Digital Fortress Chapter 28

Senor Roldan was sitting behind his desk at Escortes Belen congratulating himself for deftly sidestepping the Guardia's newest pathetic attempt to trap him. Having an officer fake a German accent and request a girl for the night-it was entrapment; what would they think of next? The phone on his desk buzzed loudly. Senor Roldan scooped up the receiver with a confident flair. â€Å"Buenas noches, Escortes Belen.† â€Å"Buenas noches,† a man's voice said in lightning-fast Spanish. He sounded nasal, like he had a slight cold. â€Å"Is this a hotel?† â€Å"No, sir. What number are you dialing?† Senor Roldan was not going to fall for any more tricks this evening. â€Å"34-62-10,† the voice said. Roldan frowned. The voice sounded vaguely familiar. He tried to place the accent-Burgos, maybe? â€Å"You've dialed the correct number,† Roldan offered cautiously, â€Å"but this is an escort service.† There was a pause on the line. â€Å"Oh†¦ I see. I'm sorry. Somebody wrote down this number; I thought it was a hotel. I'm visiting here, from Burgos. My apologies for disturbing you. Good nigh-â€Å" â€Å"Espere! Wait!† Senor Roldan couldn't help himself; he was a salesman at heart. Was this a referral? A new client from up north? He wasn't going to let a little paranoia blow a potential sale. â€Å"My friend,† Roldan gushed into the phone. â€Å"I thought I recognized a bit of a Burgos accent on you. I myself am from Valencia. What brings you to Seville?† â€Å"I sell jewelry. Majorica pearls.† â€Å"Majoricas, reeaally! You must travel quite a bit.† The voice coughed sickly. â€Å"Well, yes, I do.† â€Å"In Seville on business?† Roldan pressed. There was no way in hell this guy was Guardia; he was a customer with a capital C. â€Å"Let me guess-a friend gave you our number? He told you to give us a call. Am I right?† The voice was obviously embarrassed. â€Å"Well, no, actually, it's nothing like that.† â€Å"Don't be shy, senor. We are an escort service, nothing to be ashamed of. Lovely girls, dinner dates, that is all. Who gave you our number? Perhaps he is a regular. I can give you a special rate.† The voice became flustered. â€Å"Ah†¦ nobody actually gave me this number. I found it with a passport. I'm trying to find the owner.† Roldan's heart sank. This man was not a customer after all. â€Å"You found the number, you say?† â€Å"Yes, I found a man's passport in the park today. Your number was on a scrap of paper inside. I thought perhaps it was the man's hotel; I was hoping to return his passport to him. My mistake. I'll just drop it off at a police station on my way out of-â€Å" â€Å"Perdon,† Roldan interrupted nervously. â€Å"Might I suggest a better idea?† Roldan prided himself on discretion, and visits to the Guardia had a way of making his customers ex-customers. â€Å"Consider this,† he offered. â€Å"Because the man with the passport had our number, he is most likely a client here. Perhaps I could save you a trip to the police.† The voice hesitated. â€Å"I don't know. I should probably just-â€Å" â€Å"Do not be too hasty, my friend. I'm ashamed to admit that the police here in Seville are not always as efficient as the police up north. It could be days before this man's passport is returned to him. If you tell me his name, I could see that he gets his passport immediately.† â€Å"Yes, well†¦ I suppose there's no harm†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Some paper rustled, and the voice returned. â€Å"It's a German name. I can't quite pronounce it†¦ Gusta†¦ Gustafson?† Roldan didn't recognize the name, but he had clients from all over the world. They never left their real names. â€Å"What does he look like-in his photo? Perhaps I will recognize him.† â€Å"Well†¦Ã¢â‚¬  the voice said. â€Å"His face is very, very fat.† Roldan immediately knew. He remembered the obese face well. It was the man with Rocio. It was odd, he thought, to have two calls about the German in one night. â€Å"Mr. Gustafson?† Roldan forced a chuckle. â€Å"Of course! I know him well. If you bring me his passport, I'll see he gets it.† â€Å"I'm downtown without a car,† the voice interrupted. â€Å"Maybe you could come to me?† â€Å"Actually,† Roldan hedged, â€Å"I can't leave the phone. But it's really not that far if you-â€Å" â€Å"I'm sorry, it's late to be out wandering about. There's a Guardia precinct nearby. I'll drop it there, and when you see Mr. Gustafson, you can tell him where it is.† â€Å"No, wait!† Roldan cried. â€Å"The police really needn't be involved. You said you're downtown, right? Do you know the Alfonso XIII Hotel? It's one of the city's finest.† â€Å"Yes,† the voice said. â€Å"I know the Alfonso XIII. It's nearby.† â€Å"Wonderful! Mr. Gustafson is a guest there tonight. He's probably there now.† The voice hesitated. â€Å"I see. Well, then†¦ I suppose it would be no trouble.† â€Å"Superb! He's having dinner with one of our escorts in the hotel restaurant.† Roldan knew they were probably in bed by now, but he needed to be careful not to offend the caller's refined sensibilities. â€Å"Just leave the passport with the concierge, his name is Manuel. Tell him I sent you. Ask him to give it to Rocio. Rocio is Mr. Gustafson's date for the evening. She will see that the passport is returned. You might slip your name and address inside-perhaps Mr. Gustafson will send you a little thank you.† â€Å"A fine idea. The Alfonso XIII. Very well, I'll take it over right now. Thank you for your help.† David Becker hung up the phone. â€Å"Alfonso XIII.† He chuckled. â€Å"Just have to know how to ask.† Moments later a silent figure followed Becker up Calle Deliciasinto the softly settling Andalusian night.

Use Case Diagram

UML Model Report UML Model Table of Contents Table of Contents2 USE CASE MODEL REPORT3 USE CASE MODEL3 PACKAGE DOCUMENTATION:3 Actor – Customer4 Actor – Shipping Clerk4 Actor – Shipper4 Actor – Receiving Clerk4 Actor – Inventory Clerk4 Actor – Shipping Station4 Actor – Receiving Station4 Use Case – Add Item to Shopping Cart5 Use Case – Browse List of Books6 Use Case – Cancel Order7 Use Case – Check Out8 Use Case – Edit Contents of Shopping Cart10 Use Case – Log In13 Use Case – Open Account16 Use Case – Process Received Shipment19 Use Case – Search by Author20 Use Case – Ship Order23 Use Case – Track Recent Orders26Domain Model29 STATIC OBJECT MODEL1 Use Case MODEL Report Use Case Model Package Documentation: NONE Use Case Diagram – Main [pic] Actor – Customer Documentation: NONE Actor – Shipping Clerk Documentation: NONE Actor – Shi pper Documentation: NONE Actor – Receiving Clerk Documentation: NONE Actor – Inventory Clerk Documentation: NONE Actor – Shipping Station Documentation: NONE Actor – Receiving Station Documentation: NONE Use Case – Add Item to Shopping Cart Documentation: NONE List of Associations Search Results Page Communicates with Add Item to Shopping Cart Use Case – Browse List of Books Documentation: Basic CourseThe Customer clicks on a Category on the Browse Books Page. The system displays the subcategories within that Category. This process continues until there are no more subcategories, at which point the system displays the Books in the lowest subcategory. The Customer clicks on the thumbnail for a Book. The system invokes the Display Book Details use case. Alternate Course If the system does not find any Books contained within a given Category, it displays a message to that effect and prompts the Customer to select a different Category. List of A ssociations Customer Communicates with Browse List of Books Use Case – Cancel Order Documentation:Basic Course The system ensures that the Order is cancellable (in other words, that its status isn't â€Å"shipping† or â€Å"shipped†). Then the system displays the relevant information for the Order on the Cancel Order Page, including its contents and the shipping address. The Customer presses the Confirm Cancel button. The system marks the Order status as â€Å"deleted† and then invokes the Return Items to Inventory use case. Alternate Course If the status of the Order is â€Å"shipping† or â€Å"shipped,† the system displays a message indicating that it's too late for the Customer to cancel the order. List of Associations Customer Communicates with Cancel OrderUse Case – Check Out Documentation: Basic Course The system creates a Candidate Order object that contains the contents of the Customer's Shopping Cart. Then the system retrieve s the Shipping Addresses associated with the Customer's Account, and displays these addresses on the Shipping Address Page. The Customer selects an address, and then presses the Use This Address button. The system associates the given Shipping Address with the Candidate Order. Then the system displays the available Shipping Methods on the Shipping Method Page. The Customer selects a shipping method, and then presses the Use This Shipping Method button.The system associates the given Shipping Method with the Candidate Order. Then the system displays the contents of the Billing Info objects associated with the Customer's Account, on the Billing Information Page. The Customer selects a billing method and presses the Use This Billing Information button. The system associates the given Billing Info object with the Candidate Order. Then the system displays the Confirm Order Page. The Customer presses the Confirm Order button. The system converts the Candidate Order to an Order and destroy s the Shopping Cart.Then the system returns control to the use case from which this use case received control. Alternate Courses If the Customer has not already logged in, the system invokes the Log In use case. If the system does not find any Shipping Addresses, it invokes the Create Shipping Address use case. If the system does not find any Billing Info objects, it invokes the Define Billing Information use case. If the Customer presses the Cancel Order button at any time, the system destroys the Candidate Order and returns control to the use case from which this use case received control. List of AssociationsCustomer Communicates with Check Out Shopping Cart Page Communicates with Check Out Use Case – Edit Contents of Shopping Cart Documentation: Basic Course On the Shopping Cart Page, the Customer modifies the quantity of an Item in the Shopping Cart and then presses the Update button. The system stores the new quantity and then computes and displays the new cost for that Item. The Customer presses the Continue Shopping button. The system returns control to the use case from which it received control. Alternate Courses If the Customer changes the quantity of the Item to 0, the system deletes that Item from the Shopping Cart.If the Customer presses the Delete button instead of the Update button, the system deletes that Item from the Shopping Cart. If the Customer presses the Check Out button instead of the Continue Shopping button, the system passes control to the Check Out use case. List of Associations Customer Communicates with Edit Contents of Shopping Cart Class Diagram – Edit Contents of Shopping Cart Robustness [pic] Interaction Diagram – Edit Contents of Shopping Cart Sequence [pic] Use Case – Log In Documentation: Basic Course The Customer clicks the Log In button on the Home Page. The system displays the Login Page.The Customer enters his or her user ID and password and then clicks the Log In button. The system validate s the login information against the persistent Account data and then returns the Customer to the Home Page. Alternate Courses If the Customer clicks the New Account button on the Login Page, the system invokes the Open Account use case. If the Customer clicks the Reminder Word button on the Login Page, the system displays the reminder word stored for that Customer, in a separate dialog box. When the Customer clicks the OK button, the system returns the Customer to the Login Page.If the Customer enters a user ID that the system does not recognize, the system displays a message to that effect and prompts the Customer to either enter a different ID or click the New Account button. If the Customer enters an incorrect password, the system displays a message to that effect and prompts the Customer to reenter his or her password. If the Customer enters an incorrect password three times, the system displays a page telling the Customer that he or she should contact customer service, and also freezes the Login Page. List of Associations Customer Communicates with Log In Class Diagram – Log In Robustness pic] Interaction Diagram – Log In Sequence [pic] Use Case – Open Account Documentation: Basic Course The system displays the New Account Page. The Customer types his or her name, an e-mail address, and a password (twice), and then presses the Create Account button. The system ensures that the Customer has provided valid data and then adds an Account to the Master Account Table using that data. Then the system returns the Customer to the Home Page. Alternate Courses If the Customer did not provide a name, the system displays an error message to that effect and prompts the Customer to type a name.If the Customer provided an email address that's not in the correct form, the system displays an error message to that effect and prompts the Customer to type a different address. If the Customer provided a password that is too short, the system displays an er ror message to that effect and prompts the Customer to type a longer password. If the Customer did not type the same password twice, the system displays an error message to that effect and prompts the Customer to type the password correctly the second time. If the account is already in the master account table, notify the user. List of AssociationsCustomer Communicates with Open Account Login Page Communicates with Open Account Open Account Communicates with Login Page Class Diagram – Open Account Robustness Interaction Diagram – Open Account Sequence Diagram [pic] Use Case – Process Received Shipment Documentation: Basic Course The Receiving Clerk ensures that the Line Items listed on the Purchase Order match the physical items. The Clerk waves the bar code on the packing slip under the sensor at the receiving station. The system changes the status of the Purchase Order to â€Å"fulfilled† and updates the quantity on hand values for the various Books.The Clerk hands the Books off to the Inventory Clerk. Alternate Course If the Receiving Clerk finds a mismatch between the Purchase Order and the physical items, the Clerk stops processing of the shipment until he or she is able to make a match. List of Associations Receiving Clerk Communicates with Process Received Shipment Process Received Shipment Communicates with Inventory Clerk Process Received Shipment Communicates with Receiving Station Use Case – Search by Author Documentation: Basic Course The Customer types the name of an Author on the Search Page and then presses the Search button.The system ensures that the Customer typed a valid search phrase, and then searches the Catalog and retrieves all of the Books with which that Author is associated. The the system retrieves the important details about each Book, and creates a Search Results object with that information. Then the system displays the list of Books on the Search Results Page, with the Books listed in reverse c hronological order by publication date. Each entry has a thumbnail of the Book's cover, the Book's title and authors, the average Rating, and an Add to Shopping Cart button. The Customer presses the Add to Shopping Cart button for a particular Book.The system passes control to the Add Item to Shopping Cart use case. Alternate Courses If the Customer did not type a search phrase before pressing the Search button, the system displays an error message to that effect and prompts the Customer to type a search phrase. If the system was unable to find any Books associated with the Author that the Customer specified, the system displays a message to that effect and prompts the Customer to perform a different search. If the Customer leaves the page in a way other than by pressing an Add to Shopping Cart button, the system returns control to the use case from which this use case received control.List of Associations Customer Communicates with Search by Author Class Diagram – Search by Author Robustness [pic] Interaction Diagram – Search by Author Sequence [pic] Use Case – Ship Order Documentation: Basic Course The Shipping Clerk ensures that the Items listed on the packing slip for the Order match the physical items. The Clerk waves the bar code on the packing slip under the sensor at the shipping station. The system changes the status of the Order to â€Å"shipping. † Then the system retrieves the Shipping Method that the Customer specified for this Order and displays it on the Shipping Station Console.The Clerk weighs the set of physical items. The Clerk packages the Items. The Clerk attaches a manifest appropriate for the given shipping method. The Clerk waves the bar code on the manifest under the sensor. The Clerk sends the package out via the associated Shipper. Alternate Course If the Shipping Clerk finds a mismatch between the Order and the physical items, the Clerk stops processing of the Order until he or she is able to make a match . List of Associations Shipping Clerk Communicates with Ship Order Ship Order Communicates with Shipper Ship Order Communicates with Shipping StationClass Diagram – Ship Order Robustness [pic] Interaction Diagram – Ship Order Sequence [pic] Use Case – Track Recent Orders Documentation: Basic Course The system retrieves the Orders that the Customer has placed within the last 30 days and displays these Orders on the Order Tracking Page. Each entry has the Order ID (in the form of a link), the Order date, the Order status, the Order recipient, and the Shipping Method by which the Order was shipped. The Customer clicks on a link. The system retrieves the relevant contents of the Order, and then displays this information, in view-only mode, on the Order Details Page.The Customer presses OK to return to the Order Tracking Page. Once the Customer has finished viewing Orders, he or she clicks the Account Maintenance link on the Order Tracking Page. The system returns co ntrol to the invoking use case. Alternate Course If the Customer has not placed any Orders within the last 30 days, the system displays a message to that effect on the Order Tracking Page. List of Associations Customer Communicates with Track Recent Orders Class Diagram – Track Recent Orders Robustness [pic] Interaction Diagram – Track Recent Orders Sequence [pic] Domain Model [pic] [pic] Static Object Model [pic] [pic] [pic]

