Minutes 2/22/12

Minutes Wednesday, February 12, 2012

Prepared by: Jordan Peters

Attendance: Jordan, Robert, Remington, Jacqueline, Casey, Brooke, Leah, Carmen

Robert began by presenting the minutes from Monday's class.

Topic:

Adjustment letters. We began by going over our responses to the Virgin Airlines complaint letter. Suzanne informed us about a few things that we neglected in our letters. Some of us did not respond to both issues at hand in the complaint letter, being the food as well as the entertainment (video screens). Also, many of us forgot to use a real handwritten signature to sign Richard Branson's name at the bottom of the letter. This should be beneath the "Sincerely," line and above a general signature block that includes at least his name and title. We also need to remember that there is no need to mess with the letter format. Indented paragraphs or block format are both appropriate, but still to the standard format. We also discussed how spaces between paragraphs is fine for 3-4 paragraphs, but if there are more than that do not include spaces, because it is more important to have a one page letter. Make sure to maintain visual balance and separate paragraphs for separate topics, even if this means having a one sentence paragraph. Extra credit points were awarded for those who used graphics, letter head, or just had well-thought out and well-worded letters. Suzanne handed our letters back to us at the end of class. 

Discussion:

We did one of our grammar activities to keep us constantly making sure that we use proper grammar in our writing. We started by assessing a sentence individually and then as a class we talked about the problems with the sentence that Suzanne gave us. There were a few important take aways from this exercise. One was that if a sentence uses the phrase "not only", then the phrase "but also"must follow it. Another phrasing correction is that you should use "different from" rather than "different than" (although this is acceptable when talking). Also, make sure that you spell words correctly, and spell them for your audience. The British style of writing a word such as rabbit (rabbitt), may not be appropriate if in the United States. The word "however" at the beginning of a sentence can be controversial. Many believe it is grammatically correct and if it is not followed immediately by a comma, then the meaning of a sentence can change. Sentences generally flow better when you stick this word in the middle of a sentence. 

Topic:

Blogs. Blogs have increasingly become a must have for all businesses. They can provide a good lens into an organization and can be rather insightful if used properly. Blogs are a great marketing tool, because they let people outside of your organization know about what you are up to. They are great because as an organization you get to control what information you put on them, so you can highlight the positive aspects of your organization. As a class we looked at a few blogs, namely, the St. Louis Symphony's, Kaldi's, Meds & Food For Kids, Patagonia, Ben's Blog as well as The Sartorialist. We gathered that blogs with pictures, music, and other engaging features are easier for a reader to digest. Also, the blogs that are more focused on connecting people to resources, sharing stories and experiences, or keeping its audience updated on projects that are of importance to them are ways to ensure a successful blog. It is important to not have too many distractions on a page and to keep entries rather short. 

We set out own guidelines for what makes a good blog entry. You should always make sure to know your audience and use a personal voice or perspective while writing. Having good, fluid, concise writing with an appropriate length for your audience is key. The entry needs to be visually appealing to your audience and make sure that the format helps guide length as well as comprehension of the subject matter. An entry should be easy to scan/skim through and there should also be good headlines, tags, and other identifiers on the post. Lastly, each entry should only have one topic.

Discussion:

We ended class with a few housekeeping notes and real life examples that apply to topics we have covered in the class. First Suzanne reminded us that we will have a speaker on Monday's class. We are to read 5-7 blog entries on Chris' blog. He will be discussing the most effective way to blog. We will also be discussing our midterm assignment on Monday. Also, Suzanne told us about how JPL, a company at Berkley, who started having meetings while standing up. They did this in order to have a more succinct agenda and shorten their meeting length, which was getting out of hand.

Minutes 2/20/12

Minutes Monday, February 8, 2012

Prepared by: Robert Yu

Present: Remington, Robert, Carmen, Leah, Brooke, Casey, Jordan, and Jacqueline

Leah went over minute

Announcement: speaker who is supposed to come on Wednesday is now coming Monday February 27^th. Persuasive letter writing has been moved to today, Blogging moved to Wednesday

Reference: Under syllabus it says read 5-7 blog entries for February 20^th, this has been moved to February 22^nd. Class for February 20^th is not in the syllabus, so that is the only written change.

