Week Three in Review

Senior Project comes to a close! It has truly been an extremely rewarding time and I have learned a lot about myself and the power of accomplishment. All of my three goals were met, and it is a great feeling. While the first two weeks were involved mainly with completing the first goal of calling the flight departments, I got to move into some new territory in the third week. On Monday, I really started to get going with the pro bono calls project. Every day, me and the interns made 200 to 300 calls to different magazines. Everything from obscure newsletters to Time and TV Guide. As of Friday, around 1000 calls have been made, with about 10% responding positively or asking for more information. There are still about 1000 more magazines to call and I have great faith that the other three interns will do a fantastic job and finish the project up well.

Besides this project, the rest of the week was very slow. Many patients realized Memorial Day weekend was approaching and that we wouldn't be able to help them. It is very sad when a patient calls up around a holiday asking for a flight and we aren't able to help them. It is the same when people call for a flight on the weekend or a flight the next day, there is just nobody flying or not enough time to schedule one for the patient. Others call asking for flights that we cant help period, such as patients on life support or people who are sick, but don't have cancer. There are also the humorous calls, such as the lady who asked us to fly her to Tijuana so she could "go to the beach". Everyone got a good laugh out of that. She wasn't even sick, she just wanted a free flight.

Besides an unforseen Dr.'s appointment on Thursday, I pretty much worked the standard six hour days with one eight hour day thrown in to make up hours. Unfortunately, I came up an hour short of 90 hours due to that appointment and I couldn't make it up on Friday because CAN closed at 2:30 for the holiday. Even though I didn't get exaclty 90 office hours in, I was proably doing aviation related "things" for over 20 hours in my free time. An example would be flying an extremely realistic computer flight simulator that I have set up over the years complete with a projector and real aircraft controls instead of a "joystick". Connected to a certified device with a flight instructor present, the software I use can be logged as actual flight time! Many flight schools around the country use this software to get students used to flying on instruments and basic aircraft handling. This definately makes me an aviation nerd, but all the time on the simulator has helped me become very proficient at flying a real aircraft. Besides all the knowledge that I have gained, It will be cheaper when I go for my pilots license next year because I already "know how to fly". There is also a great deal of practicality involved instead of just enjoying the program. Hours in a real plane with a flight instructor are expensive, and I wont need as many as someone with no experience.

Last Day

Yesterday was my last day at Corporate Angel Network. I had a great three weeks, learned alot, and met some wonderful people. Friday was very slow, probably the slowest day all project. Nobody was calling us because of the holiday, so we shut down around 2:30. In the morning, I called a few magazines but we were just getting voicemails so we shut that down. After lunch, me and the other interns helped out on the phone (which weren't ringing) until we closed early. The most frustrating part of the day was it taking two hours and thirty minutes to get home. Normally, it takes 25 minutes to get there! I eventually got sick of bumper to bumper traffic on 95 so I took the Merritt. Once I realized the Merrit was bumper to bumper too, I took the backroads. What a bad driving experience, but a great project!

Second to Last Day!

On Thursday, I did more pro- bono calling. I probably called about 100 magazines and then I worked the spreadsheet for the rest of the afternoon. My communication over the phone has improved by leaps and bounds over the past three weeks. I can directly attribute this to making phone call after phone call each day. Repitition causes confidence and this is definately the case here. At first, I was somewhat hesitant over the phone but now, I am getting compliments on how natural I sound and convincing I am. It is really important to me that others are noticing as well. The feeling is wonderful to finally achieve this goal! I stayed late until 5:00 and the afternoon was very slow. I worked the phones for two hours after I finished up the spreadsheet and then I went home. I was in to work a little late because of an unforseen doctors appointment. I look foward to wrapping things up on Friday.

Reed

Midweek

Yesterday I continued with the pro- bono calls project. Me and the other interns got through about 300 calls in total. Besides that, it was pretty slow. I had some great conversations on the phone with some of the editors in the magazines. Even some magazines that didnt do pro- bono advertising wanted to help us out because the cause is so good. We secured about 20 advertisements and continued on the project today.