Auditor Independence Revisited

1. The main rationale of an audit is to offer company shareholders with a proficient, self-sufficient view regarding if the yearly accounts of the corporation reveal a correct and reasonable view of the fiscal situation of the corporation and if they can be trusted. Independence is the major way through which an auditor shows that he can carry out his job in an objective way (Reynold, Deis, and Francis, 2014).   The auditor has to be independent from the customer corporation, in order that the audit estimation will not be persuaded by any link among them (Umar and Anandarajan, 2014). The necessity for independence comes up because in a lot of cases consumers of financial reports and different third parties do not have adequate details or understanding to know what is enclosed in a company’s yearly reports. Therefore, they trust the auditor’s independent review (Gul, Jaggi and Krishnan, 2010). By Sally becoming the CFO, she can influence the opinion of auditors on whether the financial reports of the corporation are properly made or not. As Sally hosted the dinner, there has been non-appearance of independent acts. It is necessary that the auditor not only performs independently, however appears independent also. In case an auditor is actually independent, however one or additional aspects propose otherwise, this could possibly bring about the ending that the audit report does not signify an accurate and reasonable analysis. Independence in appearances will lessen the chance for an auditor to proceed otherwise than independently, which finally attaches trustworthiness to the audit report (Paterson and Valencia, 2011). 2 . Since Sally has taken the post of Financial Controller in this year at Madeira 3 of the threats, are: Anandarajan, A., Kleinman, G. and Palmon, D. (2008). Auditor independence revisited: The effects of SOX on auditor independence. International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, 5(2), pp.112-125. Blay, A. and Geiger, M. (2012). Auditor Fees and Auditor Independence: Evidence from Going Concern Reporting Decisions*. Contemporary Accounting Research, 30(2), pp.579-606. Gul, F., Jaggi, B.L. and Krishnan, G.V. (2010). Auditor independence: evidence on the joint effects of auditor tenure and nonaudit fees. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 26 (2), 117–142. Paterson, J.S. and Valencia, A. (2011). The effects of recurring and nonrecurring tax, audit-related, and other nonaudit services on auditor independence. Contemporary Accounting Research, 28 (5), 1510-1536. Reynold, J.K., Deis, D.R. and Francis, J.R. (2014). Professional service fees and auditor objectivity. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 23 (1), 29–52. Umar, A. and Anandarajan, A. (2014). Dimensions of pressures faced by auditors and its impact on auditors’ independence. Managerial Auditing Journal, 19 (1), 99-116.

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Answers to Essay Questions - Assignment Example Although economic prosperity was the main motivation behind the move to the West, Native Americans actually suffered deeply during the process due to the struggle with the settlers. After the Civil War, Native Americans confronted a growing wave of settlers, who represented various social classes, including prospectors, ranchers, and farm families (Lincoln, 1997). One of the main problems at that time was that the newcomers brought with them many new diseases that ravaged the tribes. In addition, settlers damaged the Native American economy in many ways, such as by killing off the buffalo, which was one of the main economic resources of Native Americans. Consequently, Native Americans decided to defend their lands and their ways of life against the oncoming settlers. They were engaged in fierce battles during the 1860s and 1870s (Lincoln, 1997). However, lack of resources and spread of diseases led to sharp decreases of the population and power of the tribes. Hence, new settlers succ eeded in stabilizing their existence in Western territories, mainly in Oklahoma, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, challenging the traditional Native American way of life. In this context, it has to be stated that railroads played a major role in the development of the region during that time. Essentially, building of the railroads spurred western settlement, as in 1862, Congress gave permission to the construction of two main railroads to link the Midwest and the West Coast. Those two main railroads are The Union Pacific Railroad, which extended westward from Nebraska; and the Central Pacific Railroad, which went eastward from the Pacific Ocean (Lincoln, 1997). These two railroads met at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1869, signifying a new era in Western history. Indeed, the expansion of railroads was strongly encouraged by Federal and state governments. This sincere belief in the extreme economic importance of railroads pushed Congress to authorize the building of the transcontinental railr oad in 1862, although this authorization let them agree to loan hundreds of millions of dollars to the two corporations to construct it. In addition, Congress agreed also to give the railroad companies millions of acres of Western land, which the railroads sold to repay their loans. In that sense, many historians argue that such major railroad companies, with the federal support they got, were the actual colonizers of the West (Lincoln, 1997). To visualize the role of railroads in encouraging migration to the West, it is important to refer to the fact that railroads provided free trips to the West and offered long-term loans to settlers. Hence, it can be concluded that railroads played significant roles in the process of settlers’ migration to the West after the civil war. American foreign policy prior to World War I led it to acquire overseas territory, build the Panama Canal, and police Latin America. How did these events come about? What justifications did Americans use fo r these actions? Were these actions justifiable? Prior to World War I, the United States pursued an aggressive policy of expansionism, acquiring overseas territories and extending its political and economic influence around the globe. Historically, the United States

Role of the HR Department Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Role of the HR Department - Essay Example According to the report  the human resource department works as the strategic division for modern organizations, and in most cases, the management relies on the human resource department to improve overall performance of the unit. Nishii and Wright (2008) stated that in modern organizations, human resource departments perform activities such as providing training to employees, measuring their performance, measuring compliance of key performance indicators (KPI), mentoring of employees etc. In short, it can be said that human resource professionals in the organization have close relationship with employees in contrast to line managers in most of the cases.This paper outlines that  that there exist a direct link between work-life balance of employees and their emotional intelligence because an employee is a human being with multitude of family responsibilities; hence, it is not possible for employees to forget their family life completely while working in an organization. Research scholars such as Lowry and Moskos defined work-life balance as the ability of employees to successfully manage work and household responsibilities. Fonner and Roloff (2010) gave examples of the organizations where human resource departments ensure proper work-life balance of workers.   Gregory and Connolly defined â€Å"Work† as the paid employment while â€Å"life† as combination of leisure activities and family time.... There is a direct link between Employees’ wellbeing and work life balance of employees. According to these scholars, a proper work-life balance of employees can help them to remain healthy which is a modified version of personal well-being of employees. In such context, Nishii and Wright (2008, p. 226) argued that â€Å"In essence, we have hitherto failed to explicitly recognize the many ways in which individuals and groups may experience and respond differently to HR systems within organizations,† and such statement is showing that HR departments face challenge, understanding their exact role in ensuring employee well-being within organizations. The role of human resource department in ensuring employee wellbeing in terms of physical healthiness can be depicted in the following manner. Figure 1: Theoretical Model for HRM & Employee Well Being (Source: Van De Voorde, Paauwe and Van Veldhoven, 2011) According to the model above, the human resource department works as the strategic division for modern organizations, and in most cases, the management relies on the human resource department to improve overall performance of the unit. Nishii and Wright (2008) stated that in modern organizations, human resource departments perform activities such as providing training to employees, measuring their performance, measuring compliance of key performance indicators (KPI), mentoring of employees etc. In short, it can be said that human resource professionals in the organization have close relationship with employees in contrast to line managers in most of the cases. Hence, it can be conjecturally viewed that there exist a triangular relationship between perception of employee regarding HRM climate, employee wellbeing and overall unit performance. Careful consideration

How does radiation damage DNA Essay Example for Free

How does radiation damage DNA Essay Mobile phones harm body cells and damage DNA Radio waves from mobile phones harm body cells and damage DNA in laboratory conditions, The research project, which took four years and which was coordinated by the German research group Verum, studied the effect of radiation on human and animal cells in a laboratory. After being exposed to electromagnetic fields that are typical for mobile phones, the cells showed a significant increase in single and double-strand DNA breaks. The damage could not always be repaired by the cell. DNA carries the genetic material of an organism and its different cells. This means the change had procreated. Mutated cells are seen as a possible cause of cancer. The radiation used in the study was at levels between a Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of between 0.3 and 2 watts per kilogram. Most phones emit radio signals at SAR levels of between 0.5 and 1 W/kg. SAR is a measure of the rate of radio energy absorption in body tissue, and the SAR limit recommended by the International Commission of Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection is 2 W/kg. The study also measured other harmful effects on cells. Because of the lab set-up, the researchers said the study did not prove any health risks. But they added that the genotoxic and phenotypic effects clearly require further studies on animals and human volunteers. Adlkofer advised against the use of a mobile phone when an alternative fixed line phone was available, and recommended the use of a headset connected to a cellphone whenever possible. Previous independent studies into the health effects of mobile phone radiation have found it may have some effect on the human body, such as heating up body tissue and causing headaches and nausea, but no study that could be independently repeated has proved that radiation had permanent harmful effects. In a separate announcement in Hong Kong, where consumers tend to spend more time talking on a mobile phone than in Europe, a German company called G-Hanz introduced a new type of mobile phone which it claimed had no harmful radiation, as a result of shorter bursts of the radio signal. How does radiation damage DNA? Radiation can damage anyones DNA. Radiation is really just high-powered particles or energy. When something like that smashes into your DNA , it is  definitely going to do some damage. Luckily, our cells are very good at repairing the damage so it takes a lot of radiation to do permanent harm. Damaged DNA matters because your DNA has the instructions for making and running you. If these instructions get damaged, it can sometimes affect how well you run. Like any good instructions, the ones in DNA are written up with letters. The high energy of radiation can mess up the instructions by changing a letter. It can also tear the DNA removing one, some, or even millions of these letters. This would be like ripping out anything from part of a page to a whole chapter of your personal instruction manual.

