RALS Roster Systems (RROSY) – Volunteer Management System For Riverina Agricultural And Lifestyle Show

Project Participants

RALS Roster Systems (RROSY) is the project to computerize the volunteer management system for the annual event of Globex i.e. Riverina Agricultural and Lifestyle Show (RALS) in collaboration with Virtucon.

The following members from Virtucon constitute the RROSY project participants.

Team Name	Contact Details
Email Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Phone
Business Analyst	[email protected]	9080604010
Project Manager	[email protected]	9080604010
Project Coordinator	[email protected]	9080604010
Project Implementer	[email protected]
HR	[email protected]	9080604010
Customer care	[email protected]	9080604010
Administration	[email protected]	9080604010

The Globex is an organization that focuses on a single annual event that promotes farming sector. The annual gathering, which began in the year 2000, is termed as Riverina Agriculture and Lifestyle Show (RALS) and happens every November. During this month long event, the farmers of the region, agricultural equipment suppliers, life style product dealers and other local businesses show case their products, achievements, projects, etc, to the public. The entry for the event is chargeable and the event generates revenue from several streams. One of the key features of this show is that the gate fee collection is completely donated to a social service organization called ICV (Indigenous Community volunteers). Because the Globex absolutely rely on the volunteers, to make every RALS successful, it expects the ICV to provide volunteers.

The roles and jobs of volunteers participating in the RALS are varied and challenging. The requirement for large number of volunteers RALS and allocating work to them has become complex. Previously Globex staff managed the volunteers, but the need for a computerized system has emerged. Globex being a valuable client of Virtucon, the knowledge institution has agreed to develop an information system to manage the volunteers.  

Team Member Name	Skills	Responsibility
Larry Baker	Project management	Project leadership
Monisha Veroski	Programming Specialist (Coding and database)	Development of applications and information system
McFasten Hallwood	Human Resource Coordinator	Managing human resources and development
John Smith	Programming of User Interface	Developing user friendly applications and customer response system
Michael Rappaport	Software and system testing	Testing and debugging
Paul Evens	System analysis and architecture development	System study, planning and integration
Al Burq Kanoo	Customer Support	Customer care and maintenance of the system
Cecily Alport	Data base management and back end support	Back end set up and data base management
Fiona Vialleta	Accounts and Administration	Managing project resources and control of budgets

The project team is free to contact any members of the team any time of the day and through any medium. The common communication tools are email groups, facebook pages with members only restrictions and a watsapp group. By following the email, facebook and watsapp group, all team members can observe the conversations and participate in the threads. In order to resolve conflicts, difficulties and decision making team meetings are held.

Meetings will be held on special occasions as mist members are connected through various communication channels. If at all meetings are held, it will be on Wednesdays afternoon 2’ O clock @ David Hall in the amenities centre.   

The meeting follows informal, open and energetic discussions on the challenges of the business. The meeting can be called by any member of the team with the responsibility that the agenda must be worthy of the time spent together. Meeting on trivial issues are discouraged and vital project issues are debated with energy.  The meeting continues till a solution to the challenge is identified and an action is planned.

Globex and RALS

All members are expected to participate in the project groups and in the team meetings. The norms include being open, issue based discussion and avoiding personal attacks. All have equal rights to express their opinions and ideas and the team maintains an informal culture (Izam, Costello, & Wilkinson, 2013) However, completion of committed tasks is considered as critical to the team performance/

Honesty, integrity and quality are the guiding principles of every project undertaken by the Virtucon. Though a team member can discuss openly project matters with any team members, the team members are expected to be cordial with each other and respect the personal space of all members.   

All agreed actions must be carried out without negligence and delay. Those who have performed only have the right to speak in the meetings. The team meetings are conversations and are not platforms for monotonous lectures. During meetings only one person speak at a time.

Organizer

• The team will maintain a log of insights and learning from the projects and the interactions.
• Apart from discussing the project issues, the team also would review the learning posted on the log.  
• Issue based conflicts are welcome to enhance the learning but personal conflicts are discouraged.
• All breakthroughs and innovations are celebrated by the team members together

The primary modes of communication shall be through the emails, facebook group and watsapp group.  However, the external stakeholders are contacted through emails and face to face meetings.