Minute taker swap: Robert has been moved to minute taker for Feb 20^th, Casey is moved to the 27^th; this change has been reflected on the blog

Apology letters were turned in, Suzanne asked that names be placed on the top right of the letter. After great discussion it was concluded that Michael Hamroff, the recipient of the apology letters, is in fact Brooke’s father.

Topic

Suzanne discussed the persuasive letter, citing an example of a nonprofit board and the chronic problem of raising money. There was a big debate on the board and one member said that the members are into the mission, and not what it takes to raise money, which is to get people who are already philanthropists to donate to this cause. The way to attract these individuals is to have a gala. Other members disagreed and said that it is against the culture of the board. Peter Raven is the former head of the Botanical Gardens and he felt very strongly that the group should have a gala. The seven board members were asked to think about it, and after delivering a persuasive speech, said that the others should write a response as to why a gala should not be held while writing a letter himself about why they should hold a gala.

The letter was one page, had five to six good points, and persuaded Suzanne that they should have a gala. The event was held in the past weekend, was very successful, and served to convince a group coherently without being bogged down by constraints.

Use this pneumonic device for the elements of persuasive letter:

• O: Opinion – dear so and so, drop the opinion after a short introduction (A gala does not fit the culture of the organization)
• R: Reason – cite reasons (Mission clash, mission statement that is counter to sit down dinners)
• E: Example – give examples that are in tune with the persuasion (Shakespeare in the Park, example of gala type event that works well)
• O: Opinion (A gala does not fit the culture of the organization)

Double stuffed works even better (More reasons and examples)

Suzanne then showed two examples of persuasive letters, one not very persuasive, one that is better. Both examples are extracted from Letters of Note. The first is written by JFK as a little kid to ask for more allowance.

Discussion:

We judged poor 10-year-old JFK, who has exquisite cursive handwriting, on his hilarious but poorly conceived persuasive letter. We restructured the letter as following:

• Opinion – my allowance should be raised
• Reason – I am a Boy Scout, and I need to buy Boy Scout things
• Example – Canteens, searchlights, blankets, and ponchos

*Optional*

• Reason – Other Boy Scouts get raises
• Example – “We like” Ike got a 50c raise. Herbert got a raise AND a dog.

*End Optional*

• Opinion – Therefore, please consider GIVING ME MY RAISE PLEASE. THANK YOU

In the second example we see Hugh Laurie selling the show of Season 7 on House

• Opinion – Buy House S07
• Reason – It will make you loved and awesome
• Example – your coworkers will adore you and your lovers will want to be with you
• Opinion – Buy House S07

Assignment: 1 page letter based on article given, using the OREO guideline and the letter format in the book “how to”. Assignment is due February 22. 206 Seigle is the address. Create a policy in the classroom that governs how we use technology. Is it appropriate to text and e-mail each other and expect responses in a timely manner?

Last Example:

Dear So and So,

• Opinion – we should eat cookies and leave early
• Reason – It’s Girl Scout cookie season
• Example – Thin Mints is delicious and supports the young women
• Reason – It’s president’s day
• Example – There is sun shining and a horse outside with a man in a wig at the helm
• Opinion – a dynamic approach to learning today is sugar and sunshine.

Sincerely,

Rico Suave

Class dismissed early, double stuffed oreos were presented and enjoyed by all

Minutes, 2/15/2012

Class Minutes: 15 February 2012

Prepared by: Leah Sutton

Present: Jacqueline, Carmen, Leah, Brooke, Casey, Jordan, Robert, Remington, and Suzanne

We began with Jacqueline reviewing the minutes from last week.

Suzanne then introduced our topic for today: letters of adjustment/apology. They are difficult to write because of their sensitivity. We began with an example from Kaldi’s about a bad experience a regular customer had with a manager, for which Suzanne felt compelled to issue an apology.