Social Networking Essay Example for Free

Social Networking Essay Social networking sites such as Friendster, Linkedin, Spoke, Face book, MySpace and Twitter all vary slightly, yet the one main feature they have is that they enable users to create a profile within the website to represent themselves and allows uses to interact through email, instant messaging and other integrated communication channels within the site (Papacharissi, 2009). The popularity and growth of social networking sites over the past five years has been colossal, as many people from all over the world join up to this social phenomenon for varied reasons. Today, there are more than 500 million active users on face book and users spend over 700 billion minutes per month on this social networking site (Facebook, 2011). As the technology of Web 2. 0 improves and advances, social networking sites have an even bigger impact on society and human relationships, both positive and negative. This paper argues that social networking sites have a negative influence on children, teenagers and adults, increase the ease and prominence of cyber bullying, increase personal insecurities and feed addictions and weaken strong personal ties. This paper also argues that social networks create distraction and decrease productivity and profits within the workplace and can also can jeopardise a company’s reputation. Social networks also increase the ease of identity theft and bring to light other privacy issues as well as lead to an overall decrease in our face to face social skills and confidence. This paper will demonstrate that social networking sites do cause more harm than good. Identity Theft Identity theft is a huge problem in today’s society and has come about as a result of the rapid expansion and availability of internet technology and the increase in personal data found on social networking sites. In fact â€Å"A total of 806,000 Australians aged 15 years and over were victims of at least one incident of personal fraud in or identity theft in 2008† (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). Sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter facilate identity theft in two mains ways. The first being is that sites encourage you to ‘edit your profile’ this includes adding your interests, full name, where you live, who your top friends are, your email address and even personal details like your phone number an relationship status. â€Å"Users share a variety of information about themselves on their Facebook profiles, including photos, contact information, and tastes in movies and books. †(Jones amp; Soltren, 2005). This information disclosure causes a huge problem as the more information you have on your profile the easier it is for identity thieves to verify themselves as being you. The second main issue is the privacy settings on these social networking sites also help faccilate personal fraud. Whilst there are built in features that allow users to change their privacy settings and not allow other users to view such personal details, these settings are never default, so that users are usually unaware how much information they are sharing not only with their friends, but with the rest of the world â€Å"By default, profiles on Friendster and Tribe. net are crawled by search engines, making them visible to anyone, regardless of whether or not the viewer has an account† (Boyd amp; Ellison, 2007). A general lack of awareness amongst users and the fact that digital identity can be easily hacked makes social networking sites a hub for identity theft which results in unwanted legal hassles, loss of money and years of trying to re-establish a victim’s credit and good name (Acquisti amp; Gross, 2006). This is why it is important for â€Å"users of social network systems to be aware of the value of the data they are making available online and of the ways that is can pote3nitally be used† (Donath amp; Boyd 2004). Furthermore another privacy issue that social networking sites face is that they encourage users to overshare very private information that can easily be used against them. For example the location based social networking site Foursquare encourages users to ‘check in’ at various locations to win points and earn badges and discounts. However these ‘check ins’ are in real time and essentially users notify others where they are, but more importantly when they aren’t home. For strangers and thieves this is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of such knowledge and rob someone’s house while they are out. A web site called â€Å"Please rob me† has been set up to raise awareness about over-sharing and highlights these kinds of privacy issues that social networks create â€Å"Location based services also raise myriads of privacy issues due to the ability to collect, store, use and disclose the locations of users. † (Anuar amp; Gretzel, 2010). In this respect social networks like these pose serious privacy concerns. Cyber bullying Cyber bullying refers to â€Å"bullying through information and communication technologies† (Webster, n. ), mediums such as, emails, mobile phone text messages, phone calls, internet chat rooms, instant messaging and most importantly and recently, social networking websites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo (Webster, n. d). Whilst cyber bullying is not physical it’s emotional and psychological effects are devastating for the victim and can often lead to suicide and depression (Hinduja amp; Patchin, 2010). Cyber bulling in terms of s ocial networks is a huge issue as more than 50% of American teenagers aged from 12 to 17 use social networking sites (Hall, 2010). Online bullying is often seen as the easy way out. Social Networking sites act as a platform where bullies can say things they might not usually say to someone in person, anonymity and less physical proximity act as a wall between the bully and the victim, none the less, the words or rumours that are shared are still just as hurtful. Bullies often feel more confident online and they can contact their victims any time, anywhere, day or night, not just in the school yard (Smith et al. , 2008). For example in 2009 a 14 year old girl committed suicide as a direct result of cyber bulling. The daughter’s mother spoke out in an ABC news report and explained that â€Å"Friday night she was on the internet and told me about some message that had come through, and she wanted to die because of the message. I laid in bed with her and we discussed it for about an hour and she left me fairly happy. I can guarantee you if she didn’t go on the internet Friday night she’d be alive today. † (Dikeos, 2009). Additionally another well know case of cyber bulling that resulted in suicide was the case of Megan Meier who was constantly teased tormented and riven to her death from intense cyber bulling. â€Å"13 year old Megan began receiving nasty messages from a boy after a few weeks of an online flirtation with him, via her MySpace account, ending with one that suggested ‘the world would be a better place’ without her. Megan, believing she had been rejected by â€Å"Josh,† committed suicide in her home. † Times Topics, Megan Meier. (2011). The sad part was that Josh was ust a fictional character, created by a mother of one of Megan’s former friends. These two case studies bring to light the fact that cyber bulling is a massive problem that is not only exists all over the world, but is only made possible by the use of social networking sites. Without such platforms for bullies to target their victims the rate of teen suicide and depression would most likely drop. Groups on facebook can be created to make fun of or abuse particular people or ideas. On facebook I found groups titled â€Å"I hate Kevin Rudd† and on their wall things like â€Å" F**k you Kevin! and â€Å"I can’t believe they let this di***ead become foreign minister†. Also a recent incident that was covered on the news showed the negative comments towards babies and their parents over facebook surrounding the ‘Bonds Baby Search’. Some comments under a photos said â€Å"A child only a mother could love† and another baby was called an â€Å"ugly duckling† (Cute baby competition turns ugly, 2011). Comments like these are spiteful not only to the babies, but for their parents as well. This in itself is another form of cyber bullying that has been made possible via the increased use of social networking sites. It is clear that social networking sites aid in the prominence of cyber bulling which is just one of the negative impacts that social working sites has on society today. The weakening of strong ties amp; isolation The way we communicate with our peers and with strangers over the internet is changing. Another negative impact that social networks have on our relationships is the fact that whilst they might strengthen our weak ties we have with acquaintances and people we don’t see often, they are in fact weakening our strong ties and also bring about physical social isolation. The term ‘social networking’ misleads people into believing they are being social, â€Å"Facebook isn’t considered a social network but more a public phone book or search engine. Contact is minimal and impersonal (Carr, 2010). The news feed feature on facebook and twitter keeps us in the loop with everything that our close friends and family are doing. Why would one call their friend to ask them what they got up to on the weekend, when clearly all they have to do is look at their news feed and find all the details along with pictures entailing their lives. Traditionally we would regularly call each other, or go out of the way to catch up. Nowadays the urge to contact each other over the phone or even face to face isn’t as important because we feel like we are still connected via social networks ( Thomas, 2007). This idea of constantly being connected is awful in the way that personal interactions between friends are more superficial than they were before Facebook and other social networking sites. Users are also more likely to let more time pass between face to face encounters because they still feel like they are in contact as they constantly have tabs on all of their friends. A case study that was done in America revealed that â€Å" twenty-five percent of the respondents in the 2004 survey appear to have no close ties, up from ten percent in 1984. Additionally a similar study amongst college student found that â€Å"1 in 7 say that social networking sites increase feelings of isolation† (Katonda News Network, 2010) As well as â€Å"Nearly 70% report reading posts from someone close to them that seemed like a cry for emotional help, and while most students would offer support in some way, fewer than half would make a personal visit† (Katonda News Network , 2010). It is clear that the rise of social networks has increased social and emotional isolation and diluted the strength our human relationships. Workplace interference Social networking sites can have a negative impact in the workplace, for both employers for employees and future employees. They create distraction, decrease productivity, cost companies money, can jeopardise a company’s reputation and legal liability and for those users who don’t have their profiles set to private can often result in unemployment. If every employee in a 50-strong workforce spent 30 minutes on a social networking site every day, that would work out to a loss of 6,500 hours of productivity in one year! † (Kelleher, 2009). Social networking sites can also be damaging for prospective employees looking for work ,as facebook and MySpace are fantastic resources for companies as they offer revealing information about a candidate’s true colours. Several profiles often contain awkward and embarrassing information that job seekers would not want their future managers to know about themselves. According to a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder. com, 45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen job candidates† (Wortham, 2009).. Moreover, there have been many instances where personal status updates or blog posts have hurt or damaged a companies reputation, thus seeing many employees loose their jobs over mindless updates that they didn’t think twice about. For example in 2010, Jaguar ambassador and swimmer Stephanie Rice tweeted â€Å"Suck on that f**gots,† (Robertson, 2010) after a rugby game the Wallabies had won. Many twitter users and public figures referred to it as a gay slur and even after a public apology, Jaguar Australia general manager Kevin Goult announced that â€Å"Jaguar Australia today terminated its relationship with Stephanie Rice, who has been an ambassador for the Jaguar brand in Australia since the start of 2010. †(Robertson, 2010). Another fine example of one employee who damaged his reputation before he even stared at his new job was a Cisco employee who tweeted â€Å"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty pay check against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work† It wasn’t long before Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco Alert, shared this open response, â€Å"Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web. †( Popkin, 2009)It is clear that social networking sites can have a damaging effect on not only employees but the companies themselves. Users are unfortunately unaware that everything they post on their profile is public information and even if your profile is set to private your boss or work colleagues may still be fronted with this information at some stage in the future. As social networking sites become more popular by the day, the rise of negative social effects within our society also greaten. We have and will see further instances of cyber bullying; more cases of identity theft and additional privacy breaches. We will also see our strong relationships diluted to a more superficial and ‘convenient’ type of relationship. We will continue to see a further decrease in productivity within workplace and also more instances of company’s reputations and names being brought into disrepute. Social networking sites have had a huge negative impact on our mental and social health and will continue to do so into the future. It is also now evident that social networking sites facilitate all these problems, and without them they would cease to exist. Therefore it is undeniably true that Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and the like do in fact cause more harm than good. References: Acquisti, A amp; R, Gross. (2006).

