Group Branding Information      

• Six-Star Professionals is the name of the task force.

• The slogan of Six-Star Professionals is “One star above the best.”

• ​

Member Roles

Each member of Six-Star Professionals will perform a variety of roles in order to complete and present the project. The individual roles, and who is responsible for each of them, are as follows:

• Bree – Media design, Presenting

• Fred – Planning, Researching

• Mallory – Media design,  Presenting

• Mikayla – Writing, Leading, Planning

• Nikki – Researching,  Proofreading

• Ty – Recording,  Researching, Presenting, Planning

 

Contingent Roles

In the instance that additional roles become necessary, the task force will assign roles based on the skills of the members. For example, if the group needs to ask the professor a series of questions in regards to the project, it may delegate one member to communicate with the professor and relay information back to the group. This individual would need to have detailed note-taking skills, as well be able to efficiently communicate information between the group and the professor.

 

Role Responsibilities

The responsibilities of each of the roles are described below:

• Media Design – Responsible for designing the task force logo, the project plan cover page, the PowerPoint presentation, and the company portfolio.

• Presenting – Responsible for preparing presentation notes as well as using exceptional oral communication skills to present the company portfolio.

• Planning – Responsible for scheduling deadlines and meetings, as well as bringing required materials to meetings.

• Researching – Responsible for collecting and evaluating information regarding the assigned company. This includes consulting company employees for information, as well as finding company data through the internet and academic journals.

• Writing – Responsible for synthesizing and articulating all discussed and researched information into grammatically correct formal documents.

• Leading – Responsible for keeping the group on task, as well as motivating the members to produce high quality material.

• Proofreading – Responsible for inspecting all group productions for grammatical and mechanical errors.

• Recording – Responsible for recording what is discussed at all group meetings.

• ​

Task Force Meetings

Due to the continuously changing work and athletic schedules of its members, Six-Star Professionals meets on a week-by-week basis rather than a set meeting time every week. These one to two hour meetings occur in the project area near the entrance of North Hall Library.

 

A variety of technology is used to facilitate group meetings. The task force uses the online scheduling application Doodle to coordinate meetings every week. The group messaging app GroupMe is used by members to plan and discuss group work efficiently and effectively. A touch-screen laptop is also used to record discussion information during the meetings.

 

The agenda is prepared by Mikayla prior to each meeting. A special meeting can be requested by any of the task force members in the group chat; special meeting authority is not restrained to just one member. The GroupMe app is used to communicate with all task force members at once, so a contact person is not required for special meeting requests.

​

Consequences of Work Neglect

The Six-Star Professionals task force will operate on a “three strike” policy. If members do not complete the work expected of them, they will first be pulled aside by another member to be given a warning. If the problem continues, the member will be asked to attend a formal meeting with the rest of the task force to discuss the negligent behavior. If the issue is still not resolved by this point, the task force will consider firing the noncontributing group member. The leader, in deliberation with the rest of the task force, will decide whether a group member is doing his or her work.

​

Potential Group Conflicts

Group members could potentially have conflicts about a variety of matters. Members might not agree on the best method to approach a task for the project. Members might also conflict over a responsibility not being accomplished on time, or members not showing up to meetings they said they would attend.

 

Conflict will be handled by thoroughly discussing the issue in person with the members involved and then making a plan to resolve the conflict. Members may need to compromise their ideas of the best method to approach a task in order to develop a method that all members can agree upon. The “three strike” policy may be implemented if the majority of the group believes a member is not accomplishing their responsibilities on time.

​

Relevant Personal Experience

 A number of the task force members have personal experience that will facilitate group communication as well as the construction and presentation of the project. Those members are as follows:

• Ty has completed his Capstone Project within the business department. This case study involved researching a company within a group, as well as presenting the group’s findings to business department faculty and students.

• Fred has group communication skills as well as research skills acquired through oral communication and managerial finance classes.

• Nikki is a member of the Mansfield University Softball team. She and her teammates use well-practiced communication skills to compete against rival teams.

• Mikayla is president of the Phi Beta Lambda business fraternity. She uses small group communication skills to facilitate group productivity.

• Bree has prior experience working with graphic design and portfolio programs, as well as influence skills learned from a salesmanship class.