She shared some famous examples including Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol incident in 1982. Tylenol was recalled by Johnson & Johnson and they issued a letter of warning along with paying for a national advertisement campaign warning people of the investigation. Though the case was never solved, it was concluded that the bottles had been tampered with and it is now recognized as a “safe brand.”

In contrast, BP Amoco did not do any of the above in dealing with the oil spill in 2010. They were not proactively sharing information, prompting outside investigation. The damage not only to the environment but to their brand is immeasurable.

We reviewed Suzanne's guidelines for apology letters, which instructs us to 1) acknowledge, 2) apologize, 3) appreciate, and 4) adjust ($$).

Suzanne read to us a famous “non-apology” from Netflix when they attempted to split their streaming services from their DVD company and received many customer complaints. CEO and Co-founder Reed Hastings was in fact ridiculed for this letter.

Finally we reviewed the assignment for Monday—Suzanne read us the letter of complaint to Richard Branson, the CEO of Virgin Airlines, to which we must write a response letter of apology. We began to work on these letters in class.

Natural Glory

Sometimes the world needs a little beauty

Letter of Complaint to Richard Branson

Image 1

'Look at this Richard. Just look at it'

Dear Mr Branson

REF: Mumbai to Heathrow

I love the Virgin brand, I really do which is why I continue to use it despite a series of unfortunate incidents over the last few years. This latest incident takes the biscuit.

Ironically, by the end of the flight I would have gladly paid over a thousand rupees for a single biscuit following the culinary journey of hell I was subjected to at thehands of your corporation.

Look at this Richard. Just look at it: [see image 1, above].

I imagine the same questions are racing through your brilliant mind as were racing through mine on that fateful day. What is this? Why have I been given it? What have I done to deserve this? And, which one is the starter, which one is the desert?

You don’t get to a position like yours Richard with anything less than a generous sprinkling of observational power so I KNOW you will have spotted the tomato next to the two yellow shafts of sponge on the left. Yes, it’s next to the sponge shaft without the green paste. That’s got to be the clue hasn’t it. No sane person would serve a desert with a tomato would they. Well answer me this Richard, what sort of animal would serve a desert with peas in?

I know it looks like a baaji but it’s in custard Richard, custard. It must be the pudding. Well you’ll be fascinated to hear that it wasn't custard. It was a sour gel with a clear oil on top. It’s only redeeming feature was that it managed to be so alien to my palette that it took away the taste of the curry emanating from our miscellaneous central cuboid of beige matter. Perhaps the meal on the left might be the desert after all.

Anyway, this is all irrelevant at the moment. I was raised strictly but neatly by my parents and if they knew I had started desert before the main course, a sponge shaft would be the least of my worries. So lets peel back the tin-foil on the main dish and see what’s on offer.

I’ll try and explain how this felt. Imagine being a twelve year old boy Richard. Now imagine it’s Christmas morning and you’re sat their with your final present to open. It’s a big one, and you know what it is. It’s that Goodmans stereo you picked out the catalogue and wrote to Santa about.

Only you open the present and it’s not in there. It’s your hamster Richard. It’s your hamster in the box and it’s not breathing. That’s how I felt when I peeled back the foil and saw this stuff.

Now I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking it’s more of that Baaji custard. I admit I thought the same too, but no. It’s mustard Richard. MUSTARD. More mustard than any man could consume in a month. On the left we have a piece of broccoli and some peppers in a brown glue-like oil and on the right the chef had prepared some mashed potato. The potato masher had obviously broken and so it was decided the next best thing would be to pass the potatoes through the digestive tract of a bird.

Once it was regurgitated it was clearly then blended and mixed with a bit of mustard. Everybody likes a bit of mustard Richard.

By now I was actually starting to feel a little hypoglycaemic. I needed a sugar hit. Luckily there was a small cookie provided. It had caught my eye earlier due to it’s baffling presentation.