Nike Operation Management Strategies

Nike Operation Management Strategies Nike – The legendary brand Operations Management – Strategies 1. Introduction Many companies measure their research and development performance, associated with their business strategy and their operations management, such as design, operation, and control of the transformation procedure. The operations system converts inputs (labor and raw materials) into the outputs (goods and services). Operations management has encompasses both services and manufacturing, enhanced efficiently managing predictability, and played a strategic role in an organization’s success. As an international corporation, Nike has implemented the concept of operations management in its operating process. It has facilitated the concept of the LeanSigma ®, which helps ‘focus on lead-time reduction to increase customer loyalty and market share’[1]. As a manufacturing company, Nike has gained competitive advantages from Kaizen breakthrough, with the layout redesign for lean, just-in-time (JIT) system, total productive maintenance and six-sigma management. The paper will concentrate on why and how Nike has been competitively positioned in the world market. The legendary brand, Nike, seems never to stop growing. 2. Situation Analysis 2.1. Strategy Companies might vary their strategic business procedures, since they select most suitable alternatives and solutions to solve problems overtime. As a result, there will be certain measurement criteria for the company performance, which reflect the most successful alternatives to their most essential problems. Nike specializes in producing sport shoes, a labor-intensive manufacturing sector. As a manufacturing organization, it is easy to observe, evaluate, and improve each functional stage of Nike’s operation process. Improving productivity for the overall outputs of goods, divided by the inputs, is needed to maximize the outputs. The increasing strict quality control management combined with the demand by consumers for affordable goods has suddenly put Nike in a precarious situation. The question of how high quality products can be produced under many measurements at a price which consumers are willing to pay is addressed. This can be accomplished by applications of transformation procedure, which converts from batch to lean manufacturing at the strategic level. Additionally, the sales turnovers have forced many companies to narrow down and concentrate on why and what consumers have actually purchased. As a transactional company, Nike concerns and cares for what its targeted consumers look for, and it finds products for consumers not consumers for products. Operations management is defined as the integration of management principles into the decision-making procedures for the conversion of resources into usable outputs of products. The success of the lean operations management strategy will result in products that exceeds customer expectations and regulatory requirements by increasing productivity for a better process. 2.2. Product Nike has implemented sophisticated systems and well-understood business procedures by keeping cross-functional cooperation, which consequently lead to the best inventory turnover from performance. Indeed, Nike has continuously improved its operations management. ‘By mid-1985, inventories had fallen to less than 10 million pairs of shoes from a peak of 22 million in late 1983. Profit margins rose in the second fiscal quarter to 33% from 25% a year earlier. During the period, expenses as a percentage of revenue fell for the company, which started selling shoes in 1964 and went public in December 1980.’[2] Nike can dictate the prices. Since consumers have set prices by understanding what they should have prepared to pay for, their payments then will depend on a large degree on how they could see differences between the perceived value and the actual value. In fact, consumers are willing to pay premiums for perceived values, but value can go beyond plain price and quality. Positioned as a transactional corporation, a successful image Nike becomes the ultimate high-volume, low cost factory, not about the assumption that there is likely the occasional anti-made-in-sweatshop products. In the past, Nike had been challenged by boycotting of goods, due to the threats that Nike has outsourced and exploited developing nations. However, currently Nike have taken advantage of their low cost of manufacturing environment and implemented operations management strategies to its manufacturing systems. 2.3. Capacity When new operations strategy has been implemented and exhibited by different physical processes, volume measurement can be a relevant allocator. Volume can show how far equipments and machinery requirements for the operating procedures have been utilized and properly facilitated. This allocation usually provides rational consequences when the processes change. The location of the production facility is impacted on treatment facilities, which often happen in areas where air pollution might not be a problem. However, the environment limitation also determines the quantity at which a facility can produce, and become independent of capacity or demand. These problems impact on production, which will happen long after manufacturing facilities are established and put into operation. Nevertheless, Nike aims to apply the operations management to achieve high quality, low cost and effective delivery for better output, not just to expand its production facility. The overall result, through the Kaizen breakthrough methodologies, has been successfully. (Appendix 1) There might be a relationship between the operations performance and associated risk factors. Due to high rate of development failure during implementing new operations strategy, the risks involved in developing a system have caused a lot attention. 2.4. Process Supply chain management Recently, Nike has opened wider its domestic market to the outside world. More investment to renovate current market will enhance, facilitate, and maximize the distribution channels. ‘Nike was embarking on the Nike Supply Chain Project, a massive global centralisation project to integrate its ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning], supply chain, and CRM [Customer Relationship Management] software onto a single SAP platform. And a higher level of governance over the IT operations to ensure project success and visibility was necessary.’[3] The differences between the flexibility and fixed service have been scheduled in comparison with maximizing the large scale of alternatives. As a result, the relationship between the demand to reduce the indirect costs and the velocity along with inventory management should be closely scrutinized. ‘John Shanley, analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group, told clients Nikes inventory levels are ‘likely somewhat bloated in several key international regions’ and that the fourth quarter ‘marked the second consecutive quarter where Nikes inventory levels seemed out of balance with the brands forward orders’.’[4] Each company has its own mission, vision, objectives, strategies and business framework. Top management can initiate logical points and identify the company’s current conditions and situations. Alternatives in any one of the primary components in the model for top management can set off changes in other components. As a result, strategic framework, implementation and evaluation should be performed on frequent and continuous foundations, especially in technology management, human resource supervision, professional development, adaptation to cultural change, and importantly the project planning process. High performing companies can have more informed decisions with good anticipation of both short term and long term plans and have prepared for both short and long term consequences. They have prepared for future fluctuations in the external and internal environments. ‘Training, in general, and management coaching, in particular, must be well resourced, high priority components of successful enterprise systems implementation.’ [5] Since Nike is probably to pursue creative products, it has implemented new technologies can be a sign of future success in the new market. Therefore, commitment available resources to different projects can help evaluate and measure the operations management performance as well. ‘Critical to success is the necessity for the team to realize that team performance is more important than any individual success or idea generated. If the team has a successful improvement idea, then all enjoy the success.’ [6] Additionally, measurable goals should be in the line with the objectives and the scopes of the strategies. In fact, the operations management team should be evaluated whether the goals flow harmoniously with their companies’ missions. The performance evaluation helps operations managers to fasten the companies’ missions, plans and strategic goals to the each employee’s tasks on daily basis. Moreover, preliminary evaluation will need more feedback every period, such as monthly, three months, or six-months. Assessment should be targeted to provide a path for companies to improve their operations management performance. Likewise, Nike starts with basic assessments by accomplishing assessment and proper evaluating areas. In fact, soft and periodic assessment can help Nike identify areas in order to achieve greatest return on investment and highest turnover. 2.5. Layout redesign Layout redesign is important to transforming process. Usually, raw materials have been brought into workplace during the time not conflict with workers’ operating hours. Counterclockwise flow is also taken into consideration, since most workers are right-handed. ‘Two lean concepts introduced with LeanSigma ® transformation are the functions of the supermarket and the waterspider. Similarly, these early lean manufacturers established a single day storage area very near the production cell to provide, the necessary materials to the cell as needed. The second concept these early lean adopters incorporated was the waterspider.’[7] In fact, waterspider concept is to provide the essential materials at frequent replenishment of small quantities, opposite to infrequent replenishment of large quantities of materials. As a result, space required for storage is minimized. This concept has enhanced the just-in-time approach at Nike. Parts and raw materials are provided to the production site just as they are needed, not stockpiled to hedge against later delivery. 2.6. Allocation of costs and deductions Traditionally, cost allocation analysis considers direct labor as cost driver for indirect costs; nevertheless, since suppliers respond increasingly to reduce their total costs, the use of direct labor as a cost driver has become inappropriate when evaluating the performance the cost allocation analysis. Determining appropriate cost drivers for indirect costs help establish new allocation rates for these cost drivers. Additional information can be used to support the new allocation rates, different from traditional methods. With the new operations management, Nike heavily considers the cost factor. ‘As with quality, cost is a significant aspect of lean performance measurement. These three key indicators are productivity, scrap, and WIR Productivity [Warehouse, Inventory, Reporting Subsystem] is the most effective indicator of value added activities. Scrap is a quality measure that will drive overall costs up or down depending on the trend. Finally, WIP [Work-In-Process] is a lagging measure of flow and cycle time and a leading measure of customer satisfaction.’[8] (Appendix 2) At this time, high proportions of Nike exports are white-label goods, which have been made for Western companies. The company also wants to capture more value to acquire a brand and to create its global brands. Quality has been considered as a differentiator. Product quality and service quality will be becomes differentiators and continuously enhance Nike’s quality image worldwide. ‘Why didnt Nike start making skate shoes 20 years ago? Nke6.0 may be nurturing the grass roots its roster of athletes is made up entirely of what appears to be pre-pubescent rippers but there is a whole generation of action sports addicts out there who were ignored by mainstream sport brands, so they started their own brands, creating kit that was tailor-made for their sport, keeping their ear to the underground to find out what people wanted.’[9] The choice of cost allocation method can impact whether the company can report a loss or profit from the unrelated business. The over-cost allocation can become the potential for maximizing the company’s economies of scale. The costs related to the operating activities can be joined among many material and operation activities. Analyzing the functional and design benefit can help allocate the cost component appropriately. The new paradigm for cost allocation provides Nike which benefits from investment transmission to pay the costs. The decentralization of the cost allocation should take into consideration. The production cost in manufacturing companies and the allocation of joint costs in the context of external financial accounting practice, applied to cost of goods sold and for inventory. 3. Conclusion As a transnational corporation, Nike is subject to domestic and international competition. It has tried to increase their productivity and efficiency to meet these challenges. One method applied to improve productivity has been expanded application of manufacturing processes. Concurrently, however, the increased use of materials and decrease use of operating expenses help managers reconsider their current methods of quality, cost and delivery. In the long-term, the manufacturing industry will sustain and reward for low-cost operating organizations. Nike is making efforts to build an effective and efficient control system for commodity circulation. Applying the operations management process, Nike has tried to build effective control system for their commodity circulation, which helps emphasize on reform of the marketing and purchasing system of the important commodities. Furthermore, the rational distribution of commodity resources and the local community reserves have enriched the domestic market from international market. Appendix 1: Quality Cost and Delivery after Operations Management[10] Appendix 2: Kaizen methodology even schedule[11] Bibliography ‘Brand Design: Miss a trick’ 2006, Design Week,London, 26 January, p.17 Brown, BC, Collins, RT McCombs, LE 2006, ‘Transformation from Batch to Lean Manufacturing: The Performance Issues,’Engineering Management Journal, Rolla, vol.18,no.2, June, p.3. Choy, J 2004, ‘Just do IT’, Asia Computer Weekly.Singapore, 25 October, p.1 Foster, L 2006, ‘Rising costs mean Nike disappoints’, Financial Times,London (UK), 29June, p.17 Kittredge, J 2006, ‘A New Era in Corporate Performance Management’, Cost Management, Boston, vol. 20, no. 3, p. 23. Tharp, M 1986, ‘Nike Recoups Laurels in the Sportswear Market Company Adopts a More Conventional Management Style,’ Wall Street Journal, New York, N.Y, 19 March, p.1. Page 1 Footnotes [1] Brown, BC, Collins, RT McCombs, LE 2006, ‘Transformation from Batch to Lean Manufacturing: The Performance Issues,’Engineering Management Journal, Rolla, vol.18,no.2, June, p.3. [2] Tharp, M 1986, ‘Nike Recoups Laurels in the Sportswear Market Company Adopts a More Conventional Management Style,’ Wall Street Journal, New York, N.Y, 19 March, p.1. [3] Choy, J 2004, ‘Just do IT’, Asia Computer Weekly.Singapore, 25 October, p.1 [4] Foster, L 2006, ‘Rising costs mean Nike disappoints’, Financial Times,London (UK), 29June, p.17 [5] Kittredge, J 2006, ‘A New Era in Corporate Performance Management’, Cost Management, Boston, vol. 20, no. 3, p. 23. [6] Brown, Collins McCombs 2006, p.3. [7] Brown, Collins McCombs 2006, p.3. [8] Brown, Collins McCombs 2006, p.3. [9] ‘Brand Design: Miss a trick’ 2006, Design Week,London, 26 January, p.17 [10] Brown, Collins McCombs 2006, p.3. [11] Brown, Collins McCombs 2006, p.3.

The Christian Perspective in An Essay on Man -- Alexander Pope Essay o

The Christian Perspective in An Essay on Man  Ã‚     Ã‚   Some might argue that Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man" presents the viewpoint of a deist. Others might claim that the poem fails to exhibit Christian concepts of good and evil, especially since the poet concludes his first epistle with the seemingly unchristian claim that "whatever IS, is Right" (I. 1. 294).    Yet Pope's arguments actually reflect a traditional Christian perspective, which can be verified by comparing his poem with New Testament teachings.   In his attempt to vindicate God in the face of suffering, he does not, like the pantheist, rule out the existence of evil. Pope knows that men are capable of vice and that suffering is real. Pope does not argue that evil does not exist; rather he argues that its existence does not preclude the justice of God. Like the writers of the New Testament, particularly the apostle Paul, Pope claims that pride and envy leads man to question the justice of God, and he insists that men submit to God, remaining content with th eir lot in life. Although Pope claims that "[o]ne truth is clear, `Whatever IS, is RIGHT'" (I. 1.294), he recognizes suffering: But errs not nature from this gracious end, From burning suns when livid deaths descend, When earthquakes swallow, or when tempest sweep Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep?   (I. ll. 140-143) Pope does not only acknowledge the existence of evil. He describes it in vivid detail. In the above passage, he paints a horrid picture of plagues caused by excessive heat, of destructive earthquakes, and of storms that decimate entire towns and nations. He writes too of Ammon, who was turned "loose to scourge mankind" (I. l. 160). He may argue that nature does not err t... ...realizes this himself for a moment at the end of the second epistle. For he does not conclude by attempting to explain the existence of evil. Rather, he says only that "one comfort still must rise, / 'Tis this, Tho' Man's a fool, yet GOD IS WISE" (II. ll. 292-293). In the end, it is better to believe that every man (including Pope) is a fool for failing to explain evil than to believe that God is not wise for allowing it. This couplet is one further proof of the Christian influence in Pope's "An Essay on Man." In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul writes: "Let God be true, but every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).   Works Cited Pope, Alexander. "An Essay on Man." Ed. Gordon N. Ray. Boston: Houghton Miflin Company, 1969. The New American Bible. Nashville: Catholic Publishers, Inc., 1971. The King James Bible. Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1967.   

A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams Essay -- A Streetcar Na

A Streetcar Named Desire Essay Reality vs. Illusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Tennessee William’s masterful play, A Streetcar Named Desire, the reader meets a middle – aged woman by the name of Blanche DuBois. Blanche lives in her own faerie tale world, one of a young, beautiful debutante, surrounded by admirers, and loved by all whom she encounters. In reality, Blanche is an aging woman who cannot cope with the actualities of life. She makes up wild stories, and when Stanley Kowalski, her brother – in – law, rapes her, the realities of life cause her to drift into absolute lunacy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Blanche appears at the apartment house where her sister, Stella, lives. She brings with her a trunk of fancy clothing, and a mind of dreams she believes are reality. As ...

