The Final Week

I can't believe it is already time for finals, it seems like this semester really flew by. This week in class the remaining groups presented their projects, which included our group. We met up as a group on Wednesday to divide up the slides and finalize our powerpoint presentation. We also found a video to include in our presentation about women who had been victims of domestic violence. Overall I think that our presentation went really well. The only thing that I was worried about was making it last the 50 minute time limit, but we had no problem doing that. I really enjoyed working with this group and I hope that all other groups I work with in the future will work together as smoothly as this one did.

-Katherine

Getting to the End

This semester is wrapping up rather fast, and all we have left to do is listen to other people present and do our group's presentation as well. Listening to the group present on Friday, I didn't realize just how many pumpkins that they ended up carving for the kids. I was really impressed at the amount of work that they got done even with their setbacks of a little bit of chaos. For our group, basically we just need to meet and go through our presentation and then we should be ready. I've enjoyed this class and I've really enjoyed working with my group.

-Katherine

One More Week

With my class work really piling up this week, it was nice to take a break and listen to presentations this week. I particularly enjoyed the first presentation this week from the B&G Clubbers. It was interesting how all of the challeges they faced were overcome and they still were able to have a successful service learning project. This weekend or the beginning of next week I believe our group will be gettting together one last time to go over our presentation. All of our material is put together and included on our slides for our presentation. So our last meeting shouldn't last very long. All we have to do is work out the little things at this point. I look forward to our presentation next week.

Andrew F.

Turkey Made Me Forget

I am a little late on this blog, but I am going to blame it on the delicious turkey that I ate last week. It was good to get away from school work for a while and to spend some time with my family. We always have big meals and it is always good to talk with family that I do not get to see very often. Our group did a good job on Monday of getting the content into our PowerPoint and now we just need to spruce it up a little bit. We will need to meet outside of class one or two more times to finalize our presentation, but we are really close to being finished. I hope that everyone had a good break and was able to catch up on some rest.

Zach M.

Last Week

This past week, we only had class on Monday due to Thanksgiving break. During our class we spent time working again on our final presentation of our service learning project. We are coming along well. I think that we will have enough material to cover to fill the entire hour. We spent time creating slides and brainstorming topics to present to the class. Our group presents last, which gives us plenty of time to get together outside of the classroom and continue working on our presentation.

Andrew F

Short Week

This week of class was extremely short due to being Thanksgiving break, therefore we only had one day of class. Today in class was another workday and we worked more on our powerpoint for our final presentation. We have a really good basic outline, and we're working towards filling it all in. I think the biggest problem we may face is filling the required time slot of presenting. A whole class period is a pretty significant amount of time to talk. Once we add some "rich" media we shouldn't have a problem making the presentation last the whole time period. We still have some time to get everything completed, and we are the last group to present so that also works in our favor.

-Katherine

Getting It All Done

Today we met as a group in class and finished organizing our final presentation. Our group is the last group to give their presentation, so it gives us plenty of time to practice it. We plan on meeting a couple of days before our presentation to go back over everything and practice.
This class has been a good investment for me overall. Small groups come about in almost every aspect of life, so it is important to know how to make those groups work successfully. Performing the service learning project showed that even helping others requires people to come together and work toward a common goal.
The Guardians of B230 have been the easiest, most competent group I think I have ever worked with. We all got along so great and knew that we all wanted the same things out of this group as the others, and I believe that is why we worked so well together.

---DLM---

Leadership

This past week we have been discussing leadership in group work. I have grown up participating in several different leadership organizations such as 4H, FFA, and other classes both in high school and at Purdue. I think that the most important asset of being a leader is serving. I do not think an effective leader is one who directs or organizes a group. I think a leader is one who leads by service, and the rest of the group follows. By service, I mean doing the same amount of work, if not more, than the rest of the group members.
On Friday we had a work day for our group's final presentation. We are coming along nicely, and have a rough draft of slides created. I think the biggest challenge our group faces in this presentation is filling the time slot. I do not foresee any problems covering the material required for the presentaion. I think with a few more work days though we will be able to come up with enough matieral to speak about in class.

Andrew F

Leadership & Workday

Throughout most of my life I've been taught to be a leader. My dad is a lieutenant colonel in the army so the principles instilled in me, even as a young child, were to be a leader. I also have a younger sister that I was always expected to watch out for, so I naturally took the role of being a leader. As far as working in groups go I have taken the leadership role multiple times, but it is usually something I don't like to do. I don't mind being the leader of the group, but I feel like I get a better perspective of everything when I am not the leader. On Friday in class we had a work day and got to discuss/layout a plan of action for our final presentation. I've really enjoyed working with this group, because everyone is really easy going but we still get everything done. If more groups that I've been a part of had worked as well together as we do it would have saved me numerous trials and tribulations throughout my college/school career.