It appears to be in an evidence bag from the scene of a crime. A CRIME AGAINST BLOODY COOKING. Either that or some sort of back-street underground cookie, purchased off a gun-toting maniac high on his own supply of yeast. You certainly wouldn’t want to be caught carrying one of these through customs. Imagine biting into a piece of brass Richard. That would be softer on the teeth than the specimen above.

I was exhausted. All I wanted to do was relax but obviously I had to sit with that mess in front of me for half an hour. I swear the sponge shafts moved at one point.

Once cleared, I decided to relax with a bit of your world-famous onboard entertainment. I switched it on.

I apologise I'd have taken a photo, but it’s just it was incredibly hard to capture Boris Johnson’s face through the flickering white lines running up and down the screen. Perhaps it would be better on another channel.

Is that Ray Liotta? A question I found myself asking over and over again throughout the gruelling half-hour I attempted to watch the film like this. After that I switched off. I’d had enough. I was the hungriest I’d been in my adult life and I had a splitting headache from squinting at a crackling screen.

My only option was to simply stare at the seat in front and wait for either food, or sleep. Neither came for an incredibly long time. But when it did it surpassed my wildest expectations.

Yes! It’s another crime-scene cookie. Only this time you dunk it in the white stuff.

Richard…. What is that white stuff? It looked like it was going to be yoghurt. It finally dawned on me what it was after staring at it. It was a mixture between the Baaji custard and the Mustard sauce. It reminded me of my first week at university. I had overheard that you could make a drink by mixing vodka and refreshers. I lied to my new friends and told them I’d done it loads of times. When I attempted to make the drink in a big bowl it formed a cheese Richard, a cheese. That cheese looked a lot like your baaji-mustard.

So that was that Richard. I didn’t eat a bloody thing. My only question is: How can you live like this? I can’t imagine what dinner round your house is like, it must be like something out of a nature documentary.

As I said at the start I love your brand, I really do. It’s just a shame such a simple thing could bring it crashing to it’s knees and begging for sustenance.

Yours Sincererly

XXXX

• Paul Charles, Virgin’s Director of Corporate Communications, confirmed that Sir Richard Branson had telephoned the author of the letter and had thanked him for his “constructive if tongue-in-cheek” email. Mr Charles said that Virgin was sorry the passenger had not liked the in-flight meals which he said was “award-winning food which is very popular on our Indian routes.”

Minutes 2/13/12

Prepared by: Jacqueline Pfeiffer

Present: Carmen, Leah, Brooke, Remington, Robert, Casey, Jordan, Jacqueline

Presentation: Brooke presented the minutes from the previous class.

Topic:

Memos.  Suzanne finished grading the Howard Schulz response memos.  She said that they were very well done.  Everyone understood the concept and effectively applied it to their assigned division.  The only problem was poor grammar, mainly use of the passive voice and awkward sentences.  She told us to pay close attention to grammar in the future.  The memos were graded out of ten points.  Suzanne returned the graded memos at the end of class.

Topic:

Letters.  Suzanne told us to re-read tab 7 (beginning on page 184) in the BWC book.  She told us to pay close attention to the section about complaint letters because we will be working on these during our next class on Wednesday.

Presentations:

Historical Letters.  Everyone in the class presented their letter, including its historical context and significance.  Casey went first, reading a letter written by Gandhi to Hitler in the month before Germany’s invasion of Poland in an attempt to prevent war.  Jordan followed and presented the first part of Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.  The letter was written during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and outlined King’s nonviolent methods of ending segregation.  The letter was a response to a statement made by clergymen stating that social injustice should be fought only in courts.   Robert read the second half of King’s letter and focused on its message, pointing out King’s concern for the inaction of both the middle class and churches.  Carmen read Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letter to a Young Poet, in which Rilke, a German poet, tells a young man to write about everyday things and write for himself.  Jacqueline then presented Abraham Lincoln’s Bixby Letter, a consolation letter addressing a mother who was initially believed to have lost five sons during the Civil War.  Next, Remington read an exchange between eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon and a newspaper editor concerning the existence of Santa Claus.  The editor responded by saying the most significant things in life, like love, aren’t tangible. Brooke presented Einstein’s 1939 letter to FDR, which urged the United States to focus on uranium development.  Leah concluded the presentations and spoke about a letter from the Tuskegee Health Department, concerning the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, which studied the progression of the disease in poor black men. The men thought they were receiving free health treatment, but were later banned from receiving penicillin.