The internal communication includes the following:

• Formal Meetings
• Informal Meetings and discussions
• Phone Conversations, watsapp messages and facebook postings
• E-mails

Marshall, D., & Priestner, A. (2016). Snapshot project report. Available at https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/263794, [Accessed on 24th Aug 2017]

The unique study has produced several insights regarding information search and research behaviors of research students of a popular higher education institution in the UK i.e. University of Cambridge. In order to study the students in natural settings the study used a special technique called cultural probe.  The study brought into light  how the researchers are accessing information, the behavioral and mental routines they follow, the choices they make regarding the worth of the information, and how they communicate the newly found information to their peers.  This study is useful in designing the annual agriculture event RALS and also in training the volunteers to improve their roles.

Studer, S. (2016). Volunteer management: Responding to the uniqueness of Volunteers.  Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 45(4), 688-714.

Volunteer management (VM) has been traditionally undertaken by the HR departments in the organizations. This study distinguishes how the volunteers differ from the paid staff. Managing volunteers require different orientation. Through complex statistical analysis this study provides critical insights regarding the nature of volunteer work. Interest in the work, varied job roles, role clarity, team spirit and enhancement of self respect are the attractors of the volunteer work. This information is critical in developing volunteer management software, its user interface, volunteer profile building, etc.

i. Ensuring that all require volunteer module are completed

Volunteer Roles and Jobs

ii. A test report by the tester as well as the representative from the Globex is checked and submitted to the project sponsor. 

iii. Training to the users of the system is completed

iv. The debugging of the system is completed and is made ready for the installation

v. Post installation testing is completed and the client has signed the completion report

vi. The system is handed to the representative of the Globex

vii. The project learning and insights are documented

viii. Final completion report is submitted to the project manager

The Management of Value (MOV) of the project will be confirmed through the following steps.

i. Assessment of the impact will be measured through the improvements in volunteer mangemnt functions such as faster retrieval of volunteer data, effective allocation of work, real time information regarding volunteer on the job, etc.

ii. Assessment of the benefits achieved by the Globex such as number of staff required for the volunteer management, the operational problems solved by the system and the overall improvement in the system.

iii. Assessing the impact on the event such as the number of satisfied Globex staff and volunteers in participating in RALS and the visitors’ reactions and responses regarding the volunteers and the event are vital information for Globex.
The project has helped the team members to manage an unpaid venture with effectiveness and in managing the volunteers. Interacting with stakeholders has helped the project implementers to learn about the farm sector and the volunteering jobs. The criticality of principles mentioned in the PMBOK (Project Management body of Knowledge) is found to be vital in controlling and driving the progress of a project. Working enthusiastically in a team and managing the time effectively is achieved. 

Based on experience in the project management, it is clear that a project manager fundamentally needs knowledge of the project, have a track record of proven experience, and a personality to manage a varied set of people (Hwang, & Ng, 2013).. Each of these factors is built upon specific “pillars”. For example the knowledge component has pillars such as leadership, negotiation, industry specific knowledge, communication, decision making, etc (Reich, Gemino, , & Sauer, 2014). The personality component of the project manager includes personal characteristics such as can-do attitude, self confidence, enthusiasm, integrity, open mindedness, etc. The proven track record of successful completion projects speak for itself.

References

Hwang, B. G., & Ng, W. J. (2013). Project management knowledge and skills for green construction: Overcoming challenges. International Journal of Project Management, 31(2), 272-284.

Izam Ibrahim, K., Costello, S. B., & Wilkinson, S. (2013). Key practice indicators of team integration in construction projects: a review. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 19(3/4), 132-152.

Marshall, D., & Priestner, A. (2016). Snapshot project report. Available at https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/263794, [Accessed on 24th Aug 2017]

Reich, B. H., Gemino, A., & Sauer, C. (2014). How knowledge management impacts performance in projects: An empirical study. International Journal of Project Management, 32(4), 590-602.

Studer, S. (2016). Volunteer management: Responding to the uniqueness of volunteers. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 45(4), 688-714.