-Katherine

Lead By Example

The discussion on leadership this week was good and it was interesting to see how others view me in comparison to how I view myself. When I think about people in my life who have been good leaders, they all have one huge aspect in common. All of the people that I see as great leaders have a servants heart. By this I mean that they are willing to do the work right along side of you and get their hands dirty. I believe that leading by example can be the most effective way to get people to follow you. I have never been much for the delegative or authoritarian types. These types of leaders turn me off and I find them to be lazy. A quick example was a particular boss of mine that I worked for doing landscaping work. This boss did not just stand back and watch others do the work. He did the opposite and motivated his employees to work hard because he was sweating and working just as hard as all the others. I really admired this and it always made me want to work harder and made me feel as though what I was doing wasn't in vain. I aspire to be a leader and I hope to do so through leading by example. I believe that you should not ask others to do what you are not willing to do.

Zach Myers

Leadership

I was raised the youngest of five boys, so I did not always take on the leadership role. As I got older, I still didn't jump up and take the leadership role right away. I don't mind being a follower (somebody has to be) and I certainly don't mind being the leader (somebody has to be). The only problem I have with being the leader is that I don't want the other people to think that I want to have control over all the decisions. I only take on a leadership role when I feel like the group I'm working in at the time needs to be redirected or have a broader view of things. In other words, I like to be a follower and see how things are being run, but when I think the goals of the group are sliding or the group isn't working, I'll step in. (That was all about a group in general, not the Guardians of B230).
When we took the first test about our leadership abilities, my group's average verses my own beliefs were practically the same. All but 2 of the traits averaged out to 4.66, and most of my traits were 5s. On the second test, i was not surprised at all to see that I got 30/30 for my Technical Skill Score; after all, I am a technologist. The Human Skill Score was lower, and my Conceptual Skill Score was lower still.

---DLM---

Creativity Workshops Are Fun

I really enjoyed the workshops this week and it was a good break from the normal routine of class. The workshops provided our group with the opportunity to have fun and also learn about the creative minds that exists with in our group. I think that my favorite creativity workshop was the workshop about making a product and presenting it as a commercial. The whole class seemed to take this workshop serious and also had a lot of fun with it. It was really funny to watch everyone do their impression of an infomercial and to see what crazy ideas the other groups had come up with. Our groups workshop went well and I think that the class enjoyed it. If I was to change one thing about our workshop I think that we should have given the groups some sort of prop so that they would have to expand their creativity even more to try and figure out what to do with the prop. It was interesting to me that each of the groups decided to use a narrator when they told their story of the worst school day ever. I thought that the class might come up with different ways of presenting, but I guess that people always try to take the path of least resistance. I learned a lot about creativity and I enjoyed the workshops. In the future I will try to constantly be thinking outside the box, because I think that being a creative person can make for a more enjoyable life. If you can constantly come up with creative things, then you won't have to get stuck in the mundanes of life.

Zach Myers

Workshops

All this week and the end of last week we have been working on these creativity workshops. Each team came up with a different creative task that the class had to complete. Our group had the class split off into 3 groups and come up with their worst possible day on campus. We gave the groups about 10mins to brainstorm. The rules were that everyone in the group had to participate, they had to act out their worst day, they could use anything in the classroom as a prop, and their skit had to last 3 to 5mins. All three groups came up with some pretty funny skits, and I would not have wanted any of those things to happen to me if I was having a bad day. The creativity workshop that I liked the best was the group that had us protect our "egg". We were given an "egg" and two cups. We were told that we had to come up with some way to protect the egg because it was going to be dropped from approximately 8feet above the ground, and if it was not protected it would break. Our group made a pretty strong enclosure, and we used newspaper inside and outside of the cups to act as a cushioning for our egg. Apparently our protection was not strong enough because our egg broke. Regardless of that fact it was still my favorite out of the creativity workshops.

-Katherine

Skits

This week has been full of Creativity Workshops, where each group had their turn to get the other groups to come up with something creative based on criteria that the "boss" group came up with. Unfortunately for me, my eyes really hurt today, so I couldn't really participate in any of the activities. From the sounds of it though, B&G Clubbers made a really fun, creative workshop! I'm bummed that I missed it.
One of the activities my group participated in was the one where cannibals were in a cave that we got trapped in and well we had to defend ourselves was clay, sticks, and whatever we had on us. This was a fun, yet challenging, activity because we could not talk to each other or the cannibals would find us. The hard part was not being able to talk to anybody. You would think that not being able to talk would lead to groupthink, but our group took a piece of paper and passed it around, each one of us writing ideas down. The whole Creativity Workshop was fun, except for today...

