Operations Bootcamp

 Hello there

Welcome to Operations. We're glad you're here!

Here at WARG, our operations team manages a diverse workforce in our organization to ensure efficient day-to-day operations. As a designated design team, the operations division plays a crucial role in ensuring that the technical teams have sufficient resources to meet their project deliverables.

  Team breakdowns

Here is a general rundown of the Operation’s team structure and their respective responsibilities. Note that due to the size and relative age of this team, various subdivisions will be required to work closely together to fulfill project needs.

Administration

• Logistics: responsible for ensuring the movement of goods and services is performed effectively and reaches the designated party on time.

  • Coordinate and track the purchase and deliverance of items the team requires

  • Travel planning for our annual competition

• Communications: create, implement and oversee communications programs, be it internal or external, to facilitate the transfer of information between designated parties.

  • Internal: manage internal platforms such as Asana, Confluence and Discord

  • External: monitor all email addresses to maintain relationships with sponsors, mentors, etc.

• Documentation: organization of our archiving system and project tracking

  • Label, sort and categorize documents for ease of use

  • Outline a long-term storage strategy

Finance

• Monitor spending and budgets through our financial legers and sponsors.

• Ensure that our internal purchase protocol remains updated and follow up on reimbursement

• Advise on how to reduce costs and increase performance

Sponsorships

• Develop proposals and email campaigns to solicit sponsorships from various organizations

• Prepare applications within required deadlines for internal funding sources such as the Waterloo Engineering Endowment Foundation (WEEF) and Mathematics Endowment Fund (MEF)

• Identify potential opportunities for collaboration and ensure the efficacy of existing sponsorships.

• Sustain ties with sponsors, ensure sponsorship agreements are met such as creating a certain amount of content for the sponsor, and maintaining a positive relationship

Digital Media

• Maintenance of our digital presence on various online platforms such as Instagram and LinkedIn

• Create written and visual content to grow our social media presence and engagement

• Develop creative and engaging visual elements in accordance with our brand style guide

• Manage and update our team website with new sponsors, projects and leadership changes

Recruitment

• Plan outreach and recruitment events such as open houses, club fairs and info sessions for new members

• Display posters in university buildings to generate student interest in the team

• Strategize on when and where recruitment should be promoted

Events

• Plan internal events such as team workshops, sponsorship, and other onsite events.

• Coordinate team-building social events such as paintball, campfires, baking night, etc.

Merch

• Design unique merchandise to represent the team onsite and at competitions

• Assess interest in various merchandise items such as shirts, hoodies, jackets, hats, patches, etc.

• Coordinate the purchase and tracking of new merchandise orders

Bootcamp Outline

This bootcamp contains two distinct tasks, all of which must be completed and reviewed before you can take on any tasks on the Operations subteam. By completing this bootcamp, you will gain an understanding of our team and the tools, standards, and methods we use to support project development.

All tasks are designed to take 1-3 hours in total to complete. If you require any assistance or have any questions, send our leadership team a message in #bootcamp-operations!

Getting Started

Task 1: Sponsorship Email

Task 1 will have you research a company of your choice and write an email to secure a new sponsorship for WARG! This task will help you better understand our team’s history, sponsorship goals and email standards.

1. Select a company from the following list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UkXlVBkidRUl_x1fL_Nmo2uxAADkpEHHFa9cSILeqbc/edit?usp=sharing

2. Research your chosen company to better understand its products, values, and business models.
   Ensure you complete sufficient research to write a custom email addressing the company.

3. Get familiar with WARG by consulting our website, social media, and our History page. Ensure that you complete sufficient research to represent our team well.

4. Write an email to secure your company as a new WARG sponsor. You may consult our existing https://uwarg-docs.atlassian.net/wiki/x/EYCFbg, but your email must be significantly different from the templates.  We want you to demonstrate your creative abilities without adapting previous work. 
   At a minimum, you must:

   1. Introduce yourself and your role. You can state your role as a member of WARG.

   2. Introduce the team. What does WARG mean? What is our affiliation with the University of Waterloo?

   3. Discuss our team’s values. What do we have in common with the company? Why partner with them?

   4. Suggest a sponsorship arrangement. How are we looking for the company to contribute? How would we repay them for their support? Hint: Check out our Sponsorship Package linked here https://www.uwarg.com/sponsors.

   5. Thank them for their consideration.

5. Send your finished email to uwarg+opsbootcamp@uwaterloo.ca

Marking Factors

Task 2: Marketing Proposal

Task 2 will have you create a marketing proposal for an appreciation post for your chosen sponsor.
This task will help you develop your critical thinking skills and understand our approach to media and marketing at WARG!

Consider the following scenario: the company you emailed in the previous task has accepted your sponsorship proposal. They will be providing our team with equipment to be used by WARG members. In return, WARG must create an appreciation post on social media to thank the company for supporting the development of this year’s competition drone.

1. Research the elements that are typically included in a sponsor appreciation post. You may consult some of our previous posts on Instagram, but your post must differ significantly from our previous work. We are looking for your fresh approach to sponsor marketing!

2. Answer the proposal questions in the following form: Microsoft Forms. Note: there are no “right” or “wrong” answers to these questions. We want you to justify your marketing decisions with sound judgment and reasoning.

   1. What is the intended audience of your post?

   2. Which platform(s) would you use to post your appreciation post? Why did you select these platforms?

   3. What kind of media would you include in your post (ex, videos, photos, etc.)? How would you go about creating these media? What is the importance of media in your post?

   4. How would you caption your post?

3. Submit your answers to the form to complete this task.

Marking Factors

Bootcamp Submission

Once you have completed both bootcamp tasks, ensure that they have been submitted as indicated in the steps above. A member of our leadership team will schedule a short bootcamp review with you!