Dostoevsky’s Notes from Undergound - Reactions to an Overdeterministic

Dostoevsky’s Notes from Undergound - Reactions to an Overdeterministic Existence Some of the works cited are missing Dostoevsky presents his Notes from Undergound as the fragmented ramblings of an unnamed narrator. On the surface, the character’s narration appears disjointed and reaches no conclusive end ing until the author intercedes to end the book. However, a close examination of the underground man’s language reveals a progression in his collected ravings. After expressing dissatisfaction with the notion of determinism, the underground man perceives the irony of his ultra-deterministic reality. Through his narrative, the underground man discovers the truth about his predestined, fictional existence. Dostoevsky’s work is divided into two sections; throughout the first section, â€Å"Underground,† the narrator discusses and resists determinism. The underground man compares deterministic life to a mathematical formula, two times two equals four. He suggests that, according to the deterministic model, life conforms to a set of predestined events and actions, and its outcome is inevitable. The underground man condemns the formula, asserting, â€Å"After all, two times two is no longer life, gentlemen, but the beginning of death†(24). In his essay Narrative and Freedom, critic Gary Saul Morson elaborates upon the narrator’s statement, adding, â€Å"For life to be meaningful and for work to be more than robotic, there must be something not just unknown but still undecided† (Morson 196-7). According to the underground man, the pre-existence of the solution implies that no other conclusion may be reached; once one embarks on life, one cannot escape the inevitable outcome of death. Morson emphasizes the underground man’s res... ...nd man initially believes that by identifying the cause of his defectiveness, he will be able to correct his seemingly doomed life. Instead, he discovers that his real defect, his existence as fiction, prevents him from ever altering his circumstances. After heralding self-awareness as the key to controlling his own life, he finds that self-awareness only allows him to perceive how little control he could ever have. Works Cited and Consulted Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. New York: Anchor Books, 1990. Escher, M.C. â€Å"Drawing Hands.† Cover of Norton edition of Notes from Underground. Katz, Michael R., ed. Notes from Underground. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. Chernyshevsky, Nikolai. â€Å"What Is to Be Done?† Katz 104-123. Dostoevsky, Fyodor. â€Å"Notes from Underground.† Katz 3-91 Morson Todorov

How to Make Mongolian Dumplings

Do you love eating or cooking yummy foods from different cultures? Well I do. I love eating and cooking many different meals from different cultures and countries, but my traditional Mongolian Dumplings are the best. My purpose of my speech is to teach you how to make Mongolian traditional dumplings with cabbage salad in your own kitchen. There are very easy three steps such as collecting ingredients, preparation and process of making dumplings and cabbage salad.First of all, for the ingredients all you need to have is: 3 cups of all purpose flour, 1 ? pounds of beef, 2 carrot, 1 cabbage, 4 cloves of garlic, ? onions, white vinegar, vegetable oil, 2 teaspoons of salt and little bit of black ground peeper for better taste. You can find these ingredients about in any grocery store you like to shop for your groceries. When you have all the ingredients of the dumplings we can go to the preparation. First, prepare the dough mixture. Put about 3 cups of flour into a large mixing bowl.Slowl y mix in ? cup water to make dough that is not too dry or too moist. Knead the dough on a floured board for a few minutes. Cover it with the bowl and let it sit or rest as the Mongolians say for 15 minutes. In the mean time, finely mince or cut the beef and place it in a bowl, and add the shredded carrot, chopped cabbage, garlic and onions. Vegetarians often replace the meat with mashed potatoes, cabbage and carrots, or if you like lamb meat or pork you can replace the meat but I love it with horse meat.Anyway, add additional spice to taste into meat, along with salt. Finally mix in about half cup of water to give the meat its juices. After the dough has rested, knead it again for 2 to 3 minutes and then slice it into long strips about 1† wide. Roll each strip on floured board to make long dough snakes, which you then cut into small pieces, about 1†by 1†. Squish each piece flat in the palms of your hands to make what look like small round cookies. Lightly coat thes e pieces with flour in the bowl and then flatten each with a rolling pin into a thin round piece of dough.Now you are ready to make dumplings. Holding the dough piece in the palm of your one hand, scoop a heaping teaspoon of the meat mixture into the middle of the dough piece. With the thumb of one hand and the fingers of the other, fold the dough up and over the meat, pinching the edges together to create the dumpling shape. Mongolians make dumplings in different shapes: mouse shaped, rose shaped, flower shaped, and even some other shapes I don’t even know how to name them, but the round yurt- shaped dumplings are the most common.Round yurt- shaped dumplings have usually small holes at the top of each dumpling where the edges of the dough come together and the steam will escape out. Now dip the bottom of each dumpling in vegetable oil to keep it from sticking to the base of the steamer pan and then place each onto a steamer pan, making sure that they are not touching to each other. Steam the dumplings in a boiling steamer for 15 minutes. While you are waiting for dumplings to get cooked you can start making the cabbage salad; it takes about 10 minutes to make it.All you have to do is chop the cabbage and carrot into very thin strips, mix them with 5-6 tablespoon of vegetable oil or olive oil is even better, half teaspoon of salt, maybe a pinch or two sugar and add white vinegar as much as you wanted until you get the satisfying taste, and you made Mongolian cabbage salad. Before taking the dumplings out of the steamer, it is important to waft air over them with the steamer lid for 30 seconds or so, so as to keep the flour from becoming doughy.Now pile the dumplings onto a serving plate and take immediately to the table to serve with cabbage salad and milk tea. Mongolians are usually eat dumplings with their fingers, biting into each and then sucking out the hot juices before consuming rest of the dumplings. We also love to eat dumplings dipped in soy s auce, ketchup, and even hot chili sauce. Now you have all the information to make Mongolian dumplings in your own kitchen with these 3 easy steps.

Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther

Reformation Websites: Section 1: Life of Martin Luther 1. Fill out the graphic organizer using http://www. Luther. De/en/Enoch. HTML Life of Martin Luther After vaulting his parents, he was caught In a terrible thunderstorm. During the storm lightning struck near him, and he was thrown to the ground. At this moment he called to Saint Anne, and declared: â€Å"l will become a monk. † Why did he decide to become a Monk? When did he decide to become a Monk? During a terrible storm. When did he become a professor at Wattenberg (Germany) university? 1507 he started professed at 1 512 What did he do as a professor?He came into contact with the ideas of the humanists and embraced their slogan. 2. Answer these questions using the map at http://www. Circular. Net/history/ Marcel/Luther. HTML a. Where did followers of Martin Lather's ideas (Lutheran) live? Germany Denmark Sweden Norway Prussia a. Where did followers of another reformer, John Calvin (Calvinist) live? The city of Genoa Sw itzerland. Scotland, England, France, Italy, Bohemia, Poland, and the Dutch Netherlands. B. Was the majority of Europe Catholic or Protestant during the reformation? Protestants Section 2: Luther†s Beliefs 1.Find out what Martin Luther believed about Faith. Read the passage in the following link and fill out the chart. Http://www. Icicle. Org/pub/resources/text/ Wattenberg/Luther/Luther-faith. Txt What faith IS according to Luther What faith is NOT according to Luther living bold trust in Gods graces confidence and knowledge of goddesses makes you happy freely willingly do good things serve people love and praise god holy spiral Followed by good works or Better life Section 3: Luther Posts his 95 Theses 1. Use the following website to fill in the table below on Lather's 95 Theses. Www. Luther. De/en/nonchalant. HTMLCause Event Effect Why was Luther upset with the church? Http:// The people where no longer coming to hem for their confessions they were going to different towns. What did he do about it? He wrote 95 theses which were use as the basis for discussion on the topic. What was the reaction to the 95 Theses? Some humanists approved of these, but parts of the Roman Church completely rejected them What is an indulgence? They supposedly categorized Luther as a follower of the heretic Jan Hush and threatened to have him burned at the stake. What were the 95 Theses? Used for basic discussion on a topic.Section 4: Effects of the Reformation 1. Complete the following chart using http://www. Luther. De/en/banana. HTML and http:// Cause practically declared a heretic both churches wanted Luther to recant his teachings while he was there Luther is excommunicated (explain what happened) trip to worms Diet of Worms (explain what it was) repentance objective clever thought out Section 5: Printing Press 1. Use the following 3 links to answer the questions about the printing press. Http:// www. Definer. Com/history/inventions/story. HTML http://www. Gutenberg. De /English/refinery. HTML a.What is the printing press? Was screw press specially designed to achieve an effective an even transfer b. Who invented the printing press? Genius of Guttenberg c. How does it work? Pressing the letters down to then produce ink on paper d. How did the printing press help Martin Luther? It allowed them to write in a more advanced easier way Section 6: Changing Europe 1. Use the map found at the following link and what you have learned so far to answer the questions below: http://chlorofluorocarbon. Wiseacres. Com/Everything *Europe a. How would a map of the year 1400 be different? (Hint: think religions†¦ T would show where religions migrated or lived Catholic? Because of where their priest where located and what they were taught in that area c. What impact did Luther have on this map? With where religions lived a. What impact did the printing press have on this map? It allowed them to write clearly and readable to all. Section 7: Evaluation Task: You a re going to become a reporter during the early 1 ass's. You will be creating a newspaper article based on an event, the key figures, or problem. 1. You are to write an article on one of the topics listed below: a. Complaints with the Church .Key figures: Calvin, Woozily, Erasmus c. Martin Luther and his 95 Theses d. Compare and contrast common beliefs of the Catholic and Protestant Church (language, ultimate authority & salvation) 2. Research and answer the following questions using the suggested websites in #3. A. Why were people dissatisfied with the Catholic Church in the asses? B. What were Lather's criticisms of the Church? C. How did the printing press affect Reformation ideas? A. Why did Luther want the Bible translated from Latin into German and other languages? B. How did the Church respond to Lather's 95 Theses? C.How did the ideas of John Calvin, John Woozily, and Desires Erasmus influence the Reformation? D. How was Europe affected by the events following Lather's excomm unication? How did the map of Europe change? 2. Suggest website resources: John Woozily http://www. BBC. Co. UK/history John Calvin http://www. Unwanted. Org http://www. Excel. Org http://www. Immersed. Com http://www. Was. Du Desires Erasmus http://www. Gospel. Net http://en. Wisped. Org http://www. Studiously. Com/ Martin Luther http://www. PBS. Org http://www. U-s-history. Com Spreading of Lather's Ideas Church Dissatisfaction Lather's Criticism http://www. Calgary. Ca Reformation http://www. Encouragement. Org http://www. Wisped. Org * 95 theses 95 theses was written by Martin Luther this year 1 517 and is the catalyst for the protestant reformation. It was the sales of indulgence, it centers on the practices within the catholic church regarding baptism and absolution. It views upon how to repent and how to be less sinful. These should be strictly followed by anyone in the church. There are times where you are allowed to relieve your pain or frustration in purgatory. He is focus ing on catholic churches. Please be aware of the new movement. Protestant Reformation and Martin Luther Reformation Websites: Section 1: Life of Martin Luther 1. Fill out the graphic organizer using http://www. Luther. De/en/Enoch. HTML Life of Martin Luther After vaulting his parents, he was caught In a terrible thunderstorm. During the storm lightning struck near him, and he was thrown to the ground. At this moment he called to Saint Anne, and declared: â€Å"l will become a monk. † Why did he decide to become a Monk? When did he decide to become a Monk? During a terrible storm. When did he become a professor at Wattenberg (Germany) university? 1507 he started professed at 1 512 What did he do as a professor?He came into contact with the ideas of the humanists and embraced their slogan. 2. Answer these questions using the map at http://www. Circular. Net/history/ Marcel/Luther. HTML a. Where did followers of Martin Lather's ideas (Lutheran) live? Germany Denmark Sweden Norway Prussia a. Where did followers of another reformer, John Calvin (Calvinist) live? The city of Genoa Sw itzerland. Scotland, England, France, Italy, Bohemia, Poland, and the Dutch Netherlands. B. Was the majority of Europe Catholic or Protestant during the reformation? Protestants Section 2: Luther†s Beliefs 1.Find out what Martin Luther believed about Faith. Read the passage in the following link and fill out the chart. Http://www. Icicle. Org/pub/resources/text/ Wattenberg/Luther/Luther-faith. Txt What faith IS according to Luther What faith is NOT according to Luther living bold trust in Gods graces confidence and knowledge of goddesses makes you happy freely willingly do good things serve people love and praise god holy spiral Followed by good works or Better life Section 3: Luther Posts his 95 Theses 1. Use the following website to fill in the table below on Lather's 95 Theses. Www. Luther. De/en/nonchalant. HTMLCause Event Effect Why was Luther upset with the church? Http:// The people where no longer coming to hem for their confessions they were going to different towns. What did he do about it? He wrote 95 theses which were use as the basis for discussion on the topic. What was the reaction to the 95 Theses? Some humanists approved of these, but parts of the Roman Church completely rejected them What is an indulgence? They supposedly categorized Luther as a follower of the heretic Jan Hush and threatened to have him burned at the stake. What were the 95 Theses? Used for basic discussion on a topic.Section 4: Effects of the Reformation 1. Complete the following chart using http://www. Luther. De/en/banana. HTML and http:// Cause practically declared a heretic both churches wanted Luther to recant his teachings while he was there Luther is excommunicated (explain what happened) trip to worms Diet of Worms (explain what it was) repentance objective clever thought out Section 5: Printing Press 1. Use the following 3 links to answer the questions about the printing press. Http:// www. Definer. Com/history/inventions/story. HTML http://www. Gutenberg. De /English/refinery. HTML a.What is the printing press? Was screw press specially designed to achieve an effective an even transfer b. Who invented the printing press? Genius of Guttenberg c. How does it work? Pressing the letters down to then produce ink on paper d. How did the printing press help Martin Luther? It allowed them to write in a more advanced easier way Section 6: Changing Europe 1. Use the map found at the following link and what you have learned so far to answer the questions below: http://chlorofluorocarbon. Wiseacres. Com/Everything *Europe a. How would a map of the year 1400 be different? (Hint: think religions†¦ T would show where religions migrated or lived Catholic? Because of where their priest where located and what they were taught in that area c. What impact did Luther have on this map? With where religions lived a. What impact did the printing press have on this map? It allowed them to write clearly and readable to all. Section 7: Evaluation Task: You a re going to become a reporter during the early 1 ass's. You will be creating a newspaper article based on an event, the key figures, or problem. 1. You are to write an article on one of the topics listed below: a. Complaints with the Church .Key figures: Calvin, Woozily, Erasmus c. Martin Luther and his 95 Theses d. Compare and contrast common beliefs of the Catholic and Protestant Church (language, ultimate authority & salvation) 2. Research and answer the following questions using the suggested websites in #3. A. Why were people dissatisfied with the Catholic Church in the asses? B. What were Lather's criticisms of the Church? C. How did the printing press affect Reformation ideas? A. Why did Luther want the Bible translated from Latin into German and other languages? B. How did the Church respond to Lather's 95 Theses? C.How did the ideas of John Calvin, John Woozily, and Desires Erasmus influence the Reformation? D. How was Europe affected by the events following Lather's excomm unication? How did the map of Europe change? 2. Suggest website resources: John Woozily http://www. BBC. Co. UK/history John Calvin http://www. Unwanted. Org http://www. Excel. Org http://www. Immersed. Com http://www. Was. Du Desires Erasmus http://www. Gospel. Net http://en. Wisped. Org http://www. Studiously. Com/ Martin Luther http://www. PBS. Org http://www. U-s-history. Com Spreading of Lather's Ideas Church Dissatisfaction Lather's Criticism http://www. Calgary. Ca Reformation http://www. Encouragement. Org http://www. Wisped. Org * 95 theses 95 theses was written by Martin Luther this year 1 517 and is the catalyst for the protestant reformation. It was the sales of indulgence, it centers on the practices within the catholic church regarding baptism and absolution. It views upon how to repent and how to be less sinful. These should be strictly followed by anyone in the church. There are times where you are allowed to relieve your pain or frustration in purgatory. He is focus ing on catholic churches. Please be aware of the new movement.