---DLM---

Project

I realized I did not post for last week (11/8) so I am going to do that now since I just finished my catch up posts. Last week we finally got to put our project into action. I sat at the table in Stewart on wednesday from 2:30-5:30. Unfortunately we had no one actually bring any cell phones to us, but a couple of people said they would come back on Thursday and bring some. I was unable to make it to the Thursday session, but apparently no one that said they would come back actually came back and we also didn't receive any new cell phones. I know that myself and a couple others in our group brought some cell phones so we do have some phones to take to the YWCA. We decided to wait a couple of days to take the phones over to the YWCA in case anyone from class decides to contribute a phone as well. Overall I think it was still a good project to do, because if nothing else we spread the word a little more about the YWCA collecting phones for abused women.

-Katherine

Missed Post (11/1)

This week of class I missed all of due to a family emergency that required me to spend the week at home.

-Katherine

Missed Post (10/25)

This week of class I was sick and missed Wednesday and Friday's classes. In class that Monday, though, we talked about problem solving techniques. A good point that was brought up in class was that vigilant thinkers ask questions. Throughout my college career I've learned that the best way to learn/remember something is to ask questions about the topic that will bring you a deeper understanding of the topic. Asking questions expands your horizons on a given topic and requires you to go into a deeper thought process so that you may come up with a relevant question. Something new that I learned in that class was the five steps for reflective thinking. These steps are: 1. Identify the problem, 2. Analyze the problem, 3. Generate several possible solutions, 4. Select the best possible solution, and 5. Test/Implement the solution. We also got into new groups to work on a different project, but I was unable to work with the group due to being sick one week and having a family emergency the next week.

-Katherine

service learning

This week we put on our service learning project, the cell phone drive for the YWCA. I was able to attend the first day and not the second. The first day we collected around 8 phones, and had several people approach us with questions and how long we would be there. Overall I think we picked the right location for the event. It was a busy area as we expected, and I feel that there was no better place than the Stewart Center.

Last week we learned about creativity and sat through a few creativity workshops. They were interesting to say the least. I particularly enjoyed the last one we did, trying not to bust the barries in the napkin. It was a fun, cunstructive group activity that I though sparked a little creativity between the groups in the class. I am anxious to put on our creativity workshop on Wednesday.

Andrew F

Almost Done

Today, The Guardians of B230 hosted the first segment of their Service Learning Project. Some members stayed the whole 3 hours, while the others could only stay for parts of the time because of classes. We collected about 8 phones today for the YWCA to give to abused women. We probably had about 5 people tell us they would be back tomorrow so that they could give their phone. Overall, I would expect that we get between 15 to 20 phones total. I think that is a pretty reasonable number, not too many and not too few.
We also experienced an unexpected form of communication while we were sitting at the table. Straight ahead of us, outside, we witnessed action of the Zombie game some people on campus are playing. I had not heard much about the game until today, and I still don't exactly understand the whole concept. Either way, it was obvious that the "Humans" were bonding as well as the "Zombies". I don't know if all of these people already knew each other or not, but if they didn't it is a great example of how a group can be formed using the Symbolic Convergence Theory. Each group (Humans and Zombies) used what they had in common to shape the identity of their newly-formed group.

---DLM---

Getting creative

Today I realized that I haven't been posting. My communication with myself is apparently failing, so let me take a stab at a new post :/

Monday in class we participated in Jasmine's creativity workshop, where we had to come up with useless birthday gifts and brainstorm ideas using the Post-it method. We also had to come up with a way to present our ideas without using PowerPoint. Personally, this was the most fun I've had in class in a long time. Not only did we get to brainstorm something ridiculous, like useless birthday gifts, but we got to color and play with Post-its. I really enjoy the lack of predictability in this class. It keeps it from being boring and I still feel like I am learning when I'm sitting in class. Not only do we learn about communication, but we learn about a lot of different people as we work with new groups all the time.

I'm really looking forward to conducting our own creativity workshop, although I'm not sure how we're going to top this one. I guess we'll just have to be creative.

-MNE

this week

This week in class we completed our problem solving task and presented our proposal to the class. Our project was the Exon Oil Spill. It was a fun task and I felt that our group worked well together and everyone did their assigned task. It was lot of work between the short turn around time, evaluating another class members contribution, writing a refection paper, and all at the same time preparing for our service learning project that happens this week. It was interesting evaluating another class member working in their group, and then explaining that to them face to face. It was different, but rewarding. It was nice to get feedback on my own performance in my group, and let me know the things I need to work on. Overall, I think it was a worth while activity.

Our service learning project is quickly approaching. We have been advertising all week, as planned. We are ready to put on our cell phone drive. The last thing we need to do as a group is make up a sign for our booth and confirm the days that each member in the group can work.