• Mallory has acquired group communication skills as well as presentation skills through her Public Relations/Organizational Communication major.

Required Tasks

A variety of tasks must be accomplished in order to complete the project. The Six-Star Professionals task force will complete the following tasks:

 

Researching            

Amazon

​

​

Amazon

Journal

Support

​

​

Evaluating

the Research

​

​

 

 

Create the

Portfolio

​

​

​

Presentation

​

​

​

 

 

 

Individual Task Responsibilities

Researching Amazon

               -Fred will be responsible for researching Amazon’s website and media sites to find cultural and factual information about the company.

               -Ty will be responsible for consulting a member of Amazon to understand the company’s cultural and factual information.

               -Mikayla will be responsible for combining Fred and Ty’s findings into a professional company profile. Amazon Journal Support

               -Nikki will be responsible for researching 5 journal articles that provide information regarding Amazon that would be useful to a prospective Amazon employee.

Evaluating the Research

             -Nikki and Fred will be responsible for evaluating the research they have compiled. The evaluations will then be presented to the group for assessment.

               -Mikayla will then compile the research evaluations into a formal document.

Create the Portfolio

               -Bree will be responsible for using digital software to combine the Project Plan, Company Profile, Journal Support, and Evaluation into a professional portfolio.

Presentation

               -Mallory will be responsible for creating a formal PowerPoint presentation that addresses all items in the portfolio. Each member will be responsible for producing their own notes for their individual parts of the presentation. Ty will be responsible for preparing and presenting the introduction, transitions, and conclusion of the formal presentation. The remaining 5 members will each be responsible for presenting one of the 5 pieces of the portfolio: project plan, company portfolio, journal support, evaluation, and supplementary material. If no supplementary sections are included, Ty will prepare and present the introduction and Bree will prepare and present the conclusion.

 

Project Timeline 

​

Sunday October 16th

                Project Plan write up finalized and presented to group

Monday October 17th

                Project Plan turned in for grading

Wednesday October 26th

                Research & Researcher Evaluations Due to group for evaluation

                Group Evaluation of the Sources & research begins

Monday October 31st

                Group evaluation of research finalized

                Making of Portfolio begins

                Making of PowerPoint Begins

Friday November 4th

                Any additional research needed after group evaluation process is done is now due to group

Monday November 7th

                Portfolio is finalized and presented to group

                PowerPoint is finalized and presented to group

                Presentation Planning begins

Wednesday November 9th

                All critiquing from group is due to portfolio and PowerPoint creators

Monday, November 14th

                Any additional work on PowerPoint and Portfolio due to group

                Presentation planning finalized and presented to group

                Group evaluates and critiques presentation

                Preparing for individual presentation parts begins

Wednesday, November 16th

                Portfolio is turned in for grading

Tuesday, November 22nd

                Personal Memo and Peer Evaluations are turned in for grading

 

Phase Descriptions

Project Planning

               Any last minute Project Plan decision making would be done by Friday, October 14th and the plan would be       finalized on Sunday, October 16th and presented to the group for evaluation. The plan would then be turned in for grading on October 17th.

​

Research Phase

               Research is where the group feels the most amount of time needs to be spent, as it is the foundation for the rest of the project. A week and a half has been allocated (Friday, October 14th through Wednesday, October, 26th) for this phase to be completed. After it is completed, it is presented to the group who then has until Monday, October 31st to evaluate it and bring attention to any issues they see. The research team then has until Friday, November 4th to fix any issues that came up.

​

Portfolio & PowerPoint Creation Phase

               These two functions can work side-by-side because neither really involves the other except for the information already given by the research team. A week has been allocated (Monday, October 31st through Monday, November 7th) for this phase to be completed. Once completed, they are presented to the group who then has until Wednesday, November 9th to critique them and give their feedback. The Portfolio & PowerPoint teams then have until Monday, November 14th to fix anything that needs it.

​

Presentation Planning Phase

               Finally, we have the presentation phase.  A week has been allocated (Monday, November 7th through Monday, November 14th) for this phase to be completed. It is then presented to the group who then begins working on preparing for each person’s individual parts. Any issues that come up can be addressed to the Presentation team during this time as well.