Discussion:

Panel Q&A session.  The class split into two groups.  The first group was for Civil Rights letters and included Jacqueline, Robert, Leah, and Jordan.  The second group was for World War II letters and included Remington, Brooke, Carmen, and Casey.  Each panel went to the front of the room and the rest of the class was given the opportunity to ask one of the panel members for either clarification or further information about a letter.

Appropriate...Given What We Just Talked About

From Reddit: My College Cancelled Class Today Because of the "Snow Storm"

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/pnmch/my_college_cancelled_class_today_because_of_the/

Minutes 2/8/12

Minutes Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Prepared by: Brooke Hamroff

Present: Leah, Remington, Jordan, Robert, Casey, Jacqueline, Carmen

Presentation: 
Carmen presented the minutes from last class. Suzanne explained that presenting the minutes is a good way to practice presentation skills and learn to speak confidently and effortlessly.

Topic: 
Suzanne collected our memo responses to Howard Schultz. One per group (4 total).

Topic: 
Suzanne handed back our email response homework evaluations. Overall our responses were good, but some of us lost points on forgetting to revise the subject line. Some forgot the signature block, and Suzanne clarified that the signature block does not act as a closing signature – an email needs both. Also, we should not say “Dear Client(s)” in a personal email.

Topic: 
Letters. Letters are an important way to communicate both internally or externally. They are more formal and have remained a common form of communication for centuries. Examples of historical uses of letters include St. Paul, Epistles, Sherlock Holmes, ancient Egyptians, and many more. Letters are important for archiving, they are more personal and formal, express more thought, and are tangible. Letters have kept a standard format over the years and over seas. Suzanne explains that a letter has the ability to grab you – she got a letter with a DIY origami and she kept that over other less intriguing letters.

Discussion: 
Suzanne showed us the website www.LettersOfNote.com that posts interesting letters. We looked at letters from Conan O’Brien, Pete Docter, Ronald Dahl, Stephan Hawking, Harper Lee, and Princeton University. We also saw memos from the head of Tiger Oil Company, which were very harsh, and Jeffrey Katzenberg at Disney. We each went up and read a portion of the 28-page memo as an impromptu public speaking exercise. We discuss how the memo is similar to Howard Schultz’s memo, urging the company to focus on its core values – a common theme in business memos and evaluation.

Discussion: 
Suzanne speaks about twitter and other forms of social media as new ways to get messages across in big ways such as revolutionary ideas across borders (ex: The Arab Spring). Letters used to be the main form of communication in times of political revolutions. Ex: After WWII – Einstein, Hitler, Gandhi. This led into our assignment for Monday. We were each assigned a historically famous letter (MLK Jr., Abraham Lincoln, the Macon County Department of Health, Virginia O'Hanlon, Ghandi, Albert Einstein, Rainer Maria Rilke) and must research the historical context of the letter. On Monday (2/13/12) we will each present a 3-minute presentation discussing the context of the letter and the historical significance. We will be evaluated on our ability to cover the importance of the letter, the time limit, keeping eye contact, not fidgeting, and using the room rather than standing in one spot.

Minutes 2/6/12

Prepared by: Carmen Ferraro

Present: Remington, Robert, Casey, Jordan, Leah, Brooke, Jacqueline, Carmen

Discussion:

Suzanne handed out a grammar exercise. We worked on it individually, and then traded it among ourselves to discuss the corrections.