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Tuesday

Today was pretty busy in the morning but then it slowed down nicely. I probably got through another 150 magazines on the to- call list. Out of those 150, about 20 wanted our information and said they would look into running the ad. After me and the other interns shot out for lunch, I worked the spreadsheet. Instead of calling, I was the one handling the spreadsheet, assigning people different groups of magazines to call while recording everything down. It got a bit confusing with three people calling different magazines at the same time so I had to stay ahead of the curve. Compartmentalizing information and properly recording it is key here. There is nothing worse than sending an information packet to a prospective magazine that has the name of the advertising director written wrong or the magazine itself misspelled. While errors are hard to eliminate completely, the best that can be done is severely reduce the possibility for them to occur. That is why checking, and rechecking the information written down against another person is a necessity. 

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Last Week

Wow! Here we are in the last week of senior project! Time has really flown by and before long, I will be headed back up to Proctor to graduate. At the office today, I probably made about 30 or 40 calls to different magazines. Out of those 40, four said they would run our ad and around another eight said they would look into it and follow up. This is good news and hopefully the sign- ups keep happening. In the morning, the phones were ringing off the hook but as lunch time rolled around, things got very slow. I took off around two today to play some golf. Senior project has been alot busier than I expected. I knew there would be hours to put in, but I wasn't expecting so little free time. Between going into the city for a day to paint and going up to Syracuse for the weekend, I have had to work a little more to make up the hours so this definitely contributes to the feeling. I don't mind it though, as I love aviation. It's really not too bad sitting in an air conditioned office scheduling flights while hearing the planes a few hundred feet away spool up their engines and take off. You can even smell the jet fuel on a hot day with the windows open. It really adds to the experience.

Reed

Week Two in Review

What a great week! I finished one project and started another, accomplishing goals and making great progress too. The project regarding calling the flight departments to make sure information correct is finished. I still might receive a few calls back this coming week but I am done making them. It was a great sense of accomplishment to be able to contribute to something the organization uses everyday. There is nothing more embarrassing than calling a corporation to see if they have a flight for a patient and their plane is sold or they stopped flying. That has happened from time to time, especially recently. While this is the main reason the project was undertaken, there are little things that have to be checked as well. Sending a thank you note to the wrong executive or an email to the wrong address is also embarrassing and reflects poorly on the organization. It was my job to try and curb these mishaps by calling all the flight departments to make sure the information was correct. This project is a yearly occurrence. At this time next year, another intern will most likely do the exact same thing all over again. In the aviation world, things change very frequently so it is important to verify information annually.

Midweek, I started a new project which may have the most positive impact on Corporate Angel Network to date. We are a well known organization in aviation circles and with a good amount of cancer patients, but we are trying to get the word out universally. This will help us secure more funding and donations, corporations willing to fly for us, and most importantly patients that can use our services. The project basically entails calling almost every magazine in print to see if they will run a pro- bono advertisement for us. As of today, I would estimate that around 400 magazines have been contacted. In most cases, a message was left. In other cases, I spoke directly to the advertising manager for that magazine. Surprisingly the results were very favorable, with around 200 magazines that want more information and a template of the ad. Out of those 200, I would say around 20 or 30 have committed to running the ad for us already. That number will definitely grow as more magazines call us back or accept the template we have sent them. I am working with three other interns on this project so alot of calling is being done in a short amount of time. The other interns are from a local high school on their senior project, so we share many similarities in that regard.

