Starting up a Project with Project 701
-Amanda Fooce
(Defiance, Oh) Are you interesting in becoming a leader in the Defiance College community? Do you want to build up your resume in an area that is particular to your field? Do you notice a need on campus or in the Defiance community that you feel you could tackle with some help? If you said yes to any or all of these questions, then you should consider starting a project through Project 701.
Now hold the phone. How does one start up a project through Project 701? Dava Donaldson, Director of Development, explains the process of starting up a Project 701 project. The first step to developing a project is simple and, if you answered yes to the questions above, is probably halfway done for you already. Create an idea for a project that addresses a need either on campus or in the community and send an email to the Director of Project Development, currently Dava Donaldson (ddonaldson001@defiance.edu). After receiving an email from you about a project idea, they will contact you to set up a meeting. At this meeting they will help you get the ball rolling on your idea and give you an application that you will need to fill out.
The application for all prospective Project 701 projects is formatted in an outline. There are prompts on the application which will help you write a proposal for the project. The proposal should include aspects such as the need that the project is addressing, the resources and funds the project will need, and any community partners that could your project could potentially work with to meet the goals of the project.
During the process of the writing the application, there will be frequent meetings between the prospective managers of the project and the Director of Project Development. The Director of Project Development will help you sort out logistical issues, help create networking for your project and in general help out with the application process.
When the application is complete, the Director of Project Development will forward the draft of the proposal on to the CEO, CFO, and Director of Project Support to suggest any revisions to the proposal. The steps are then repeated until all of these people, including yourself, feel that you have a solid proposal that is ready to be sent onto the next step of the application process.
In this step, you will present your proposal to the Project 701 Board and they will decide whether or not to give your project preliminary approval. If the project gets preliminary approval, there will be another meeting with the Director of Project Development to discuss any concerns that the Project 701 Board had with your project. Your proposal will need to be revised to address the concerns of the Board and will then be sent for review of legal and financial risks. Once it has passed that review, your project will need to go back to the Project 701 Board for final approval. After it is past this point, your project will be fully operational and ready to go!
If questioning if all the work is worth it, just ask one of the many current project managers! Now that you have the idea for a project and know how to get a Project 701 project started, what are you waiting for? Get on that email and turn that idea into reality!