Topic:

Review of Professional Profiles. Suzanne told us the mistakes that many people made in our Professional Profiles. We should show not tell our skills and should not use clichés. Do not use phrases such as “at this time” or “moving forward.” Instead, use “Then” or “now” or “in the future.” Similarly, avoid the word “unique.” Be careful of passive voice and awkward sentence structure. The professional profiles were graded out of 20 points. The range was 13-18 points. The median grade was 15.25 points and the mode was 14.5 points. We got them back at the end of class.

Topic:

Memos. Suzanne explained that memos are similar to e-mail, but less formal than a business letter. Memos are almost always used internally within an organization or group. They are a quick and effective way to inform people (ie. a new change in policy). Suzanne then showed us a picture of a “perfect” memo that she found in a mechanic shop. We reviewed the basic requirements for a good memo, which consist of who you are addressing, who it is from, the date, and the subject. The body is small paragraphs or bullets and usually addresses one topic or item.

Discussion:

Howard Shultz Memo. Suzanne handed out a real memo from Howard Shultz. We read it and then analyzed it as a class. Shultz addresses the current issues of Starbucks to the Chief Operations Officer and the Heads of Divisions of Starbucks in the memo. Shultz describes that the atmosphere of Starbucks have changed over time because of the new espresso machines and bagged coffee. Customers no longer have a strong relationship with their baristas or smell the coffee aroma when they walk in the door. The merchandise no longer matches up with their original view and stores have become generic. Shultz asks his team to return to the original vision of Starbucks and expresses his preoccupation with the rising competition.

Group Work:

Reply to Howard Shultz’s memo in pairs. We have the rest of the class to work on the memos with our partner (final drafts are due next class). Each pair will focus on the following topics: equipment, packaging, store design and merchandise buying, and competition and strategic market research. In the memo, we should address Howard Shultz (and the rest of the class). Suzanna said to make sure to explain your division and mention projections for the future/timeline. Be sure to write your name and title when saying who the memo is from. Brooke and Jordan are writing from the Equipment division, Casey and Robert are doing Packaging, Remington and Carmen are doing store design and merchandise buying, and Jacqueline and Leah are doing competition and strategic market research.

Memo Assignment

Please write a memo with your partner that is a response to Howard Schultz's memo. You and your partner are the heads of your divisions (equipment; packaging; store design; merchandise buying; competition and strategic market research.) In your response, please use the standard memo format discussed in class and in BWC. Your memo should include your plans on how to "bring Starbucks back to its core" as it pertains to your division. It should also include a timeline.
Due Wednesday, printed out copy, 1 per group.

Minute Taker Calendar

Feb. 6: Carmen
Feb. 8: Brooke
Feb. 13: Jacqueline
Feb. 15: Leah
Feb. 20: Robert
Feb. 22: Jordan
Feb. 29: Remington
Mar. 5: Midterm
Mar. 7: Casey
Mar. 21: Brooke
Mar. 26: Jacqueline
Mar. 28: Leah
Apr. 2: Casey
Apr. 4: Jordan
Apr. 9: Robert
Apr. 11: Remington

Minutes 2/1/12

Prepared by: Suzanne Langlois
Present:
Carmen, Jacqueline, Brooke, Jordan, Leah, Casey, Remington, Robert
So and So presented the minutes from the last class.
Topics:
Group Work:
Discussions:
Presentations:

Presentation:
Jordan presented her Personal Professional Profile to the class. She told us about her passion for the arts in general, and dance more specifically. We discovered she was a clumsy child. Now she is a graceful dancer since her mother had the foresight to enroll her in dance classes. Her professional ambition is to become an entertainment lawyer.

Topic:
Meetings. Suzanne told us that the most important thing to remember about meetings is to not abuse them. Cancel the meeting you scheduled if you can't fill an agenda appropriately. Don't hold meetings to complain, boast, or avoid awkward conversations with one person. Do hold meetings to have discussions that are best had (?) with all interested parties together in the same room face to face, to facilitate the group's purpose. We went over meeting Agendas and Minutes.