Organising An Event: Market Research Essay

INTRODUCTION There is a proverb that says ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’ This is very true, I will support this theory. Planning is an essential part of everyone’s life. I will look at a time schedule of a typical school child. For instance, a school pupil will set his or her alarm clock to go off at 7.30am. This is so that he or she can give him or herself around half an hour to use the shower and get ready for school. He or she will then be ready to have breakfast and leave for school around 8.30am in time for school at 9am. The pupil’s time has been valued and organized in such a way that he or she can make it on time for school lessons, otherwise if the pupil did things in their own time, he or she would never make it on time for school and miss out in what the teacher has already taught (This is the negative consequence and therefore in this case, failure). Even school lessons are planned. For example, a student may be in school from 9 to 3pm i.e. 6 hours. Therefore, the school may plan the students’ timetable in such a way that the student gets half an hour for break, an hour for lunch and about 50 minutes for each subject. This way, the tutors can plan what they want to say in the 50 minute interval and not spontaneously run into other tutors time and students’ breaks. Similarly when holding an event, in this case a business conference, it is important that every aspect of the event is well managed, analyzed, rehearsed and assessed to ensure that everything goes according to plan. Some of these aspects can include the consumers. The consumers are the ones who are going on the trip to the conference so firstly, their safety is the trip administrators’ top priority. For example all aspects of the consumers’ health and safety have to be reviewed like if they have any medical histories, current/past allergies and many more. This is the nature of things that have to be carefully considered in order for trip to go well. The intentions of this essay is to successfully report upon all stages of the business conference planning process from the start i.e. whether the event has the potential and the required resources to enable it to go all the way to the end, i.e. giving an account on personal experiences from the trip and future recommendations. Simply it will be divided into three parts: a beginning, middle and an end. These three stages will be: 1. Market Research: This will lead to whether the event has the potential to go on at all or not. 2. Planning: If it is confirmed that the event can go on, it will then be safe to proceed. Planning and analyzing all aspects of the event from start to finish can then occur. 3. Finalizing the event, the event and finalizing the report: Once the event is flawlessly planned, it can successfully take place. Once the event is over, post-event experiences and remarks can be included in the report to conclude it. STAGE 1: MARKET RESEARCH- VIABILITY & FEASIBILITY OF THE EVENT CONSUMERS The people who are going to use the service (i.e. the AS level business studies students who could potentially want to go on the trip) need to be aware of this upcoming event. Therefore it is important that they are aware of the reason for the event being held at the first place, to let as many people as possible understand why they need to come to this conference trip. In order to find out this information from people, a survey will need to be carried out focusing on the target population researching whether or not anybody will be interested in coming on this trip. This target population is the AS level Business Studies Class of Marlborough school in St. Albans. However, this can be time-consuming to carry out and the decision of whether the AS level students can travel abroad for the business conference trip is down to their parents. So waiting for the students to ask their parents to grant them permission and give them the green light can waste time especially when they forget. Also, if the students cannot find the survey researcher to answer whether or not they can go on the trip can throw away even more precious time. Therefore it can be deduced that, an even more tangible, more effective method of communicating this message and obtaining this information as soon as possible without hesitation would be required. FINANCIAL CONSTRAINTS Previously before the school summer vacations i.e. 18th June 2007, the event organizers of the year thirteen business studies students decided on a financial aim at the meeting. This was to obtain the most cheapest yet superb value for money costs going towards the trip. Therefore, they brainstormed capitals of the world that would meet their goal, also which would offer a great diversity of businesses, for the year twelve business studies class to obtain case studies from. Capital destinations which were suggested and seemed suitable included Prague, Cape Town, Budapest, Rome, Barcelona and New York. Due to Travel and Tour companies including â€Å"European Study Tours,† language barriers can be prevailed over, meaning that the trip could still be feasible in any of these locations, making the short listing and elimination process a little more difficult. Theoretically, the further the location from Marlborough school, the more expensive the trip will cost to travel too. This meant that destinations such as New York will have to be eliminated from the potential choices list automatically since it is the furthest away from the United Kingdom, although the city has a wide range of medium to large sized organizations. As a result, the choices of destinations were narrowed down to those either in Asia or Europe. Budapest, as opposed to Prague and Rome which were all located in Europe, did not seem like they had much to offer in terms of business diversity. Therefore, it remained Europe: Prague, Rome and Barcelona. Since these three locations were large cities and also located in Europe, them being the nearest to England, they all seem convenient. However, due to the costs the travel and tours companies would offer for them, as well as the length of stay the trip required and the dates, Prague was selected. This was the most affordable and convenient at two hundred and twenty- nine pounds for three nights offered by â€Å"European Study Tours.† Therefore, the event organisers had obtained a budget covering the compulsory costs including travel to Prague, accommodation and the conference event. At first meeting back after the school summer vacations i.e. 24th September 2007, the event organizers of the year thirteen business studies students decided that the Prague trip should take place in the spring term. This will be at the middle of the 2007-2008 academic years i.e. February 22nd 2008, where the gaps between the spring season will be occupied by some examinations mainly taken by the target consumers of the trip i.e. The lower sixth form business studies students. Financially, this is ideal. If the trip was to take place in the Autumn/Winter term, due to the Christmas Holidays, the costs of the travel to Prague by air travel will rocket up due to popularity. Likewise, if it were to take place in the summer term, costs of air travel will, again shoot up because of the long summer vacation approaching just around the corner. Therefore, by selecting Prague, travel costs have been minimized. FEASIBILITY OF THE EVENT Quotes have been obtained from â€Å"European Study Tours,† and so it is safe to reveal the news about the Prague conference trip to the lower sixth form business studies class. It was needed to know the popularity of the event, despite the budgets. Also, on the 24th September 2007, the event organisers discussed revealing this news to the target consumers. Notice was given to the whole group by the event head organiser, that the lower sixth form business studies students were divided into two separate classes at two different times; an afternoon class and a morning class due to their great size in total. Therefore, the event head organiser proposed that three group members must inform the morning class and another three people must inform the afternoon class. The reason being was for a confidence boost since making a speech to a large number of people can possibly intimidate some of the event organisers. So, group members without assigned responsibilities at the time, volunteered to reveal the news concerning the Prague trip to the lower year business studies students. To inform the morning class were the assigned informants: Laura Port, Adam Mead and Sunil Rajput. Also, to inform the afternoon class were the assigned informants James Dillon, Joe Medlin, and Adrian Daniels. In addition, unexpected informant, Louise Conyard, also joined the other three informants. As a result, the morning class informants reported that â€Å"a majority of the wanted to go.† (I.e. Laura Port, Adam Mead and Sunil Rajput). Also, the afternoon class informants responded that â€Å"the whole class put their hands up to go on the trip. † (i.e. Joe Medlin, James Dillon, Adrian Daniels and Louise Conyard). Therefore, it can be deduced that the conference event trip to Prague is highly feasible in terms of popularity. SMART AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Therefore, it was now necessary to establish SMART (i.e. specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound) objectives. These objectives will act as a guide for the whole group of event organisers, to monitor their progress on meeting certain deadlines. These are: * To provisionally book sixty-five year twelve business studies students including the supervision staff and the year thirteen event organisers with ‘European Study Tours’ by Monday 15th October 2007: This will secure places for the approximate number of people who would like to go, but not certain can afford to go on the Prague trip. * To plan and implement all fundraising activities by Wednesday 31st October 2007: The current travel and accommodation budget of two hundred to two hundred and sixty pounds is not affordable by everyone. So, therefore the bar needs to be raised as much as possible before informing the parents of the final cost of this in the letters. * To have raised sufficient funds to pay for the coach fees by Tuesday 20th November 2007: Funds will need to raised, to pay for the coach. This is a fixed cost and not variable, so including it among the travel and accommodation costs will be difficult and it will make the trip seem even more expensive. It is difficult because it cannot be calculated exactly how much the coach will cost per student, since at the end of the day, the number of students going on the Prague tip can vary. * To have all letters to the Parents of the year twelve business studies students concerning the Prague trip, by Wednesday 30th November: The parents need to be aware of the cost of the trip at this time as the holiday ‘Christmas’ is rapidly approaching. Some people spend money to purchase Christmas gifts in advance, and so informing them about the year twelve business studies students Prague trip a month before, can encourage Parents, guardians or whoever will want to pay for the trip, to monitor their finances carefully. * To have all sixty-pound deposits in by Thursday 20th December 2007: As the Prague trip will be a couple of months away, the number of students going will have to be certain by paying deposits, so the planning process of the trip can proceed. * To have secured by Monday 15th January 2008, four guest speakers (ranging from medium to large sized organizations), to share their perspective of business planning and a typical day for them: People in Businesses have tight schedules, and so most people need to be conscious of things in advance otherwise they may make other plans to fill up their schedule. In this case, the potential guest speakers will need to be contacted and arranged for suitable dates, to give their inspirational speeches to the year twelve business studies students. * To have arranged an evening for Parents to discuss matters concerning the Prague trip for the year twelve business studies students, by Thursday 31st January 2008: As around this time, the trip will be rapidly approaching with only two to three weeks to go. Therefore, final preparations will have to be made including the parents of the year twelve business studies students, to discuss any problems they have concerning the trip, as well as hearing the Prague trip’s programme in detail. * To have designed and printed out guest speakers’ programme and evaluation and feedback sheets by Monday 11th February 2008: The year twelve business studies students will need to be aware of what the guest speaker is going to emphasize on, so that they will know what to listen out for when taking notes, making it easier for them to organise them. At the end of the conference, the year thirteen students will need to obtain remarks based on the event, and so the easiest way to do it, instead of asking everyone who participated later, is to hand out feedback sheets for them to fill in straight after the event. Since the ‘SMART objectives’ have been established, the ‘SMART aims’ can now be stated as well, as all the objectives contribute towards these. These aims are: * To plan and execute the Prague Trip (from start to finish) within twenty-seven weeks. * To ensure that the Prague Trip is feasible in terms of the year twelve business studies students. * To ensure that the Prague Trip is viable in terms of the year twelve business studies students. * To provide the year twelve business studies group with an abundance of case studies to apply in their end of year examinations. * To arrive in Prague to run conference event safely, and to return to Marlborough School safely. VIABILITY AND FURTHER FEASIBILITY OF THE EVENT Since that a majority of the lower sixth form Business Studies students wish to take part in the trip. This may mean that fixed costs will be more difficult to meet; compared to having a few consumers i.e. the lower sixth form business studies students. However, having numerous consumers can be advantageous when it comes to bulk purchase of the â€Å"European Study Tours† service, as this could qualify for a discount eventually reducing the costs per person. Although there is a possibility of a discount from the travel and tours, it is not worth taking a risk and waiting till all the finances are in before finding out. Pressurizing the consumers i.e. the lower sixth form business studies students, to pay within an unreasonable deadline is unethical. This will not be fair on them since the event organizers who have proposed the idea of the trip are the ones convincing them, and their parents or guardians. In the long run, this will only put the chances of the consumers deciding to go into jeopardy. This will only aggravate the state of the situation, eventually repelling the consumers. Moreover, analysing the potential scenario situation in a deeper perspective, the inter-relationship of the consumers’ parents and the school will be affected. Also, this may even heavily influence the decision the parents make, regarding giving permission to let their child go on future trips with Marlborough school. Most significantly, the year twelve business studies students are less likely to have suitable case studies resources to use in their examinations, and the event organizers may have to consider the event unviable, thereby calling it off entirely. As a result, time is a very important element in this trip to Prague. Any mistakes or situations that could arise during the administration of the trip cannot be undone because it is impossible to go back in time. It is crucial that everything is organised carefully by the event organisers. Therefore, in conclusion, at the 1st October 2007 meeting, the event organisers reached a verdict to hold a fundraising event. Here, the bar can be lowered to make it easier and faster to meet the deadlines of the variable costs finances, thereby reducing time constraints. This is as there are time constraints to when all the finances can be collected by. Also, at this meeting on 1st October 2007, all of the event organisers proposed fundraising events to investigate into its feasibility and viability. James Dillon and Joe Medlin suggested a school taxi service transporting students to various destinations like parties, outside school in return for a reasonable fee to raise money. Sunil Rajput and Adam Mead came up with a cake stall to raise money. James Wardy and James Flaherty came