Bradley Center
The Bradley Center is aging; without significant upgrades, existing clients will need to consider alternative facilities. The Bradley Center Board of Directors has asked your team to research their situation and provide a recommendation. Your team may want to conduct research on other cities that have replaced or built new facilities to determine what challenges they encountered, what solutions they adopted, and how they evaluated the solutions. You need to consider what features are essential for existing clients using the Bradley Center, and/or for potential new clients. Your team can propose the building of a new facility, the upgrading of the present facility, or other options. If you propose building a new facility, where would you locate it? How would a significant renovation or relocation of the Bradley Center be financed? How will additional revenue be generated to make up these costs? What uses should be planned for and incorporated into the space? You can contact the various agencies and users of the present facilities and ask their opinion. Assuming the role of a consultant asked to write a proposal for the Board of Directors of the Bradley Center, your team will conduct necessary research and prepare a written proposal that includes your recommendation as well as implementation considerations.
Casinos
The question of economic development in the Milwaukee metro area continues to receive attention, as officials recognize the need to generate revenue and employment in the area. Some have suggested that additional casinos in the area would improve the economy, while others argue that the presence of casinos leads to an increase in crime. Assume for the sake of this assignment that the Wisconsin Economic Development Board is aware that several Wisconsin Native American tribes, in partnership with private development organizations, wish to open new casinos in the greater Milwaukee area. Your group has been asked to evaluate the desirability of building one or more additional gambling establishment(s) in the greater Milwaukee area. Would you suggest approving the construction of a new casino, and if so, where would you suggest it be located? What might the socioeconomic impact of approving a new casino be based on the experience of other cities? Information about this topic can be found in various newspapers, and in reports from other government and private agencies dealing with economic development and casino gambling. Assuming the role of a consultant asked to write a proposal for the State of Wisconsin Economic Development Board, your team will conduct necessary research and prepare a written proposal that includes your recommendation as well as implementation considerations.
Living Wage
A living wage is generally understood to mean that someone working 40 hours a week is guaranteed to earn at least enough to meet their basic needs. For additional background on this subject, start by reviewing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living-wage. Wisconsin's minimum wage is currently tied to that of the Federal minimum wage, with exceptions for tipped employees and a few other categories of workers. Your team has been asked by the State of Wisconsin to evaluate the desirability of adopting a living wage. Do a lot of research on the experiences of other cities or states that have adopted a living wage, or have a minimum wage higher than that of the Federal minimum wage to determine what challenges they encountered, what solutions they adopted, and how they evaluated the outcome. What are the pros and cons for businesses, workers, and the state? If you decide to recommend a living wage policy, should some employers be exempted? Would it be reasonable to establish a different hourly wage based on the living costs in each county, or a single hourly wage across the state?
If you decide against recommending a living wage policy, should Wisconsin keep their existing wage policy, and if not, what changes do you recommend they make? Assuming the role of a consultant asked to write a proposal for the State of Wisconsin, your team will conduct necessary research and prepare a written proposal that includes your recommendation as well as implementation considerations.
AMC Movie Theatre
Movie theaters generate revenue through ticket and concession sales, but most of a theatre's profit comes from concession sales - popcorn, soft drinks, candy, and related snacks. Because concession sales are down, the Board of Directors of AMC want to add wine and beer to the menu in each of the theatres they own, nationwide. The AMC Board has hired you (a team of consultants) to research these options, and to provide a recommendation: should they sell wine and beer. You will need to conduct research to determine (or estimate) what the profit potential is for each option, what the theatre might have to invest in equipment, and what risks each option might pose. Consider possible solutions (for example, can they offer these products while minimizing risk somewhat?), establish criterion/criteria to narrow down the solutions, provide a single recommendation, and discuss implementation considerations.
You will be assigned to a team comprised of 4-6 students for this assignment. Your team will assigned a project topic, conduct research on the topic, and write a proposal that includes specific recommendations and implementation procedures. This proposal will consist of the following sections:
1. Title Page
2. Table of Contents
3. Executive Summary
4. Proposal (start on new page) containing:
Introduction (includes problem description)
Research (includes possible solutions)
Recommendations
5. Bibliography
6. Appendix/Appendices
As a group, you will complete three progress reports (form is under "content" "blank forms"), which one member of your team will submit to a dropbox. You do not have to meet with your team face-to-face, but your team is required to find an agreed upon method to work together on this project. Each team has a D2L discussion board they can use to work on this project. You can also meet by phone, use Skype, or any other electronic communication platform your group agrees to use. If all members of the group wish to meet face-to-face, this is also acceptable.
The proposal itself will be 4-6 single-spaced pages, plus introductory pieces, bibliography, and appendices. One member of your team will submit the completed proposal to the dropbox. Up to 160 points can be earned for this proposal (see rubric, attached, for evaluation criteria). Also each member will, individually, complete a peer evaluation form (available under "content") on their team members' contributions. If you turn in this peer evaluation form, you will be awarded the points assigned to you by your team members (up to 40 possible points). If you neglect to turn in this form by the date due, you will forfeit the peer review points awarded to you.
The paper itself should be written in APA format, with the exception of single-spacing (which is more typical of business proposals). The paper should use 1" margins, Times New Roman 12-pt font, and be left justified. That means that, like in these instructions, you will not need to indent paragraphs. In double-space reports, where you do not put extra lines between paragraphs, indenting is needed to help distinguish each paragraph - but because you will be writing this using single-spacing, with an extra line between paragraphs, the new paragraphs can be started flush-left. Headings are centered using APA format, and are bolded, but do not make the font for headings larger or in a different color font, or underline them. Please use single spacing throughout (with a blank line in between paragraphs). Check on your default settings in Word to make sure that top, bottom, left, and right margins are set at 1 inch, and check under "format, paragraph" to be sure the setting is single-spaced with 0 pt before and after.