“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford
Blog #2: Project Proposal + Progress
PDF of Project Proposal:
Weekly Objectives and Achievements
Week 3 (Jan 22 – 28)
Objectives:
- Arrange a meeting with our community partners from Vancouver Coastal Health, Anne Swann and Rani Wangsawidjaya, to have a better understanding about the project and our roles.
- Write and post blog post #1 – an introduction about our group
- Each group member has to complete TCPS2 tutorial course on research ethics
Achievements:
- Jan 22nd, 2018 – Had our first meeting with Anne at Richmond Public Health
- Gained knowledge in the background statistics of Richmond demographics and the importance of a food asset map
- Learned about the goals, responsibilities and key dates for this project
- Posted blog post #1
- Every group member completed TCPS2 tutorial course on research ethics
Week 4 (Jan 29 – Feb 4)
Objectives:
- Learn how to write a project proposal
- Write project proposal outline (section by section)
- Receive feedback from Tori if major changes are needed to be made
- Prepare to present the outline of project proposal to class for next week
Achievements:
- Developed a project proposal outline during tutorial
Week 5 (Feb 5 – 11)
Objectives:
- Presentation on project proposal outline to Tori and other groups in the class
- Receive feedback and edit proposal outline after the
- Write proposal – due Feb 9th
- Edit blog post #1 accordingly to Tori’s feedback
Achievements:
- Wrote and submitted project proposal to Tori
- Edited and resubmitted blog post #1
Week 6 (Feb 12 – 18)
Objectives:
- Edit project proposal after receiving feedback from Tori
- Email final version of project proposal to Anne and Rani
Achievements:
- Emailed project proposal to Anne and Rani
Week 7 (Feb 19 – 25)
Objective:
- Start working on excel document
- Receive feedback from Anne and Rani
Achievements:
- Contacted Richmond city hall and the Richmond chamber of commerce for business licenses
Week 8 (Feb 26 – Mar 4)
Objectives:
- Write and post blog post #2 – Project proposal and progress
- Aim to finish updating excel document by March 5th
Achievements:
- Posted blog post #2
Moment of Significance
What?
Our group had a hard time finalizing the project proposal. We created it using our own knowledge, and from additional research we did. By integrating opinions from our group members, our partners Anne and Rani, and our TA Tori, we managed to finish the proposal outline and the first submission.
Writing of the Proposal
Lessons We Learned ‘The Hard Way’ about Writing Proposals:
When we say “the hard way”, we actually mean lessons we learned through thoughtful constructive criticism from our professor, teaching assistant and community partner. Undoubtedly, rejection hurts on any level, and when we first received our grade we all realized there was serious room for improvement.
Cohesion
We had difficulty making a cohesive proposal since every group member worked on different parts of the proposal which meant there was not a single, cohesive voice, but rather many disparate voices running throughout the proposal.
Readily Understandable Content
Complex language, jargon and obscure abbreviations do not belong in a proposal. Breaking down what we researched (food sovereignty, food security, community planning) into concise digestible paragraphs proved much more difficult than originally expected.
So What?
Importance of Cohesion
Cohesion not only reflects how we communicate as a group and finalize our projects, but is also important for effectively persuading the reader that our proposal holds credibility.
Importance of Understandable content
Having a crystal clear understanding of our project’s objectives and goals will better allow us to make higher level connections from our research and to think critically about making improvements to the web application.
These skills we have gained in the proposal creations
Improving communication and information sharing is not only a goal of the RFAM, but we now realize must be a goal for us to work toward as a group.
Now What?
In preparation for our feedback interviews about the application and the final presentation of our findings, we aim to make a several improvements to our team strategy.
- We will put a much larger emphasis on editing and revising for simple grammatical errors as well as the content itself after receiving feedback from our community member and TA
- We will meet in person as a group more often outside of class
- We will get better at time management, and make sure to get work done sooner so that midterms do not take us by surprise again!
Upcoming Objectives and Strategies
Next, we will be collecting data from the community organizations and grocery shops and obtain consents to publish their information. We are planning to achieve this by email and phone. Once we will gather all the information, then we will be entering them into the Excel spreadsheet provided by the Vancouver Coastal Health before March 5th. Based on the latest update that we provide, our community partner will then compile them into the Food Asset Map.
Towards the end of March, our team will do an infographic presentation on the final project and the final report will be completed by early April.
As for future assignments, we plan to complete all assignments at least 1 to 2 days before deadline. This can improve our time management skills and ensuring all assignments are submitted on time. We will also be having a small meeting for every assignment to assign roles and responsibilities. This can prevent any confusion or frustration within the group.