Andrew Ferrel

Post It

This week in class we talked about how to enhance creativity in the groups we are involved in. In the book and in the class we discussed the technique of the affinity technique. This technique is all about sorting through the ideas that a group may generate. I especially like the idea of using Post It notes to help with the sorting process. The idea is to have members write their ideas on a Post It note and then to put the notes up on a wall or board. Then the rest of the group will go through all of the notes and organize them into to categories or into groups of most importance. This technique seems very functional, but also seems like a little fun. The fun is that you get the chance to express your ideas and also to see the ideas of all group members. This process will allow everyone in the group to have some sort of input. Many times in groups that I have been in everyone is full of ideas, but it is difficult to organize and choose an idea. Using the Post It notes would be a huge advantage and would help the group work through ideas. I like this technique and will more than likely use it in the future.

This is the week for our group to complete our service learning project. I want to say thanks to Andrew for doing a great job on creating the flyer design that we are using.

Thanks,

Zach M.

It's Getting Closer...

This week we talked about the Delphi Technique in class. This is when the leader of the group sends out an e-mail to everyone in the group and asks them to send him/her their ideas and s/he compiles the ideas and sends them back out. The group looks over the ideas individually and sends the leader back their opinions. This technique bypasses groupthink by allowing the best decision to be made because of the anonymity between the group members and their opinions. I really like this technique because I have always felt that people just go with any idea that is proposed just so that the decision is made instead of finding the best choice.
This past week we printed off all of our fliers for our service learning project. I have posted my fliers around campus and have even seen it catch people's eyes. I have also written on some chalkboards to get the word out that way. This Wednesday and Thursday we will be fulfilling our goal of serving the community through our connections with the YWCA.

---DLM---

problem solving

This week in class was came at us quick it seemed. We started a problem solving task force and was given a scenerio with only 28 hours to come up with a solution, and on top of that we were assigned a whole new group to work with. And on top of that, we are evaluating another member in the class over their group work. It just seemed like too much, with other classes and assigments and all. But our new group worked very well in putting together a solution proposal with minimal time. It was a good taste of what the real world will be like, having quick approachign deadlines and needing to get them done. We came up with a solid proposal and presentation as a group and we are ready to present it tomorrow in class. It was intresting though evaluating another member of the class. It is different being on the other side looking in, thinking about who is contributing and how they are doing that. It got me thinking about it when I was working in our own group as well. I feel that it made me put forth more of an effort when working in my group.

Andrew Ferrel

Task Force Extreme

This week working on the Problem Solving Task force was a little bit of a crazy project. I feel like we were just thrown into the project and had to figure out what to do on our own. It was hard to figure out what to do within fifteen minutes. We only had fifteen minutes to meet with our group face to face. This meant that we not only hdad to figure out how to solve the problem, but we also had to organize ourselves so that we could present to the class. Luckily in my goup everyone stayed on task and we were able to figure out what we wanted to do, as well as give each other our contact information. I think that the goal was to make the situation as real life as possible, but I feel like even in a real crisis a group would have a little longer than fifteen minutes. Even with the short time period I feel that our group was successful with our presentation. Everyone did a good job with their part and we all worked well together for not have ever working together. The project was a good learning experience, however I felt that it was just a little rushed.

The Guardians of B230 had a eventless week. This next week we will be advertising for our event and posting flyers and making announcements. Hopefully the word about our project gets out and we can collect alot of cell phones for the YWCA.

Zach Myers

What's the Story, Fishbone?

Fishbone diagrams are a big help in manufacturing, I know. I was glad to see that we read about fishbone diagrams for class because that was one section I did not have to pay a whole lot of attention to because I am already familiar with it.
When I was a Co-op student in a manufacturing plant, we engineers would use the fishbone technique to find potential causes for miscellaneous things. For example, when our production line did not make the day's quota at the end of the day, it was necessary to find out why. I thought it was funny to see that Kaoru Ishikawa mentioned the "four M's" that problems boil down to because they were all true. Manpower, Materials, Methods, and Machines were all causes of our production line not meeting the daily quota! First, the manpower was never consistent. People would not show up for work, or show up late, or abuse their FMLA (Family & Medical Leave Act) rights, or just not work! Second, several materials were outsourced, so sometimes we would not get the shipment in on time, or the shipment had bad parts in it, or we ruined the materials ourselves. Third, the methods we used were typical industry standards, but they would fail sometimes too because of safety reasons and such. Last, machines would constantly fail. Electronics do fail. When machines go down, they could be down for 5 minutes (which seems insignificant, but cost us $8,000 per minute in sales) or be down for 6 hours (which REALLY got executives upset).
The bottom line is that the fishbone diagram helps to sort out and organize the possible causes for the problem. The fishbone diagram does not solve the problem because extra work is required after the causes are sought out to observe the causes and to implement the changes to make sure the problem "never happens again".

