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