up with the idea of a football tournament. Louise Conyard, Laura Port and James Lindsay decided into bag packing at a local supermarket. Laura Port and James Lindsay is employed with the supermarket giant â€Å"Sainsburys,† a contact which would be very useful for this fundraising activity for the whole group. Finally, Adrian Daniels and Michael Garvis looked into Muj’s idea of a â€Å"Halloween† themed disco, as the holiday was only a few weeks away making it more sense to do it. At the following week’s meeting i.e. 8th October 2007, all the event organisers reported upon their idea’s feasibility and viability. Adrian Daniels and Michael Garvis reported on the Muj’s idea, which was also included in the investigation, into a â€Å"Halloween† themed school disco. Michael Garvis calculated an estimated budget if this ideas was to be chosen and become a reality. However, plenty of students were required to turn up for the event and to pay the price of around three pounds per person for admission to break-even and produce profit. But this was not for certain to happen, so the even needed to be inviting as possible and promoted as much as possible to ensure that a lot of people turn up. In addition, Adrian Daniels found out that the school hall was not free of charge, although all the event organisers were part of the Marlborough School Students. By the fact that the hall is being used for profit-making reasons, money will be required to be able to hire. Therefore, another fundraising activity would be required to raise start-up capital to be able to afford the hall, which would not require start-up capital. The school hall is the venue of the disco, so it would be essential to run the disco. However, this was not going to be necessary as Muj looked into sponsoring of the event. He asked his local costume store in Watford for sponsorship in return of customers. Through sponsoring, another fundraising event would not be necessary anymore, since the costume store will cover the hall costs in exchange for giving them plenty of customers. Alternatively, Adrian Daniels carried out some secondary research. He interviewed the student â€Å"Elke Cooper† a current year thirteen student with previous experiences with organising a similar event, a â€Å"Valentine Day’s† Ball. She mentioned several essentials to consider. However, she emphasized on the fact that â€Å"the advertising of the event had to be very effective to the target audience as much as possible, including the Marlborough School Newsletter.† Also, in terms of the event taking place, she pointed out that the event cannot be carried out during half term since the school hall facilities will be booked and used by local sports clubs. In addition, the school students may have other arranged plans and might prefer doing something other than going to the Halloween Disco. On the other hand, she also explained that the event could not happen after half term on the actual Halloween day. Halloween Day on the 2007 calendar is on a Wednesday, which is on a weekday. Unfortunately, for the event organisers, Halloween day is not a national holiday but a normal school day for students, meaning the only available time to run the event would be after school. Marlborough School starts at nine in the morning and closes at five past three in the afternoon. After a long day of hard work, the students will feel exhausted and would want to go home to relax. They would want to get rest, so later in the evening they can go â€Å"trick or treating.† However, due to the winter season, the sky gets dark very fast. So, students can bring their costumes to school and after school, they can get ready whilst the disco hall gets prepared. Finally, the event can take place when it is slightly dark, some students catch the coach to school in the morning and back from school, so running this event after school on Halloween Day may not be an option at all. As a result, the event is neither feasible nor viable. James Dillon and Joe Medlin reported back on their text service idea. They suggested that services income is estimated to be around a hundred pounds, due to students who may require a ride to various upcoming parties over Friday and Saturday night. However, it is not certain that these students will require rides to parties that may or may not take place, since they can always be cancelled at the last minute. Therefore, this fundraising method may not seem very reliable in producing over a hundred pounds, thereby not worth doing since there are other potential fundraising methods more likely to bring in more income. Moreover, at the meeting i.e. 8th October 2007, Joe Medlin and James Dillon suggested that they may require more drivers within the trip organizing group. This is so that the event organisers would not have to raise extra capital to pay drivers outside this group, which can lead to less net profit. So, in addition to Joe Medlin, Sunil Rajput, James Wardy and Adam Mead all volunteered to help, who are also qualified drivers over the age of seventeen. However, relying on all these drivers to be present when needed to give rides is not a risk worth taking. As a result, although this fundraising method may be feasible, it is certainly not viable. Alternatively, James Wardy and James Flarherty gave feedback based on their research into a football tournament. This fundraising method seemed feasible due to similar past fundraising methods†¦ â€Å"Hamza Bhandari,† a previous year thirteen business studies student was contacted on 6th October 2007 by Adrian Daniels, one of the event organisers. Hamza was interviewed about his past part in the participation in the school fundraising events. He replied that â€Å"a penalty shootout was run to raise money, eighty pounds was raised in total.†It was successful as a substantial amount of money was raised i.e. eighty pounds. Therefore, it can be predicted that the football tournament is very likely to succeed, due the very similar â€Å"penalty shootout† used to raise funds. It can be predicted that the football tournament is very likely to succeed, due to the very similar â€Å"penalty shootout† used to raise funds. It can be deduced that the event is feasible. As a result, to ensure that the event was viable, James Flaherty and James Wardy spoke to a Physical Education department member, Mr. Lucas, about availability of the school gym facilities to carry out the fundraising event. However, similarly to the â€Å"Halloween School Disco†, the hall must be hired again due to the fact that it is after school hours and the event is held purposefully to make profit. However, it was said also that there would be no time available during school, on break and lunch times. Therefore, the only time to carry out the event would be after school, meaning far less people would be available to stay and also willing to take part, particularly because there is a fee involved for participation and some people may prefer to go home instead. Consequently, this event is considered to be not very viable. Another potential fundraising event was bag packing, which was investigated by Laura Port, James Lindsay and Louise Conyard. James Lindsay was given permission by Sainsbury’s to do the bag packing on the Saturday of 20th October 2007, and the Saturday of 3rd November 2007. However, a disadvantage of this date is that unfortunately most of the event organisers (i.e. the year thirteen business studies students) work on this day. This means that it will be difficult getting everybody to take time off work successfully to take part in bag packing. Although not every single event organiser is working on a Saturday, but having only a few people to help out can significantly reduce the amounts of profit made. And so, the numbers of people present to help need to be maximised, in order to maximise the profits made from the bag packing. But the bag packing activity will not be for the whole day. So, if the event organisers working on a Saturday morning and sacrifice their time after work to help out, their work will not clash with bag packing, and therefore both can occur with no problem. On the other hand, those working afternoon shifts on Saturdays can help out in the mornings to contribute their share of bag packing. This flexibility even enables those without employment on a Saturday, to choose whenever shift (i.e. in the morning or afternoon) they feel is more suitable for them on the day. Previously, the last year thirteen was successful working twelve ‘o’ clock to five ‘o’ clock in the afternoon, and producing eight hundred pounds according to ‘James Flaherty’ on the 8th October meeting. Therefore, a similar time to do the shift can recreate the success last year. Another situation arising from selecting this fundraising event is that, the Sainsbury’s that gave James Lindsay permission is based in Garston. Marlborough school is based in St. Albans and so theoretically, this is where most people live and so a local Sainsbury’s branch will be more convenient. This also applied to the event organisers, where the majority was found to reside in St. Albans. This can be a problem because those who do not live near or in Garston will have to commute with a cost which may include paying train fare, arranging lifts or even using own car’s petrol and also paying for a parking ticket for the long hours of bag packing. Ultimately, this will add up towards the overall costs that each event organiser would have to pay to go on the Prague trip. Nevertheless, Laura port one of the event organisers, devised a solution to the problem. Fortunately for the group, she is in contact with the St. Albans Sainsbury’s branch, and so found out about doing bag packing over there. Laura found out that she needs to appeal with a letter to this branch convincing enough to let the bag packing event happen over there. As a result, it can be deduced that this fundraising event is very feasible as ‘James Lindsay’ was granted permission to do it at his local branch at ‘Garston’, and very viable due to last year’s profits from the event, told by ‘James Flaherty’ i.e. eight hundred pounds. Finally, Sunil Rajput and Adam Mead commented on their research in doing a Cake Stall to raise money. Adam Mead informed the manager and found out that he had to obtain the canteen staff’s full approval before running the event. The canteen staff responded that the event can take place during break time and lunch time. After the entire assigned event organisers contributed their research into potential fundraising activities to increase the finance available for the Prague trip, a vote was made by the organisers to decide the top two activities that should be used for fundraising. Each organiser wrote their top two choices on a piece of paper, and folded it up to prevent any organiser from seeing this so that it would not influence their choices. The majority votes won which were the ‘Cake Stall’ and ‘Bag Packing.’ More votes were made to decide which activity was going to be the fundraiser, this time the whole group votes by hand. Majority votes ruled, and the ‘Cake Stall’ was chosen. Without delay, plans were made to achieve and end this fundraising as soon as possible; to meet the Prague trip aim was ‘To complete fundraising events by the end of October’. Therefore, Sunil Rajput and Adam Mead were assigned to confirm to the canteen staff that the fundraising event was going to happen. James Lindsay was assigned to write up a brief column in the Marlborough School newsletter concerning the Cake Stall and the reason for doing it. Toyosi Akinola was also assigned, to write a letter to the school head. Tinashe J. was assigned to inform the school office about the cake stall, asking if the school reception can be a collection point for the cakes. On the other hand, everybody needed to decide on a date to carry out the event. As a result, the whole group selected ‘Friday 19th October 2007’. On this day of the week, year thirteen have plenty of free time, since that there is a free period in the morning (i.e 9.00am- 10.00am) , plus a one and a half period (i.e. one hour thirty minutes) of General studies, which also leaves plenty of time to spare before the sixth form lunch time (i.e. 12.25am- 1.05pm). This schedule will enable the event organisers to serve cakes during the lower/higher breaks (i.e. 10.00am- 10.20am and 11.00- 11.20am respectively) and the lower/higher lunches ( i.e. 12.20am- 1.05pm and 1.20pm-2.05pm respectively). Also, with this day being the following week, sufficient time was created to advertise the upcoming cake stall to the school effectively. One of the main methods use to promote the cake stall was the posters that the group were asked to design, and assess at the next meeting before duplicating them to put around school . An example of one of the posters put around the school grounds was: (see next page) The cake stall needed cakes to sell for profit in the cake stall. This was not included in the poster because it might put people off buying cakes from the cake stall. Therefore, the whole group came to a decision to bring in as many cakes, biscuits and other related confectionary such as cookies, whether cooked or purchased. Also, in the newsletter column that ‘James Lindsay’ was assigned to compose, included that The following meeting was on Monday 15th October 2007. Toyosi Akinola was successful in convincing the head to permit the cake stall sell to happen with his fantastic letter. And so this was the official confirmation to let the cake stall take place on the upcoming Friday. As a result, the promotion of this stall had to be more effective. So, the event organisers all contributed in phrasing a memo to all teachers in the school. This is how the memo turned out: CAKE SELL Please read this out to the class (Teachers) As part of their A-level Business Studies course, the year thirteen business studies students need to organise an event. They need to hold a cake sale on Friday. And to reduce the costs of this event, they need to hold this in Pascal Hall in 19th October during both breaks and lunch time. The teachers informing the students about the cake stall will ensure that they are all aware of it, even if they do not spot the posters being posted up around the school. However, those who were absent to hear this memo may find out about the cake stall through the posters or their friends through word of mouth as ‘gossip is a great traveller’. Also, the event organisers brought in their poster designs and showed each other. Then the whole group decided what could be done to improve them before putting them up around the whole school. This is what one of the posters looked after amendments have been made: The more improved versions of the poster did not include the fact that the event for was for the profit-making purpose to raise funds for the Prague trip. This part of the poster was not necessary and it had to be brief and straight to the point for people to read the whole message. However, if it was made long some people would be put off and walk away from the poster, thereby missing out on the essential message that the cake stall is on the upcoming Friday. James Lindsay failed to submit the memo to all of the teachers concerning the Cake stall. However, the newsletter column composed by the event organiser head was released by Friday, at the end of the school week. This backed up James Lindsay and the message concerning the upcoming Cake Stall got through to all of the students who picked up a newsletter in their form rooms. These newsletters are usually handed out by the students form tutors, and so the chance of them receiving the newsletter was very high. The event organiser chair decided that all of the event organisers needed to a break time and a lunch time each, be it a lower or higher one. The lower and higher break and lunch time shifts had to be evenly distributed to all the event organisers, to make it fair on everyone. So everybody volunteered to do combinations of lower/higher breaks and lower/higher lunches to suit their own flexibility. When it seemed that too many people were in one group, (i.e. a lower/higher break or a lower/higher lunch) then event organisers such as ‘Adrian Daniels’ changed group for the sake of fairness, by changing from a lower lunch to an upper lunch. As a result, this was the outcome for the Cake Stall schedule for Friday 19th October 2007: Lower Break Upper Break Lower Lunch Higher Lunch (10.00-10.20) (11.00-11.20) (12.20-13.05) (13.20-14.05) Adam Lindsay Lindsay Adam Laura Wardy Laura Adrian Louise Dillon Wardy Joe Adrian