P3 – The Parkinson’s News and Tips

P3.1 – Lesson 1 – The Proposal

Welcome to our third project course adapted from the PVS project, Mojo for PWP! You have been requested by the Parkinson’s Society help them get more exposure in the media. While the PVS was being restructured, the Mojo for PWP has not yet been implemented, it only exists on paper in outline form. It turned out that the Parkinson’s Society requested face-to-face training, so we will use that work to create the online version of the Mojo for PWP.

Ivo Burum is an international mojo expert and has extensive experience in teaching MoJo – he has made a documentary of one training project when he was contracted to teach Aboriginal People in Australia – what, teach those people? Yes, you bet he did and you will see how it changed their lives! And it will also do that for people with Parkinson’s too. Click on the photo below to view the video.

Louis Kantella – Mojo Coordinator

Our Project

In our fascinating project, you will propose a very exciting solution to the Parkinson’s Society. After meeting with the Society’s management to explain the proposal, and answer any questions, they are indeed very excited about the unique solution that we have come up with and accepted our proposal and asked us start immediately.

Lesson P1: The Assignment
Your task in Lesson 1 is to (a) familiarize yourself with the project description below as developed by HMD.

(If you have not done project management before, it would certainly be helpful to read our fun, real life introductory notes on project management).

(b) Create a PowerPoint presentation that you will use at the meeting with the Society management.

(c) Then sketch out, or better, actually write how you would go about writing the proposal to the Parkinson’s Society. Use the hmd letterhead that was developed in the Word letterhead course.

(d) Then compare it with ours. Remember there is no absolute correct answer, this is how we tackle proposals based on our experience. Yours may be better! Note: we normally start our proposal by stating the client’s problem so that they know we understand their problem/need. Remember one has to build their trust in us. And then, an overview of how our proposal will address their need. Then you describe the detail bits of our proposal.

I know, we have covered much of the material in the presentation but time has come and gone, the client found the presentation excellent and convincing but probably did not take notes, so now is our opportunity to give in writing.

(e) You will notice that we have listed the costs at the end of the proposal. See if you can figure out how we got those figures. This is one of the most important parts of a project managers work. This is your bread and butter! You don’t want to work for nothing, nor do you want to scare the client away with unreasonable costs.

They will certainly be asked by their Board why project is so expensive. They must then be able to explain that they were actually getting the project at a discount and that the benefits gained in public goodwill will generate easier access to funding for the Society.

In the next lesson P3.2, we will learn about the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and how you could use that to help workout the costs. to determine
Your assignment

Project Description

The Parkinson’s Society wants a way to get more exposure in the media. This requires a story or project that has human interest, would highlight the realities of Parkinson’s in a graphic way, but also has the positive element of overcoming of contributing, leaving people feeling good. Having been intimately involved with the PVS project, this sounded like its specific purpose statement.

The Objective of the PVS project was to give pwp (people with Parkinson’s) video skills so that the can create videos of a type that matched their specific interests and experience and thus contributing to society. So teachers would create video courses, farmers would do videos of how to grow potatoes etc. This is a powerful way of enhancing the quality of life of pwp who otherwise think they are doomed to a useless life in a wheelchair.
Note: being able to develop this course and knowing that many will benefit from it, gives me, a pwp, such an enormous boost of my self-esteem. Believe me, it does wonders.

One of the courses we had looked at for the PVS was Mojo For PWP. The purpose of this course was to teach pwps the skills needed to capture video news stories and events using their smartphones – then editing the captured videos into proper news format including a piece to camera, b-roll footage and interview clips. Then upload the resulting video directly to the appropriate news station server.

This would require solid smartphone skills, news/journalistic knowledge, as well as graphic design principles. The mojo for pwp training is modular and lasts several months and includes specific training in recognizing news story potential, story telling techniques and legal concerns, its not rocket science, we have all watched many hours newscasting – we have been training for years already without knowing it.

Depending on the need, the course will include how to shoot video safely from a wheelchair, walker and working with a care-aid.

Given the time and financial constraints specified by the Parkinson’s Society, we will propose a shorter program to the society in which the focus will be on presenting the News on the Society’s website. The emphasis will be on news gathering that does not require traveling to shoot video on site. Instead the news will be gathered by conducting phone interviews and zoom/skype technologies.

One of the problems pwps face is poor voice and bad posture and constant movement known now as Michael J Fox movement or dyskinesia. You basically come across as an idiot, the result is that people don’t take you seriously. This type of newscasting makes it possible that you never appear in public and that one uses people or AI to do the voiceover during editing and we will certainly cover that in the course. My personal view is that pwp should be encouraged to appear on their videos so that the public will become accustomed to pwps.

The pwp would still be required to know the various forms of structuring news stories and uploading it to the Society’s website. We will give an upgrade option at a discount should the Society or the pwp want to get the full Mojo qualification.

People don’t suddenly realize there is a news channel on the Society’s website. It requires ongoing promotion. Because of the excellent program we have proposed there will be a lot of human interest material to work with. We will propose that we develop a promotion plan with there communications person and perhaps also the webmaster.

Consistency is also very important, the Society should form a news committee to be on the lookout for news items. You should always aim to have at least three up your sleeve. It can sometimes take more time than expected to get an interview with someone.

It is a good idea that they allocate two people for the project, a pwp and a staff member. They will be tasked to document the experience and gather material for promotion. It is also advisable to have such a paired arrangement because with Parkinson’s you never know for sure how you would feel just when you have to do the interview with the prime minister then it is good to have a standby.