On the aspect of goals, I have made great strides as well. I built up my confidence communicating over the phone the previous week so the new project was a great test. In the prior project, I mainly had to read from a list questioning different pieces of information. This time, there is no script and I have had to deal with many different scenarios such as angry publishers and magazines that "don't believe in our cause" or "can't support anything with business jets" . The politicians can be thanked for that one, as mentioned in last week's write up. There is so much ignorance, hatred, and misunderstanding out there that it is tough to keep it professional on the telephone sometimes. That is the big key to successful business communications though, you have to stay professional and keep a positive tone, even when the other party is not. Although there are times for a bit of anger and questioning, learning where the line lies is the most important aspect of this skill. On another goal note, I have made much progress on a more minor one too. At the start of the project, I promised myself I would become more aware of different types of business aircraft. Although I am familiar with a great deal of them, I am much more comfortable with identifying and being knowledgeable about commercial aircraft. To anyone outside the aviation industry, this would seem to be a very trivial, geeky, and unimportant goal. I agree 100 percent. What is not widely known however is that good aircraft recognition skills can be beneficial in a pilot's job interview as well as helping to contribute to the safety of a flight. When the ground controller asks you to follow a certain type of aircraft to the runway, it helps to be able to identify which one he is talking about! A few runway incursions/ close calls have happened due to a pilot following the wrong plane on the ground and the controller not catching the error. Let me wrap this up by saying that is a completely different topic and the last thing you want to read is another aviation tangent. Goodnight.

Reed

 

End of the Week

Friday was filled with calling more magazines to try and secure pro- bono ads. Unfortunately, we also realized that all the emails we sent the magazines didn't go out due to a problem with Microsoft Outlook. A big chunk of time was taken up resending the emails. After that was finished the calling was started back up again. So far, we have gotten the go- ahead from over 20 magazines. Most will run our advertisement next month but some will only be able to run it when space opens up. On another note, I have finished all the calling of different flight departments. I left two messages with every one signed up with us. If they haven't called back yet, their information won't be changed in our system. For the most part, everything is up to date but there still are a few that haven't been changed. Hopefully, I will hear back from a few more in the coming week. 

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More Calling

On Thursday, I did a lot of calling. I returned calls to all the flight departments I called on Thursday of last week which haven't called me back yet. Afterwards, I called a list of magazines to try and secure pro- bono ads for the organization. We have had alot of luck with this project. Many magazines and publishing corporations understand the great work that we do and are eager to help us out through advertising. There is a good chance you might start seeing our ads in very widespread and popular magazines and publications! Along with that, I answered the phones and did a bit of filing early in the morning. We have had a lot of flights requested and flown this week so naturally, there is alot of filing to take care of too. All of the requests, completed flights, and doctors notes go into the filing cabinet. Even if the flight wasn't flown or we couldn't help the patient this time, we still file the information. This adds up to stacked filing cabinets! Stay tuned for information on today's work and my weekly write- up on Sunday.

Slow

Yesterday was probably one of the slowest days yet. I didn't have any corporations to call back and the phones weren't ringing that much. I registered one or two new patients and called some flight departments to see if they were flying a route we needed. I also fielded a few calls that we weren't able to help. Corporate Angel Network only flies cancer patients and sometimes people with other sicknesses call up to try and schedule a flight. Unfortunately, we can't help them but I gave the callers a few numbers to try. There are other organizations around that can suit these patients better and possibly help them out. It is always unfortunate to turn a caller away, but many times there is nothing that can be done. Along with that, I kept up the calls to the magazines. As I mentioned in a prior post, we are attempting to secure pro- bono advertisements with many magazines in the U.S. The project is coming along nicely. Expect more information about this tonight when I make my post about today's activities.

Reed

Almost halfway finished!