Toyosi Dillon Muj Michael Flaherty Toyosi Tinashe Muj Joe Flaherty Louise Tinashe Tinashe Michael The Cake Stall schedule was put together in a a way, that there will be sufficient ratio of event organisers selling and supervising, to the consumers (i.e. the school years on break or lunch time, like the years seven, eight and nine out for upper break). This way, there would not be too many event organisers at the Cake Stall at one time, or too little event organisers at the cake stall to cope at one time. Although there was an equal number of event organisers out for each cake stall except the ‘upper lunch’, it did not matter because any body free at the time of the ‘upper lunch’ can give additional help if needed. So even if one person turned up to help the ‘upper lunch’ and make all the cake stall time schedules equal, it was adequate and fair. Thursday 18th October was the date set for the event organisers to hand in their cakes. There were various ‘cake hand-in points’ to take the cakes too, because the canteen would only hold the cakes for the day of the cakes stall. Some of these points were the school ‘reception’ and the ‘business studies department office’. These places were selected so that the cakes could be kept secure. Preservations were not a situation as all the cakes and other confectionary had expiry dates displayed on them. This date was also the day before the big cakes stall sell, so if anybody forgot to bring in the cakes on the actual day (i.e. Friday 19th October 2007) they could bring them in, in advance. However, if anybody forgot to bring them in on Thursday, the following meeting on Thursday acted as a reminder. The finances concerning the cake stall were also discussed at the 15th October 2007 meeting. The following meeting was on Thursday 18th October, the day before the cakes stall sell. Laura Port was assigned by the event organisers’ chair to collect ten pounds worth of change from the bursar. Change was required for the cake stall to start-up with, otherwise waiting to make adequate money through the cake sells in order to give the consumers (i.e. school students) change can be time consuming. The school students break or lunch time is for a limited time only. So the school students would want to be able to buy their cakes, have their break or lunch, and then finish in time for their next lessons. The event organisers also agreed that the cakes will sell from prices ranging from twenty-five to fifty pence. The prices of the cakes and the other confectionary were to be confirmed for the next meeting. ‘Michael Garvis volunteered to bring in some margarine containers to collect the money made from the cake stall in. ‘Petty cash’ or coins will mainly be used by the customers to pay for the cakes and other confectionary, so there would not be a need for a cash register. The ratio of event organisers to customers will also be sufficient enough for them to supervise the money right in front of them. The ‘year eight’ group was due to be absent for the day, which could possibly affect the rate of sales, and more significantly, the rate of sales. ‘Joe Medlin’ and ‘Adrian Daniels’ volunteered to collect the money made from the cake stall at the last sell, at upper lunch, to the treasurer. He or she can calculate how much has been made and keep the funds safe for future use i.e. costs going towards the trip such as coach fees. The finance issues concerning the cake stall had been discussed and sorted. So next were the health and safety concerns for the sale: The event organisers agreed to arrive ten minutes early before the cake stall sell. This would allow enough time to setup the cake stall in the hall before any commotion is caused by the consumers (i.e. the Marlborough school students). Also, it was agreed between the event organisers that the cake stall queue had to be organised, to prevent the consumers pushing each other about to get into the line. However, if the cake stall was not so popular and only a few students turned up, it may not be necessary to create a queue barrier. Since there is a chance of fights arising from the queue, a risk assessment is to be created to evaluate how severe incidents could potentially become during the cake stall. Then suitable health and safety measures can be carried out to protect the consumers and customers, (i.e. the school students) the cakes and other people like the teachers. As the cake stall is a business, the Government’s health and safety procedures have to be observed: http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/EnvironmentalServices/HealthAndSafety/hs_riskassessments.pdf Therefore according to the ‘Health & Safety at Work Act 1974’, employers are to take â€Å"reasonably practicable† precautions in various areas to safeguard employees. In this case, the event organizers are to consider suitable safety measures in the cake stall to protect all the stakeholders, which include the customers and the teachers. To do this it must be ensured that good judgment is made about the extent of risks that could happen at the cake stall, and its consequences. In regards to the legal governmental health and safety Governmental requirements, the ‘Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1992/1999’ has also been considered. It states that: â€Å"Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of: à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ The risks to the health and safety of his/her employees to which they are exposed while they are at work; and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ The risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him or his undertaking: For the purposes of identifying the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions†. The findings must be recorded if five or more are employed. In this case, a risk assessment must be drawn up by all the event organisers for the cake stall, in order to produce health and safety solutions for the event. Therefore, a risk assessment will be carried out. CAKE STALL RISK ASSESSMENT LOCATION: ACTIVITY: SELLING CAKES PASCAL HALL, AT STAND, AND OTHER MARLBOROUGH CONFECTIONARY SUCH AS SCHOOL COOKIES PEOPLE AT RISK: MARLBOROUGH SCHOOL STUDENTS, CUSTOMERS, CONSUMERS, TEACHERS, CANTEEN STAFF. POTENTIAL HAZARDS: FIGHTING (E.G QUEUE PUSHING) EXPIRED CAKES AND OTHER CONFECTIONARY EXCITED CUSTOMERS NOISE NUTS IN CAKES, COOKIES, MUFFIN, ETC TABLE LEG WET ADJUSTMENTS FLOOR MOPED BY CLEANING STAFF POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES: SLIPPING TRIPPING OVER STAIRS FOOD ALLERGIES TOE INJURY BLINDING FOOD CONTAMINATION EXISTING CONTROLS: FRESHLY BAKED CAKES/BISCUITS CAKES AND OTHER CONFECTIONARY PURCHASED WITH A VALID EXPIRY DATE RISK RATING WITH EXISTING CONTROLS: HIGH MEDIUM ? (Major Injury: Fighting) LOW NEW CONTROLS REQUIRED: QUEUE BARRIERS (To be improvised with chairs) TEACHER SUPERVISION ENSURING THAT THE HALL FLOOR IS COMPLETELY DRY BEFORE CAKE SELLING BEGINS CAKE STALL TABLES TO BE KEPT FIRMLY TOGETHER IN POSITION RISK RATING WITH NEW CONTROLS: HIGH MEDIUM LOW ? (Major injuries: tripping over stairs, food allergies {all cakes that are purchased from stores like ‘Asda’ are not 100% certain to contain traces of nuts in them) ASSESSOR NAME†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦JOB TITLE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. SIGNATURE †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. DATE†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦DATE TO BE REVIEWED†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. The cakes and other confectionary prices were also decided on at the meeting: (i.e. Thursday 18th October 2007) Fixed Costs à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Hire of Hall 0 Ten pounds worth of change 10 Cake Stand Tables (school property) 0 Money containers (complimentary of ‘Michael Garvis’) 0 Cakes and other confectionary (donated) 0 Napkins ( Complimentary of ‘James Lindsay’) 0 Total 10 Variable costs (per customer) à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ Little Muffins 0.25 Plain Cupcakes 0.30 Cupcakes with icing 0.40 Big muffins 0.55 Big Cookies 0.40 Biscuits 0.20 Mini Fairy Cakes 0.20 Flapjacks 0.20 Small Cookies 0.20 The cake stall took place on Friday 19th October 2007. No incidents/accidents happened due to the new improved controls introduced from creating and making risk assessments. The follow-up meeting was 29th October 2007. The cake stall sale was reviewed. The event organisers discussed that the ‘plain cupcakes’ were not so popular during the break times, and therefore were not selling well. As a result, ‘Louise Conyard’ took initiative and sprinkled some icing on top of all of them to add value and sped up sales. This simple action helped to sell all of them. There were certain cakes that were selling well and not selling so well. And so, it was discussed between the event organisers that more of these high in demand cakes could have been purchased during the day of the cake stall to boost sales. This would have also have boosted profits. Also, it was mentioned during the meeting that the cake stall was not as popular as anticipated. This may have been due to the fact that promotion was not as effective as required, and that insufficient posters may have been posted up around the school. In future, marketing of the event would need to be more effective if another fundraising event had to take place, to raise additional funds. However, some of the Marlborough school students may have preferred bringing their own snacks to school or buying other snacks in school, and bringing their own packed lunch to school or buying school dinners from the canteen. This competition between the canteen and the cake stall during the break and lunchtimes could have definitely hindered sales. Not all of the cakes sold at the end of both breaks and lunches, so event organisers including ‘James Dillon’ and ‘Toyosi Akinola’ discussed their idea of how they went round the school trying to boost sales with a tray of cakes and other related confectionary. This was highly successful since all of them were sold! As a result, two hundred and twenty four pounds in total was produced from the event. It was considered that this could be used to pay off the trip’s fixed costs, including the coach fees. However, this was insufficient capital to meet these costs. ‘Adrian Daniels’, one of the groups of event organisers contacted the ‘South Mimms Coach travel service’, a very good, long-term coach supplier for Marlborough School. The quote that Adrian received was that: â€Å"Two coaches including baggage space to transport approximately eighty people would cost five hundred pounds. This will include parking spaces and waiting time at the Luton Airport and Marlborough School.† – A South Mimms Coaches representative From the look of the amount of funds raised from the cake stall, around half of the coach fees have been raised. Therefore, an additional fundraising event will be required and the objective â€Å"to implement all fundraising events by Wednesday 31st October 2007† would have to be extended the maximum an additional month, otherwise it could clash with the deadline to have all the letters to the parents concerning the Prague Trip out. As a result, the second place fundraising event chosen was ‘Bag Packing’, and this alternative will also be used to boost the current funding towards the Prague Trip of two hundred and twenty-four pounds. Laura Port volunteered to get in contact with the Sainsbury’s branch in St. Albans, whilst James Dillon also agreed to get in contact with his local Sainsbury’s branch too, at Garston. Therefore, in order to meet the next objective, this event would have taken place by the end of November. Since at least two Saturdays are required for the whole group to carry out bag packing, and the first fundraising event (i.e. the cake stall) has taken place before the end of October, So far accomplishing the objectives to date, the Prague trip is proved feasible. Since the critical parts of the event organisation process are out of the way, it is possible to proceed with planning the rest of the event and careful monitoring; that everything goes to plan and progress is monitored vigilantly. Most significantly, the finances will have to be watched, since they determine whether or nor the trip will take place entirely. Therefore, a letter to the parents will need to be released by the end of November, making them aware of the upcoming deposit deadlines and other details relevant to the Prague trip. At the first meeting back after the school summer vacations i.e. 24th September 2007, the event organizers of the year thirteen business studies students decided that the most appropriate solution to communicate the message about the Prague trip to the parents would be to write a formal letter as soon as possible. This would explain to the parents as well as the students: > What the event is about > Why they should go on the trip > What is required for the trip to occur > When it will take place and end > What the trip co-coordinators’ are aiming to attain for the students who go on the trip > The eventual benefits > Keeping both parents and the student up-to-date with the most recent news regarding the conference trip. At the end of the letter, an optional ‘cut-out’ permission slip can allow for the student and the parents to agree on whether or not he or she can go on the trip, backed up with their individual signatures. All the event organisers agreed to design a letter being addressed to the parents of the year twelve business studies students concerning the Prague Trip. All the best aspects of the whole groups’ letters’ were to be combined in fashioning the perfect letter. An example of a letter design of one of the event organisers was: Re: Educational Trip to Prague Dear Sir/Madam, We are proud to inform you that the Year 13 Business Studies students are organizing a business conference that will be great benefit to your child’s education, particularly in AS level Business Studies. At the end of the course, students must write a Business Studies exam based on ‘people at work.’ In this exam, they will have to apply that knowledge of what they have learnt during the year, including applying and referring it to real- existing business firms. The exam is worth 33.3% of their final AS grade in the course, so the information they can obtain from companies to apply in case studies to fulfil their exam specification requirements is vital. Various guest speakers representing the different business firms will come in and give an inspirational talk to the students about what their job role is on a typical day as well as their personal experiences. The students will be given plenty of opportunities to take notes and questions, so they will most definitely make the most of their stay their. They will also visit businesses like a beer factory and also have time to do some Prague sightseeing while they are appreciating the scenery of places like the ‘Prague Castle,’ etc. The trip to Prague, the capital city of Czech Republic will take place on Thursday 21st February till Sunday 24th February 2008. Coaches will arrive and depart on time to their airport, so please ensure that your child gets to the departure point at a suitable time. We will ensure that you will be informed about most recent news regarding this trip, so we will keep you updated. Communication is very important, especially when there are time constraints. Therefore, it is vital that when it comes to communicating, it is done effectively so that all the event organizers are motivated to persevere to accomplish the Prague Trip objectives. Time could be constrained even more if they are demotivated to meet these goals, which makes communication crucial for the event to succeed. Although all the event organizers may have the potential to succeed as a unit (i.e. a ‘pseudo’ team), but however if they are all not organized well enough and fail to contribute to the team where they may specialize, for example bringing in imaginative concepts to which everyone going to the Prague trip can alert each other whenever when in Prague, then the whole group is at risk of collapsing. Therefore, the event organizers need allocate one another job roles where each other fits in or works best. But before this can happen, the whole group needs to be aware of the Prague trip schedule from start to finish, so that everybody will realize at which point in this schedule they can take an active role in. As a result, a Gantt chart will be created to meet this need.