A Project That Could Have Gone Better

Last year, while I was still a teacher, I was also the advisor of a club known as the Renaissance Club. The purpose of this club is recognize and reward students and staff, and to boost school spirit and morale. As part of this club, we do many activities and events to raise money for this club to allow us to do things for the teachers, staff, and students.
Last school year, our big fundraiser was a Students vs. Staff Flag Football game. This event should have raised enough money for us for most of the year. However, we encountered many problems leading up to, and also the night of the game. First, the t-shirts cost more money than originally anticipated. Normally, the Graphic Arts students design and screen print any t-shirts that we need for events. Unfortunately, we found out only two weeks before the event that they would not be able to do the shirts for us because they were not at that point in their curriculum yet that they were working on printing. This caused us to have to order shirts from a company, and also put a rush on them because we had less than two weeks to get them back. This cost the club more than $400 extra in unnecessary fees.
The second major roadblock that we hit was after the game when several of our staff members filed Workman’s Compensation lawsuits for injuries they sustained during the game. There were three teachers who missed a lot of school, and the administration ultimately blamed the club for not taking the proper precautions and for not having faculty members sign waivers to play. This was never communicated to us, so I feel it was not completely our fault.
Overall, this project could have been more of a success had we had better planning, and had the administration conveyed their expectations a little more effectively. In looking back, we should have known way ahead of time that the t-shirts were going to have to be ordered, so that is something that we should have checked on well ahead of time. Also, since this game, the district has had all employees sign a waiver that states that we waive liability if we get hurt on school grounds doing anything not related to our teaching duties. If this waiver had been in place prior to the game, we could have prevented a lot of issues.
However, with all of that said, the club still made a lot of money on the night, and the students had a lot of fun, which is ultimately why we did it. If we are to do it again, which we probably will, better planning will be in place, and the success will not hinder of t-shirts and injured staff members.






Post-mortem Questions:

1. Are you proud of our finished deliverables (project work products)? If yes, what's so good about them? If no, what's wrong with them?
I am proud that the game itself was a success, and it ran smoothly and people had fun. I am also proud of my club for all their hard work.

2. What was the single most frustrating part of our project?
The single most frustrating part was the rushing around at the last minute to get the shirts done, because of poor planning and making assumptions. In addition, they didn't arrive until the day before, and that in itself was extremely stressful for me.

3. How would you do things differently next time to avoid this frustration?
I would make sure ahead of time that the graphic arts students could print our shirts so that we didn't have to put out extra money to have them rushed from a printing company. Another thing I would do differently next time is to have teachers sign waivers, so that in the event of an injury, then cannot sue the school district.

4. What was the most gratifying or professionally satisfying part of the project?
Students and staff having fun, walking away with smiles and new t-shirts was gratifying for me and balanced out all of the other frustrating parts of the project.

5. Which of our methods or processes worked particularly well?
Every other aspect of the game worked extremely well. The club ran a successful concession stand, there was a large group of spectators, and overall we made money on the event. Many administrators attended the event, and praised us for a successful night.

6. Which of our methods or processes were difficult or frustrating to use?
The whole process of making the t-shirts was frustrating. Being that the students were playing against the staff, it was almost essential to have them wear t-shirts. I do think that the Graphic Arts class teacher could have been a little bit more flexible in helping us, being that he knew what he was doing and could help the advanced students along. Also, after the fact, the administration blamed us for all of the teachers who filed for workman's compensation. One teacher even sued the district, which ultimately they blamed us for.

7. If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about the project, what would you change?
I would have not relied on the graphic arts students to screen print our shirts. I would have gone with a reputable company well in advance, as to not incur rush fees, and to ensure the shirts arrived sooner than they did. It was stressful not knowing if they would arrive on time.

8. Did our stakeholders, senior managers, customers, and sponsor(s) participate effectively? If not, how could we improve their participation?
Yes, I do believe that all the stakeholders, advisors, and customers did their parts to make it a successful endeavor.


Reflection Questions:
1. What contributed to the project’s success or failure?
Poor planning, and blame from the administration contributed to the not-so-succesful part of the event. All stakeholders contributed to its success.

2.Which parts of the PM process, if included, would have made the project more successful? Why?
Of the parts of the PM process, I believe that objective and scope made it more successful. We still met the ultimate goal, and that was to bring teachers and students together to engage in a friendly-fire football game. This increased camaraderie and morale. The scope creep was probably the t-shirts, but despite that, we were still able to make the event a success.