---DLM---

Moon Exercise

This week we did an exercise in class dealing with our opnion of importance when stranded on the moon. We were given a list of 15 items that we could take with us, and we had to rank them from the most important to the least important. First we ranked them as an individual. Then we got together within our group and ranked them, then as a class compared how we ranked the items. It was very interesting the way that some people in the class ranked things. When I looked at the list, I thought about just myself taking these items and getting to the space station. But what I didn't think about was finding a way for all of the other people stranded to get back to the space station as well. I looked at this as supplies most important for me and what they could be used for, instead of how they can be used as a group. I began relfeting back on previous groups that I have worked in, and realize that I have the tendancy to do this sometimes, and I need to stop and take the time to think about how can I help the group rather than myself sometimes.

As far as our group project goes, David secured our spot in the Stewart Center and we are now just waiting to start advertising. We will be getting together as a group this week to perfect our flyer and start putting them up around campus. We also hope to get a facebook group created as well. As of now, things for our project are running smoothly.

Andrew Ferrel

Fallacious

This Wednesday, in class, we talked about fallacies. Fallacies are my favorite part about communication because they are used all the time by everyone but most people do not even realize they are being fallacious. I also just really like the word "fallacious". In class we talked about causal fallacies, either-or fallacies, bandwagon fallacies, hasty generalizations, and the red-herring fallacy. Of these, my favorite is the bandwagon fallacy; where everybody does what someone else is doing. It is not my favorite to use, but my favorite to hate when others use it.
My whole life, my father has been pounding Words of Wisdom into me and one of his favorites is, "Right is right, even if nobody else is doing it. Wrong is wrong, even if everyone else is doing it." From this Word of Wisdom, it can be seen that jumping on the bandwagon when you know something is wrong, is wrong. However, jumping on the bandwagon is not always bad.
Another Word of Wisdom my father gives me is, "In matters of opinion, go with the flow. In matters of principle, stick to your guns." From this latter Word of Wisdom, it can be seen that if a situation arises where what happens doesn't matter, its okay to jump on the bandwagon. For example, if your buddies order a pizza with pepperoni on it, but you wanted sausage, go with the flow and just pick off the pepperoni.

---DLM---

Stranded on the Moon!

This week we did an activity in class that dealt with decision making skills in our group. The scenario was to imagine that you had been stranded on the moon and had to get back to the mother ship. We had a list of fifteen supplies and had to arrange the supplies from the most important to the least important. Then we would compare our individual and group answers against the real answers. By myself I found it easy to decide, because I just thought about myself and no one else's life. I think in many situations it is easier to make a decision when you are not responsible for others. This plays into my real life as well because I am married. Now that I am married the decisions that I make on a daily basis do not only effect what I do but also my wife. It makes me think twice before deciding to do or not to do something. I always keep in mind how this will effect my wife. As a group it was interesting to hear every ones take on what was important to them in terms of the supply list. We had a lot of things in common, but we did have to use consensus on a couple of items in order to rank it appropriately. I believe that getting everyone to agree on a specific idea is ideal, but does not always happen. When it does not happen I tend to lean towards a majority rule decision. I know that this leaves some people out, but I have been on both sides of majority rule decision and that is just part of life. Part of growing up and being a responsible adult is being okay with not always getting things your way. You have to be able to accept new ideas and just move forward.

Our group project is coming along, and we actually kind of took it easy this week. We did not have any deadlines that we needed to meet so we did not see a need to really work on anything. Thanks goes out to David for getting our spot in Stewart Center locked down, and to Jasmine for helping us out with that. We have planned to meet sometime next week to prepare our flyers so that they are ready to be posted a week before our event. It was a good week, but I think that fall break showed me how tired I am and that I am still trying to get back into the swing of things after the break.

Zach Myers

The Semester is Flying By!

This week in class, so far, we learned about how to prepare to collaborate. Something new that I learned about was causal reasoning. Causal reasoning is relating two or more events together by showing how one event caused the other. I thought that was an interesting type of reasoning. I also liked the various examples we talked about in class about being aware of the fact that there may be little evidence to connect the two events together that you are trying to use for causal reasoning. As far as communication goes, I think that being an ethical communicator is an extremely important quality to have when working in a group environment. I've worked with groups in the past where certain members of the group would say one thing, but never follow through on their commitments. This was both frustrating and time consuming when trying to pick up the slack that they left off.
So far the project is still coming along nicely. Now that the proposal is out of the way I feel that it's just a matter of time before I am going to look around and think wow this semester is already over and everything worked out! I am excited to see how many cell phones we can collect, and I know, regardless of the quantity, it will help the women at the YWCA.

-Katherine

Projects, Proposals, and Presentations

This week has been very productive both in the group and in the class as a whole. As we polished our project ideas into a completed proposal and prepared for the group presentation, I don't think any of us were aware at how beneficial the entire process was to our group. Completing the proposal as a group brought us together as we combined ideas to create a successful project pitch. I also really enjoyed and was a little surprised by the group activity where we worked to negotiate our presentation date and time. I was surprised at how quickly our group came to an honest consensus, and that we were the only group that wanted to present first, which proved to be an easy position to negotiate for. When it came time to present, we were prepared and made a good presentation to our peers. I was a little nervous for the question and answer segment, but I feel that we did a good job of answering every question completely, and I didn't think we had any really difficult questions, which must mean that we know our project well.

