Trip Report Assignment
You are still the assistant to Gloria Emmanuel, founder and director of MEND, a public health advocacy and education organization which serves the population of the west San Fernando Valley. Ms. Emmanuel has received some grant funding to attend either the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting (held this year in Denver from 10/29/16 to 11/2/16) or the Association of University Programs in Health Administration Annual Meeting (held this year in Kansas City from 6/22/16 to 6/24/16). Since Ms. Emmanuel believes that continuing education is important, she has asked you to choose one of the conferences to attend.
While you are there, you are expected to attend at least three sessions-programs, caucuses, continuing education, or meetings. The material presented in these sessions should be something that will be relevant to MEND-something that will facilitate in some way the services MEND provides to the community. Your task is to attend these meetings, pay close attention and take careful notes, and then on your return, compose and deliver a report that will update Ms. Emmanuel on your experience. The report should make it clear to Ms. Emmanuel that the money spent byMENDto send you to the conference added value to the organization.
To carry out this assignment, you'll be researching through the conference program websites (website posted on Moodle); picking three sessions. Then you will read-and re-read-the information carefully-and then synthesize that information into your report.
Remember that the sessions you choose have to be in some way relatable to your employment and your employer's mission. So while a session on the epidemiology of TB in India might be really, really interesting to you, it will be a tough sell to convince Ms. Emmanuel that this was worth the conference fee. You should plan to do some very preliminary research on the issues of the San Fernando Valley, or your personal experience might be enough to help you choose your programs.
The final report should be in memo format-it's an internal communication-and not to exceed two single-spaced pages in length. Keep in mind that the material has to be organized around a common concept-how your acquisition of this material will be good for MEND and for the clients you serve. Additional audience and purpose analysis will help you focus your results and your message.
Addendum: To the memo, you should also append a list of the sessions you attended (title, presenter, and any other pertinent information) and any contacts you made. This can be in any format, but it should be consistent with the memo and easy to read.
For supply chain management and other business majors: You are free to choose a conference in your own subject field and do the same type of reporting. However, be advised that it may be harder to find material-or material provided in as concise a fashion. Three possible websites will be posted on Moodle for your consideration.
Adapted from Professor Kathy Leslie
https://mendpoverty.org/