Pictures from the PLRB Conference

The girls posing with the bike they built backwards.... the brakes are backwards and so are the shocks! :)

Adjusters helping the Sales girls meet their goal of 20 Bikes.

My supervisor Meagan building a Disney bike for one lucky little girl.

Fawn & Meagan pose with a red bike. Fawn is my direct point of contact these days now that Meagan has been promoted to Business Development Manager.

The girls looking cute on day two of the conference. Meagan, Marisa, Rachelle, Fawn, & Erika.

All the bikes lined up and ready for the give-away ceremony.

At the give-away ceremony with the children from the Boys and Girls Club.

Matt from the Boys & Girls Club explaining a program the children are currently a part of.

Fawn presenting the bikes to the children.

Identify The Problem

Name: Brianna Vasquez
Major: Tourism Development & Management
Internship Site: CRS Temporary Housing
Brief Description of position: Marketing/Communications Intern

IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM: Lack of organization in the Mar/Com pod.

THE CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM: The Mar/Com pod is located directly across the hall from the President of the Company. There are two round tables in the center of the pod that we use as work space for projects and storage for materials. Under the tables are various boxes, flyers, baskets, and random collateral all in disarray.

WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM: This clutter under the desk is not appealing to the eye and makes the Mar/Com department appear unorganized. It is also very distracting and in clear view of the president of the company. The problem is, we need all the materials on the desk and below the desk throughout the day so they need to be accessible.

HOW THIS AFFECTS or DOES NOT AFFECT YOUR POSITION: This directly affects my position because I am the one person who mainly uses the items below the desks. I am frequently trying to organize the boxes and materials but the use of others causes them to become unorganized and cluttered.

THE BEST SOLUTION: I have thought up various ways to create storage under the table using bins and baskets to display the materials in a more organized fashion, which will make the pod, look much cleaner and will make the President of the company much happier.

IMPLEMENTATION: I spoke with the Presidents secretary last week about ordering some sort of organization system below the tables and she mentioned we might be able to custom design a workspace with storage that will be neatly hidden from the Presidents desk. We will be meeting with a designer later next week to discuss the design plans. I am very excited!

ASSESSMENT: Once the organizational storage workspace has been installed I will be in charge of organizing the materials and maintaining the cleanliness of the Mar/Com pod.

PLRB Conference

The sales girls left Sunday for Seattle, WA for the PLRB conference and I was so pleased that everything came together in time for this event. I wish I was able to attend and see everything that I helped create, but the girls have cameras and the new flip video camera with them to document everything. I am so excited to share those with you once I receive them.

The Picture Below:
The girls are at the PLRB Conference and busy working on building 20 bikes in 2 days! While wearing white I might add! :)

I will continue to post pictures as they are sent to me!

CLICK HERE Campaign

I have been working with our VP Fawn on our latest campaign the CLICK HERE campaign the past few weeks and have really enjoyed the experience and the positive feedback I have been getting from everyone involved.

We recently purchased this neat little Flip Video camera and have used it in our latest campaign. The Flip is easy to use and when you are finished filming your video you can pop out the attached USB and load the video directly onto your computer!

The campaign started as a cute little way to introduce our new BDM (my supervisor) Meagan to her territories. Her business card features a photo of her with her long hair before she donated it to Locks of Love. Below is the flier that we used to email to the adjusters and if you click any where on the flier it takes you to the video playing on our website. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to do it on our blog, so instead I posted the flier and the video separately.

Check it out!

Below is Meagan's adorable CLICK HERE Campaign Video. It is rather cheeky!! Meagan, Fawn, & I had a blast coming up with the verbage and filming! I hope you get a little laugh out of it!

20 Bikes in 2 Days

Five girls from our sales team will be attending the PLRB conference in March in Seattle, WA. We were in a meeting three weeks ago brainstorming ideas of how to get adjusters to our booth. We wanted a creative activity or eye catching display that would bring out more adjusters to our booth versus our competitor's booths.