Relieved to have finished our presentation, I looked forward to relaxing through the rest of the proposals in the class. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the time and effort that everyone else had also put into their projects and their presentations, and I found myself really interested in the ideas of the other groups. I was impressed by each project's creativity and individuality. Despite there being two groups doing projects with the same organization, the Girls and Boys Club, I don't find it hard to distinct between the two projects - one with a sports theme at an outdoor event, and another with a Halloween theme at an indoor event. I feel like these presentations have brought us together as a class because everyone understands how hard the other groups are working respects what everyone else is doing. If I had a less hectic month of October, I would definitely look into helping the other groups out with their endeavors, as I hope they would do for ours.

-Melissa

Doing Work!

The Guardians of B230 did some great work this weekend and this week. I was happy with our written proposal and with our presentation. We scheduled meetings and then just went right to work on what needed to be done. Our plan is finally coming together and we have really got the ball rolling. Our project has a lot of potential, but I believe it will be completely driven by the advertising that we are able to do. Our one main fear is that we will not have a good turn out for this event. Hopefully we can combat this with things like a facebook group, flyers, and announcements in classes. The cell phones are going to a good cause and I believe that will be the message that will really need to be conveyed. I really enjoyed getting to hear the other ideas that the small groups in our class have. My personal favorite from the class (besides ours) is the Starting Five's project. I think that The Starting Five is really well organized and that they have a good plan. Also the games that they have planned for the Boys and Girls Club sounds like a lot of fun. Who knows maybe I will even want to come help out. I also found it kind of cool that the other three groups all had a project related to Halloween. Halloween is a fun holiday and it is neat to think of it at as time to give back to the community instead of a time to receive. My only complaint about this week, was the bad Lafayette weather and the fact that it made me so tired.

Thanks,
Zach Myers

Post 3: Reflections

This week in another class I found myself relfecting on some of the things that we have been learning about in Com320. In this other class, four other group members and myself are responsible for doing our own research, then we are tying it all together into one big paper. We are all doing our part to work towards a common goal. Well for a couple people in a group, this seems to be a problem. They are not pulling their weight. This is frustrating the rest of us in the group, as the deadline for the paper is approaching quickly. Given the theories that we have learned in class about conflict, negotiation, and resolution, we were able to meet last evening to discuss the problem. We were able to calmly discuss without conflict, negotiate until we found our solution, and worked together as a team to try to finish our project. We do not feel that we will have any more problems with people slacking and we hope that our research and our paper is done well and turned in on time.
It is instances like these that make me thankful that our Com320 group works well together and gets things done without somebody dragging our group down. We are now into week three of our service learning project. We have our plan of action approved, and our next step will be working on advertisement and getting our booth set up.

Andrew Ferrel

My BATNA

In class on Monday, we learned about Roger Fisher and William Ury developing the BATNA technique. BATNA stands for the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. Your BATNA can be seen as your point of leverage in a negotiation. For example, I know I can sell my guitar to my brother for $1,500, so when other people offer to buy it, I can demand more than that. Therefore, my BATNA would be my deal between my brother and me. It was published in Fisher and Ury's book "Getting to Yes." I had never heard of this book before, but I know how important negotiating is, so I am going to go to Half Price Books and see if they have it. My grandpa was a great negotiator and so is my dad, so between what they have taught me and what I can learn from the book I ought to make a pretty good negotiator myself one day. I'm kind of excited...
We, The Guardians of B230, presented our service learning project proposal to the CEO and Board of Directors today. Afterwards, during the question and answer session, I realized that we had good plans on what to do but had failed to realize smaller details, such as how many phones the YWCA needs. Small things like that need to be ironed out before the project unfolds so that there are not any major wrinkles when the time comes to fulfill our project. I still, honestly, believe that our group is a fantastic group because of the respect we have for each other, everyone's open mindedness to the group's ideas, and by always avoiding groupthink by weighing every option.

---DLM---

Week 2 Group Progress

We discussed earlier this week about conflict and how we should start maybe pointing out some of the negative things occuring within our group. But at this point, I really can not think of any conflict happening between any group members. We have been able to establish a service learning project this week, and have also been able to put into place a plan of action and set up dates that we all can be able to put on our project. I won't repeat the plan any further because other memebers in my group have described in very good detail our plan of action, and our reasons for putting on the event. Our group meetings have been very effective, and we work effieciently together. Even when group members are absent from our meetings, everyone in our group is understanding, no conflict arises, and we work progressively and effieciently to our goal. That I think says a lot about the type of people we have in our group. At this point I think we are a very good group and I am anxious to see our project succeed.

