This week at my internship, I learned more about non-profit
businesses, small businesses, government mandates, and budgeting than I ever
anticipated being my second week of work, especially working only one day last
week. I did work longer than I anticipated, but the work was rewarding and I
feel like I am honestly helping the business, so I don't mind too much.
On Tuesday, I showed up at 10.30 with Thomas. I proceeded to
my office, where I chatted with Karina about how she was feeling and how our
weekends were. From there, I familiarized myself a little more with what my predecessors did,
along with more information about the mission of the Hoxton Trust. After that,
I read a scholarly paper about the Hoxton area, which was quite interesting. It
talked about how Hogsden was a center for people to come,
especially this one pub. It noted how it was a kind of hang out for
intellectuals, such as Shakespeare. I was happy that I got a chance to read
this because, for me, it validated my work a little more, knowing that the area
where I am working has so much history and culture. Around 13.45, Karina and I
left to go to Locality for a meeting she had with two representatives. At the
meeting, they discussed the meeting that was taking place the following day.
One thing I gathered from the meeting was the recognition of the need
networking between small businesses. That is what Locality is dealing with.
However, it was evident that there was little upwards communication between the
members of Locality and Locality itself. Also a point that was made was the
difference between business communications and relations in London vs. outside
of London. A point was made that for other regions, people would drive two
hours to go to a meeting, where the members of London haven't met since last May.
After the meeting, we went back to Hoxton Trust and then I worked on some
budget things. Finally, we went through some of her emails to deal with what I
will be working on for the rest of my time here. I left around 20.00, so I was
tired, but it was a good day.
Wednesday, I had to leave at 7.45 to meet in East London for the meeting that Karina was chairing. I made it to Bethnal Green and we started the meeting at 9.15. At the meeting were two representatives from Locality, plus representatives from about 8 other non-profits. I learned quite a lot in the early parts of the meeting:
- New
statutory stipulates that charities must justify their need for treasuries
- Businesses
must find ways to quantify their impact and eloquently write it
to government
- Most
small business do not sound confident in their marketing, but do not have
the funds to develop a extensive marketing plan
- The
National Lottery helps with a lot of donations
- Problems
of small businesses:
- Capital
funding (new roofs, windows etc.)
- "Not
sexy, so no one will give us anything."
- Dealing
with interns and volunteers
- Government
cuts
- A
need to differentiate third sector businesses (size and strategies)
- Building maintenance
- Political
lobbying
- small
business representatives needing to go to MPs.
- IT
management
- Networking
- Dis-economies of scale.
- Fundraising
After this discussion, they moved on to talk about further
meetings, along with the use of Locality, so I didn't take as much away from
that. At 12.45 we stopped for lunch, which still gets me. Even though they were
just sandwiches, they seemed so healthy and well prepared, as opposed to what
we would get at business functions at the state. Karina and I left and walked
back to Hoxton Trust, where I worked on getting her budget figures. I was to
take the year to date figures and carry them through to the end of the fiscal
year. I was only dealing with the overhead accounts, then I was to come up with
a figure to allocate to each employee. I worked on that until 19.00.
I picked up a few social aspects at this meeting about British people which I found quite entertaining and sometimes tense. First, I noticed people rarely, if ever, put their hand under the table. It always seemed that everyone's hands were above the table, which I found odd, being that I wanted to put my hands in my lap, but felt like it was improper. Second, was the way the fundraising was treated here. I asked Karina about it, and she said that fundraising is seen as an American thing. She said that people here believe they pay a higher tax so that the public sectors get funds to make things more equal, giving everyone a better chance. "People," she said, "Are just not accustomed to raising their own funds in creative ways."
 | ||
|
No comments:
Post a Comment