Thankfully, today slowed down a bit in the office. The only problem I ran into was parking. There was an in- flight emergency procedures training event going on in the parking lot throughout the day and the trailer in which it all took place was parked right outside the office. While it was interesting to watch and talk with the people involved, parking my car was an issue. It took me 10 minutes to find a space. Other than parking, I was mainly left to keep working on calling back around 20 corporations that haven't returned my calls yet. If they haven't returned my calls within a week, I call back again and leave another message. Tomorrow I will call back the flight departments I called on the 6th. Today, I called back the ones I originally called on the 4th and 5th. When I was done with that task, I helped the other interns call up magazines. We are trying to put a pro- bono ad in as many magazines as possible to get the word out to prospective patients and corporations. Check out this month's Flying magazine; there is a full page Corporate Angel Network advertisement near the front! Although we have mainly advertised in aviation publications up to this point, many other types of popular magazines are giving us free space to run the ad as well as a banner on their website. If all goes according to plan, we should see our patient numbers skyrocket! Hopefully, we will be able to account for the rise in demand with more flights. Part of this will be my job, inlisting new corporations to provide us with flights. I should start this part of the project fairly soon.

Busy Monday

Today has been pretty nuts but I have a free moment so I thought I would make an entry to let everyone know what I have been up to. I started out calling some of the flight departments that haven't returned my call from last week. I spoke with a few people, but I mainly left a second message. I am still in the process of calling a few more flight departments located in California due to the time difference. I wasn't able to call them at 9 AM Eastern Time! After that was finished, I registered two new patients and helped schedule a flight for one of them. This entails calling corporations that routinely fly the route that the patient is travelling on. If we look in the computer and don't find a flight, we call this list of corporations to see if they are flying a flight we aren't aware of. Many times, this works out and we find a flight for the patient. Other times, nobody is flying on the date the patient needs to travel and they take a commercial flight instead. The aim is to fly them there and back, but sometimes we can only fly them one way.

Reed

Week in Review

This week, I made some great progress towards my goals. Even though I was sidetracked with a few family events and have to make up three hours next week, my work was still extremely productive and I got alot done. Although I was happy to start my workweek with a bit of filing to get back into the swing of things, it was even better to start up my main project fairly quickly. I immediately started calling all the flight departments that we work with to make sure all their information is still correct. These changes can run the gamete between a new address or CEO to the flight department selling the plane and shutting down altogether. Thankfully, most companies were happy to hear from me with no major changes to report. As a sign of the times, there were a good amount of corporations that either downsized or got rid of their flight departments completely. I will touch on this a bit in the second half of my wrap- up. Speaking with many people on the phone helped me reach one of my goals and improve my confidence, something I will need when I start to recruit new corporations in the coming week. Along with this recruitment process, I have to call back the flight departments that haven't returned my call yet so some serious multitasking look to be in order! Add helping answer phones and entering in more schedules, it will be a hectic but beneficial week!



I would like to take the second part of this weekly wrap- up to touch on the unfortunate image business aviation has been given on Capitol Hill and in the media. Politicians have rallied around the "fact" that corporate aviation is a waste to taxpayer dollars and a giant inefficiency on a businesses' cost- sheet. It's no surprise that the big guns in Washington have their facts wrong yet again. On the outside, corporate aviation looks wasteful. Big wig executives flying around in their shiny airplanes. It is easy to see where politicians come up with these stereotypes. Look closer though, and you will see this is not the case at all. Business aviation provides over 1 million jobs to citizens of the U.S. and pumps in over 1 billion dollars a year to the economy! It seems that they left out this minor detail and used business aviation as a symbol for corporate excess instead. They also forgot to tell us that over 80 percent of corporate flight departments are a direct necessity to the operation of that business. Most businesses that fly their own aircraft aren't located in big cities, they are located in small towns across America with little or no commercial air service. This makes business aviation absolutely necessary, cutting out days of travel time and opening up small towns with their own airports to new opportunities. The exact "main street" opportunities politicians focus on and the U.S. relies on. It's not only businesses located in rural areas though, it's also manufacturing corporations who use their aircraft to transport parts and supplies to and from job sites and clients. Parts and supplies that are too delicate or not allowed on commercial aircraft. I hope this short synopsis helps provide the full story on business aviation, instead of "judging a book by it's cover" like Washington and the media have done.