We are celebrating 20 years of service and thought a great theme for this year's booth would be "Celebrating 20 Years of Service" and we decided this would be the year that we gave back. During the two days at the conference, the 5 girls from our sales team will be building 20 bikes to symbolize each of the years we have been a company. We will draw adjusters to our booth by simply asking them to stop over and help us build a bike.

We sent out a mass email to our adjusters with the subject line: Will you be there? And the body of the email simply stated: "Will you be at the PLRB conference in Seattle, WA on March 23rd & March 24th. If so, stop by our booth and help us with our heart warming activity." Right away we had many responses from people saying they were coming, but more so, they were curious to know what our "heart warming" activity was going to be. This planted the seed and helps Market our booth!

At the end of the two days we will be donating the 20 bikes to local underprivileged children. The day following the close of the conference we wanted some sort of bike give away ceremony where we present the bikes to the children. This is where I stepped in. It was my job to source the children we would be donating the bikes to and to plan some sort of short give away ceremony on Wed. March 25th.

I searched high and low and left many un-returned voice mails and finally got in touch with M.W. at the downtown Seattle Boys and Girls Club. After communicating for over a week we came up with the 20 kids from two nearby Clubs that we will be building the bikes for.

Boys 13-16 yrs: 6 bikes total
Girls 13-16 yrs: 4 bikes total
Boy 12-13 yrs: 1 bike total
Girl 12-13 yrs: 1 bike total
Boy 10 yrs: 1 bike total
Girl 10 yrs: 1 bike total
Boy 8 yrs: 1 bike total
Girl 8 yrs: 1 bike total
Boy 6 yrs: 2 bikes total
Girl 6 yrs: 2 bikes total

Total bikes: 20

Next, using the ages and gender of the children I had to source the bikes. We wanted to be sure that the bikes we purchased we not already assembled and we needed to figure out how to get 20 un-assembled bikes to the conference. Unfortunately, we cannot have them delivered to the meeting space because there are very specific rules and fees when it comes to booth supplies. So instead we purchased the bikes from Wal-Mart.com and ordered them "site to store" which means we basically bought them online and we are having them delivered to the Wal-Mart closest to our hotel in Seattle. We can then arrive at the "site to store" area in the Wal-Mart and pick up our already purchased bikes. :)

Next I had to source a place to hold the bike give away ceremony. I could not do it where the PLRB conference is taking place, so I called the Catering and Event Planning Department at the Seattle Sheraton where we will be staying in Seattle. M.W. from Boys and Girls Club will be bringing ten of the twenty children to the ceremony so our sales girls can present them with the bikes.

I have been a busy busy BUSY girl these past few weeks playing phone tag and researching and requesting permission for purchase along the way, but as of Monday everything has fallen into place and I am SUPER EXCITED!!!

I cannot wait to see pictures of the event (since I will not be able to attend) and of course I will be posting pictures upon their return from Seattle!

Sample Collateral

Here is a picture of the sample table set-up for one of our Unit Meetings. This is standard collateral that the Sales team requests from me and brings with them to a typical unit meeting.
Red/Silver pen, Mouse pad, & magnet placed on top of a Presentation Packet. Going green mailer, No-Foreclosure Mailer, & laminated team flyer all paper cliped together with a CRS paper clip.

I'll post more pictures soon of our new collateral! :)

Companies to Watch

CRS Temporary Housing Recognized as One of Arizona’s Companies to Watch in 2008

Phoenix, Ariz.- Temporary Housing leaders, CRS Temporary Housing was recognized November 11 by Comerica Bank and the Arizona Small Business Association as one of Arizona’s 50 companies to watch in 2008. CRS Temporary Housing was honored with the Customer Service award for excellence and was featured in the November/December issue of bizAZ Magazine and The Arizona Republic.

Comerica Bank Arizona Companies to Watch honors 50 high-performing second-stage companies from across the state of Arizona for their achievements and contributions to the region’s economy. The selection process was based upon second-stage Arizona-based companies that generate new jobs and sustain business growth through company culture, customer service, community involvement, change and innovation as well as commerce.
For more information visit www.crstemphousing.com or call 800.968.0848.

The girl third from the left is Meagan my Supervisor! :)