to make not only in the sponsorship search process but also in the hiring process as applicants will want to know important details about the job (e.g. start and end date, pay structure, day-to-day tasks).  Currently, the daily tasks of this graduate student are not detailed within either document presented other than the broad description of "event design and planning activities."  I think that by further outlining the specific duties of the position will significantly aid in hiring the right candidate and acquiring adequate sponsorship monies.  Example tasks for the graduate student might be facilitating meetings among student leaders, establishing relationships with each non-Ball State entity (Minnetrista staff, Police, EMTs, Volunteer Coordinator), and documenting specific dates of task completion to assist the planning of future events.

Non-personnel Capital/Equipment:  I did not understand this section of the budget.  There were no details indicated in the budget explanation or grant proposal regarding the meaning of this section.  The only explanation I can infer is that included in this section would be items coming in such as food and beverage donations and other items that would help offset the current $20,000 of projected expenditures.

Operating Cost:  This section was well-detailed considering that the event that is still 10 months away.  Clearly there have been inquiries made to specific organizations to gather projected cost figures for the 10 items (categories) listed on the budget.  While detailed in some portions, there were several questions that arose as I reviewed this section of the preliminary budget.

- In the case of poor weather, would the outside area and tent costs still be charged?
- Along the same lines, would there be a back-up indoor location to move the outside area and tent events to?  The Muncie Fieldhouse (less than a mile away) should be a consideration.
- I agree with the marketing expenses ($2,000) for the event, but I would be curious how much of that total could be trimmed with free advertising.  I see no mention of social media within either document.  Could this be a primary task of the funded graduate student?  As for radio announcements, that would be most cost-effective as radio ads are the cheapest among TV, newspaper, and radio.  However, which radio stations would be chosen?  Could there be an arrangement made for a live broadcast opportunity?  How about a collaborative effort with WCRD, Ball State's student radio station?
- I would be very careful with the competition digital timing and athlete chips for whatever running/cycling event is held.  The distinction here would be if there was a significant amount of competitive athletes in the event or not.  If the event(s) was more of a walk/run than a true race, funds specific to accurate timing could be allocated elsewhere.
-  After seeing the "food & beverage for sponsors and invited guests" listed at $2,000 that made me curious as to whether or not participants would be receiving meals and or beverages during the day's events.  If so, would these items be purchased?  Or would a donation from a sponsor be expected here?  Another item to consider is the refrigeration and storage of food and beverage items both before and after the festival.
- Clearly some work was done on the Risk Management section to determine costs.  An explanation for the difference in officers needed later in the festival compared to earlier should be provided.
-  How will the Posters listed under Marketing Expenses differ from the Signage listed under the Venue Management section?
-  Does Minnetrista have its own sound system?  If so, perhaps the primary announced events could be held indoors or outside if the system is portable.  If the $3,000 figure was determined based on one of the larger sound companies in Muncie, I would inquire WCRD, the campus radio station.  I worked in college radio for three years and people that work at a station usually know the locals who have their own sound systems that might charge less than $3,000.
-  Why would transportation be needed if the entire event was held at or near Minnetrista?
-  Along with the road closure application and event permit, I would also look into any sort of food or beverage permits.  I'm sure Minnetrista would be aware of the existence of any such permits needed to provide food and beverage to the public.

First Take: Sport For Development

While I've gained some preliminary knowledge on the concept of sport as an agent of change through my work with the Ball State Sport for Social Change project, this past week has been my first chance to dive into literature on the research area of Sport for Development (S4D).   While there have been some similarities in research methodology, S4D is clearly separate and is becoming an area with growing interest within sport management.

After reviewing the NASSM Conference abstracts of the presentations on S4D that Dr. G attended, I collected 34 various articles that were not already part of the database that Dr. G had started earlier this year.  One tell-tale sign for me that S4D research is becoming more and more sought after within the sport management field is the presence of S4D articles in some of the more noteworthy journals in the field (i.e. Journal of Sport Management, International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Journal of Sport and Social Issues).  This appears to be the case only recently as the research area has just seemed to gain some more prestige in the last five to seven years.  Similar to other research areas, a few "experts" appear to have emerged in the field such as Fred Coalter, Richard Lerner, Nico Schulenkorf, and Jon Welty Peachey.

As I was gathering articles there were a few common themes, theories, and similar research areas that stood out to me:

- Positive Youth Development: This is understandable as the development of youth (especially adolescents) is crucial for overall well-being of society.  The focus of the studies on Positive Youth Development (referred to as PYD in some literature) was primarily on the overall effectiveness of programs and not on youth perceptions which seems logical as research on children is less common due to IRB approval etc.

- Social Capital: There were several articles that incorporated social capital theories and analyzed the presence of social capital within S4D situations.  I also noticed a common thread between social capital and community development within the S4D literature, primarily focusing on whether S4D programs took the entire community into consideration and whether communities seemed more peaceful following S4D implementation.

- The Three Models of Sport Development: These three models (which is further detailed in the Newland and Phillips NASSM abstract) are the Long Term Athlete Development model (Canadian Sport for Life, 2012), Pyramid Model of Sport Development (Green, 2005), and Sport Development Pyramid/Continuum (Eady, 1993).  When looking specifically at the development of an athlete throughout an entire lifespan, these three models popped up often within the literature.

-  Focus on Disadvantaged Groups: Many of the single case studies or in-depth qualitative studies looked at how certain disadvantaged groups within a society or community were impacted by a S4D initiative.  There were two studies in particular (Sherry, 2010; Welty Peachey, Lyras, Borland, & Cohen, 2011) that studied soccer programs intended for the homeless which I found to be very interesting and unique.

Aside from the S4D literature, I am continuing to learn more and more about the research database program Mendeley and I am excited to share some of the nuances of the program with Dr. G upon his return from Greece!