Reed



*statistics taken from NBAA (National Business Aviation Association) and my own personal knowledge

From Syracuse

On Friday, I finished the first part of my main project. It was a great accomplishment! I either spoke with or left a message with all the corporations that fly for us. Next week, my main task is to finish the entire project by calling back the companies that haven't responded yet. Hopefully, I will speak with everyone and the project will officially be done by next Friday. Once I make the second round of calls, I am moving on to cold- calling prospective corporations. This is going to be the part of the project that helps me attain my goal of furthering communication skills in a business environment. Right now, I am up in Syracuse attending my sister's graduation but when I get home on Sunday I will write my one- week synopsis. In that, I hope to go into more detail with my project explanation and where I hope my project will go over the next two weeks. Stay tuned!

Reed

Back in the Office

Yesterday was a very busy day. Due to being away on Wednesday, I had a lot of work to catch up on. I made most of the calls to the flight departments on our list and the main project of calling them is almost completed. I spent a good amount of time entering in flight schedules as well. Towards the end of the day I helped register a patient over the phone. The procedure for this is to take down the patient's information and then call their doctor to make sure they are able to fly. We then go about the process of looking for flights and calling corporations to see if they can help after we receive permission. Organization is key because we frequently have many different doctors calling at the same time to give permission for different patients. It is imperative to make sure everything gets filed in the right spot. Tonight, I am flying up to Syracuse to see my sister's graduation. Look for a synopsis on today's activities sometime tonight while I am waiting for my flight at JFK. Free WiFi in Jetblue's new Terminal 5!


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Painting

I spent yesterday in the city painting my sister's new apartment so there is not much new to report. I am back at work today continuing on my main project, and will make a new post later to fill everyone in on the details of today's work.

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Settling In

Today was my second day at C.A.N. and it was hectic. I worked a full eight hours from 9 AM to 5 PM as there was much that needed to be done around the office. I made great headway on my main project, contacting all the flight departments we deal with up to the letter G. Looking ahead, I feel as if this project will be done midway through next week. After it is completed, I will move on to cold calling different corporations to see if they want to participate with our organization. Contrary to a bad economy and popular belief, many corporations are still flying and our flight numbers are up from last year at this time. Amazing! We just had two new corporate flight departments sign up today and hope to keep the streak going throughout the week. Besides the calling, I also inputted lots of scheduled flights and worked the phones for about an hour. Tomorrow, I have to help paint my sister's new apartment in NYC which should be interesting. On Thursday, its back to work!

Reed

First Day

Today was my first day at Corporate Angel Network. Even though I worked there last summer, it was great to be back and see some familiar faces. They immediately started me off filing patient flight sheets in a filing cabinet which took about an hour. After that was through, I started on my main project, calling different corporate flight departments to make sure our information on them was still current and up to date. Due to the poor economy, many businesses have gotten rid of their flight departments to cut costs. It is a very important job to call up all the corporations involved with C.A.N. to make sure they are still able to provide flights to patients. After I did some work on this task, I imputted flight schedules into a computer. Corporations send us their flight schedules throughout the week. This allows the organization to match a flight with a patient in need of one. Lastly, I worked the phones for about two hours registering patients and looking for possible flights. It was a very rewarding day, and I look foward to making more headway on my main project tomorrow while also helping with general office work. Tuesdays are the craziest days in the office so I will likely have my hands full.


Reed

Starting Up

After a rainy Sunday of golf shooting a terrible 45, it is time to start my Senior Project. Tomorrow is my first day at Corporate Angel Network (C.A.N.), a non- profit organization that flies cancer patients to and from treatment on empty seats in corporate aircraft. I will be working the phones, registering new patients, dealing with flight schedules, and enlisting new corporations to take part in our service. It is a very trying time for the aviation industry due to the poor economy and the unfortunate bad press general aviation has received over the past few months. I hope to make a difference by helping out C.A.N. for the next three weeks and showing how the corporate aviation industry is a lot different than the picture painted by the media.

Reed