Andrew Ferrel

Giving Back

This week in class we had an activity where we decided what to do with the spare change brought in by the class. Our group came up with a few fun ideas before settling for the option that eventually won the popular vote, which was to give the money back to everyone. However, before we settled on this decision, we also thought about giving the money to the homeless guy on State Street, which led to further conversation bringing our group together with the symbolic convergence theory. We each shared our own stories about "State Street Steve" as he is called, and even though the conversation wasn't very productive toward our goal of deciding what to do with the money, it was fun to share stories with each other and bond as a group over a common theme. Oddly enough, another group chose to give the money to State Street Steve, so it appears we have a lot in common with our group members as well as other groups in the class. I thought the activity was a good way to practice decision making in our groups because it was more than just a scenario that was made up by the teacher; we were deciding what to do with actual money and the results of our decision would have a real impact on the class.

In other news, our project is taking shape very nicely. We are meeting tonight to put together our proposal and our presentation, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the other group members have to contribute. At this point we're all getting excited about helping people through our cell phone drive and seeing the results of advertising within the community.

-Melissa Evans

We're not playing follow the leader!

My take on the idea of groupthink by William H. Whyte, Jr. is that often to many times we follow suite of others that are in our small group. For example last week when I wrote my blog I had the advantage of being able to read others in my group who had already written their blog for the week. I decided to keep my blog looking and sounding very similar to the others in my group, because it was very comfortable and required me to think less. In class when we were talking about group think it made me take a step back and realize how many times in my life I just go with the flow, even though I may have a better idea or want to do something else. It is good to be able to agree and use others ideas, but I now know I need to make sure that myself and everyone in the group agrees with the decisions that are made. I found this quick youtube video that explains group think a little bit better through a Sociology 100 course study, that is performed by students. In the beginning they ask a girl about how many hours she studies. Her answer changes however when she enters a small group atmosphere to conform her answers closer to those in the group.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EooVqjISJHw

I wanted to also update everyone on the progress that our group had this weak. We had been slacking off a little bit, but we have now picked up the pace and have decided to work with the YWCA (which David talks about in his post). We will be collecting used cell phones, preferable that still work or just need a battery. If you know of anyone that has a phone or you yourself

have one we would be glad to donate it to the YWCA. Go out and tell all of your friends, because I believe that word of mouth can be some of the best marketing available. I sincerely have no negative comments about our group and it has been really nice to work in a group where everyone gets along and is focused on the goal.

Thanks,

Zach Myers

YWCA For a Better Life

At the beginning of this week, our group had an idea of what we wanted to do for the final service project but we had not officially made any important decisions. Now it is easy, and safe, to say that we have come a long way in our plans and commitments for this project. We met as a group Wednesday evening and came up with all the plans. The YWCA is excited to have us volunteer for them, and I am proud of our small group for helping out a class that is easily over-looked in our society.
The abused women at the YWCA are in a class of their own, a group, if you will. Although their group spans several countries, they all share the same common theme. This is where the symbolic convergence theory steps in, because each member shares true stories, and that is what shapes their group's identity. These women may feel locked up in an emotional sense, unable to communicate the way they'd like to. By providing the phones the Guardians of B230 and the Purdue community will, these women can open up and communicate freely.

---DLM---

KS - Week 2

This week we worked on getting everything ready for the proposal on Monday and working out all of the details for our project. Our group met yesterday (Wednesday) night, but unfortunately I was unable to make the meeting due to prior committments in my senior design class. Our group found out about a program through the YWCA that collects old cell phones to give to abused women, and Melissa is going to call and see if we can collect phones to help out. Hopefully this will work out, and I think that it is a great idea to volunteer for. We decided on the days that we are going to set up our table (Nov. 4th and 5th) and the times that we will be sitting there. I think that our project is shaping up nicely, and that our group is committed to getting everything completed in a timely fashion.

-Katherine

MNE - Week 1

This week we presented our blog, which I think went very well. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to class on Wednesday because of interviews I had involved with this week's HTM Career Fair. It was a busy two days with the Career Fair on Tuesday and interviews on Wednesday, especially when being put into a formal environment where I had to communicate with professionals. This proved to be more difficult than expected because in the hospitality industry some people communicate much more formally than others, so I was constantly adjusting my communication style both verbally and nonverbally to adapt to different people.

Hopefully, our project will move forward much more next week.

-Melissa Evans

KS - Week 1

This week we presented our resumes to the class and came up with the steps for our desicion making process. So far I think that our group works extremely well together. The activity that we did on Wednesday was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I never like activities where you have to pick people to live and die, but our group came to a decision fairly quickly and easily. As far as our project topic goes we have not completely finalized our decision yet, but we have narrowed it down. That said, I have no doubt in my mind that by the end of next week we will have finalized our topic and be on our way to getting the project up and running.

-Katherine Stocks

AF - Week 1

I agree with David Mackey on what I learned the most this week in class. The session where we came up with our decsion making process I think will help our group sometime down the road, if we were to run into a problem and need a solution. I especially like our last rule of the process, which was: "come to a decision that best fits the groups interest." I think this reflects our mission statement and will help us work efficiently as a group. It will keep us on the right track.

ZM- Week 1

This week in class I really enjoyed the exercise in which we chose people to keep alive or not to keep alive. Our group communicates really well and we all were able to give our suggestions and go through a decision making process that we made up. I learned a lot more about the members in my group and it gave me a chance to see how they make decisions. Overall our group gets along great. Communication has been great and I know that we are all on the same page. We still have some decisions to make in order to iron out our community service project, but our discussion about the issue continues to get better. We are closing in on a final idea and implementation will not be far off. Last but not least I enjoyed hearing people talk about "bypassing," or talking about words that mean different things to different people.

Thanks,

Zach Myers

DLM - Week 1

Today, as a group, we came up with the steps we will take when we make decisions. I think this will be helpful because we are always making decisions, and having structure lessens the arrival of conflicts. Our service learning project is coming along. We still need to make sure everyone is on the same page and then start to communicate with the company.

---David L. Mackey---

Resume: Melissa Evans

My name is Melissa Evans and I am a junior studying Hospitality and Tourism Management. I'm looking forward to this project because I enjoy being part of a team and working to make something better. I have leadership experience from jobs I have had and student organizations I have been in that I believe I will be able to contribute to the group. I like to get things done correctly and encourage others to do so because I don't like going back and fixing things later. I also love a good sense of humor and keeping things light and relaxed so no one gets too stressed out. I'm looking forward to building strong group relationships while contributing to the community over the course of this project. I also enjoy a good Christmas tree pizza.

Resume: Zach Myers

This is a picture to show that I mean buisness when it comes to small groups! My name is Zach Myers and I am a senior in the College of Agriculture. I really enjoy being in small groups all the time whether it be talking with the family at the kitchen table, fishing with three of my budies in a boat, or watching the Colts play football on Sunday afternoons. I have also gained some great experience working in small groups through out my college career. I have helped lead a small group at my church, completed buisness projects in my related field, and put together various presentations in groups of four to five for many of my classes.

I believe that I will bring many personal qualities that will help our group flourish. One is that I believe in doing things right. I am a bit of a perfectionist, but I believe the job should be completed and done the right way. I also enjoy building relationships with others and am open to everyones ideas. Humor is always good and I enjoy to laugh and make people laugh. I think that our group is going to have a lot of fun, but we will also be very effective at completing the task at hand.

Resume: David Mackey

As an individual, I can bring humor, seriousness, experience, work ethinc, morals, and results to the Guardians of B230. I am always punctual for everything because I'd rather be an hour early than 5 minutes late. I have experience in small groups ranging from leading worship for my church's small group to engineering major equipment in a corporate small group.

Resume: Katherine Stocks

My name is Katherine Stocks and I am a senior in ECET. I have worked in multiple groups throughout my experiences at Purdue. I have also been a team leader on two different mission trips for my church. I feel that I am a very open person and am also an open-minded person when it comes to people having different opinions than me. I try to be as available as possible to meet, and also like to get my work done on time or even early, if at all possible.

Resume: Andrew Ferrel

I apologize that I do not have a better picture of myself for my blog resume. But the only pictures that I have include this, and a whole bunch that are probably too inappropriate for class....anyways,

My name is Andrew Ferrel. I am a senior in the school of agriculture. Throughout my educational career, I have gained many experiences that I can bring to our group.

I have been involved in many leadership organizations such as Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity, National FFA organization, and 4H. These organizations have given me many qualities such as communication skills, public speaking skills, leadership skills, and working in group settings.

I feel that I can bring many personal qualities to the group. I feel that I am a good listener and I am open to other ideas and wants. I like to get things done in a timely and efficient manner. I don't get too fired up about much, and I like to joke around and have a good time. I do have a good understanding though of when it's time to be serious and get work done. All of these qualities I feel I can contribute to the group.

Group Contract

We, the Guardians of B230, agree to the following terms and conditions:

1. Be on time to group meetings and always meet group deadlines
2. Always be respectful and open minded to other group members and their ideas
3. If a member must miss a meeting, try to send a 24 hour notice via email, and is responsible for finding out what they missed
4. If a member contracts the H1N1 virus, he/she will NOT attend group meetings or class (rule number 3 still applies)
5. Each member is responsible for staying on task during group meetings

Mission Statement

As a group we will strive to work well as a team. We will keep open lines of communication, and be open minded to each others' ideas. Through our project, we will work efficiently as a group to better serve our community as the Guardians of B230!