Journal #1
May 7–18
64 hours (32 hrs/week)
The first week was mainly used for getting to know the work place, the people, and the Mackinac State Historic Parks. The first day, Mr. Miller toured me around four of the six sites that is under his management. He introduced me to many of the key people who work in the office and interpreters (costumed people in the sites) who would be of help throughout the season. On Wednesday (Day 2) Mr. Miller was out of office and my task was to go more in depth into visiting each of the MSHP sites and give myself a tour as well as take photos. I was only able to get to three of the sites with my individual tour but I took a lot of photos! The rest of the week was mainly settling in and going through formalities in the office. We also began discussing projects that Mr. Miller was looking to complete this summer, and it is a lot for three months. I also sat in on a meeting discussing the upcoming event “Fort2Fort” and see what goes into a parks system organizing a semi-large scale event. On May 11th, I took photos for the newer event “Fort2Fort”, a race that MSHP hosts in collaboration with Run Mackinac and later used the race for newsletter content. I also met one of the two interns for the Island newspaper who we collaborate with on content.
Week two was still settling in sort of deal. We continued to tour sites and work on getting photographs and materials for me to write the biweekly employee newsletter “The Current.” A majority of what I worked on during week two was the newsletter, and occasional photography. We also attended meetings together with both the MSHP staff, and different media outlets that came to visit the fort. I also was able to sit in on a meeting with an mlive representative that handles MSHP analytics for their website and advertising content. I was able to see what goes into making the parks have revenue through media. We discussed paid search and also organic searches for the parks’ website and keywords. During the second week I also looked more into possibly creating a Snapchat filter and what it would cost to reach the locations we prefer. I also worked on and completed one press release for our Memorial Day Observance.
Journal #2
May 19–June 1
64 hours (32 hrs/week)
Week three was full of more learning and meetings. I had nearly completed 12/14 press releases Mr. Miller had requested to be done sporadically through June. All completed before their designated due dates. He said the ones he has gone through thus far have been well written and there has been fewer edits on each once after learning more about the voice he likes to portray and what he looks for in each release. Some of his thought process behind press releases contradicts what I have learned at EMU; however, they make enough sense for the events he is promoting with them. Some releases have been longer, some have been very short, but his philosophy is to write a press release for every event to at least get the word out there. We had our weekly staff meeting on Wednesday which gave me a glimpse into how each position plays a key role in all of the others. It highlighted the flow of work through the office and how if one person isn’t on the ball, it causes the rest of the chain to become discombobulated. I also met the second intern for the Island newspaper that we collaborate with on content.
Week four involved the Memorial Day Observance. The office is closed on Memorial Day, however, there is a Memorial Day ceremony that happens at the Post Cemetery where soldiers from Fort Mackinac lay. Mr. Miller asked me to take pictures of the event to use for future promotion and social media. After the observance I went home and continued working on the newsletter to be distributed at the end of the week. My cover page story was about the Memorial Day Observance. The rest of the week I continued to work on press releases and taking notes on a bigger video project that we have coming up. We have decided to redo all of the “commercials” for each of our sites. They are outdated by 10 years and have information that is no longer relevant. I transcribed the old videos to potentially use some of the script structure and took notes on what we need to add into the new script. I also began shooting b-roll and footage for the new videos. We had another weekly meeting on Wednesday where I reported that I had gotten ahead of press releases and have began writing on events that will occur after the completion of my internship and that Mr. Miller and I have taken on a new project. I also stopped at the archaeological dig site and spoke more with the curator of archaeology to understand more about the digging that happen at Colonial Michilimackinac.
Journal #3
June 2–June 15
64 hours (32 hrs/week)
Week 5 was a typical week for us. On Tuesday I attended MSHP orientation for the first half of the day to learn more about the “Visitor First” policy with guests and about the parks themselves. A couple of the days, Dominick sent me out on my own to collect video footage for the upcoming commercial videos we are going to re-make. I am continuing to manage the instagram daily to promote the parks. Instagram is an interesting tool with the parks. Since it is a business account, we can see how many interactions and how many people the posts are reaching, and it is amazing how many people see it, versus how many people actually interact with the posts. I worked on the employee newsletter that will be going on next Thursday/Friday. My cover story will be the opening of the new Botanical Trail on Mackinac Island. I have also been working on adjusting and writing press releases for different events.
Week 6 we are continuing to work on gathering footage for our commercials. The weather has been crappy so it is difficult to get enough nice days to shoot video that looks clean and warm to promote the sites. Tuesday, we hosted a Make-A-Wish for a canon firing and tour of the fort, this was an awesome experience to be a part of that. I also continued capturing footage for the Fort Mackinac video. I worked on the newsletter on Wednesday after our meeting along with completing a couple more press releases that needed to be sent out. We also had the Botanical Trail opening ceremony in the evening where I took pictures and assisted. Thursday we worked on various tasks and also did some volunteering with the tourism bureau that my supervisor serves on, which was a really good networking event.
Journal #4
June 16–29
64 hours (32 hrs/week)
Week 7 consisted of our typical work week. Working on press releases and more content for social media and promotional work. On Wednesday, June 19, Mackinac State Historic Parks held its 10th annual juried art exhibition at the Richard and Jane Manoogian Art Museum. The ceremony was shorter. Like a lot of the Mackinac events, it began with a cocktail hour, and then lead into awards and socializing. The weekend of the 22–23, we hosted and promoted the Civil War Reenactment weekend. It was an interesting event, outside interpreters came into the fort, and camped out behind Fort Mackinac. It was a good learning experience when it came to watching the executive staff in charge of the interpreters dealing with the interpretive guests taking advantage of their privileges. On June 22, there was a Mackinac Associates event in a cottage on the West Bluff of Mackinac Island. The gathering was to celebrate Gov. G. Mennen Williams and had nearly 215 guests. Naturally, this was a cocktail event, and I was assigned to take pictures. I also got to meet Gov. Gretchen Whitmer!
Week 8, we started working on the archaeology video series to put online. We also started putting together the next one for the following week. We continued to work on short clips to put online, along with continuing working on the content for upcoming videos.
Journal #5
June 30–July 13
64 hours (32 hrs/week)
Week 9 we geared up for the 4th of July event on Thursday. We continued working on press releases and videos. On Wednesday, we had a unit meeting and then had a meeting following to talk about next year’s 125 year anniversary of the Mackinac Island State Park. Monday and Tuesday we were brainstorming ideas on what type of events to have and marketing tactics for the themed year. The 4th of July was crazy busy. Our numbers have been interesting to analyze. When it came to the “American Picnic” event, nearly 1,000 attendance compared to the previous year (closer to 800). Lately we have been trying to solve the mystery of how to get attendance up at Michilimackinac in the city. Fort Mackinac’s numbers have been up, and my supervisor puts the least amount of funding into the location. A majority of his budget is advertising for the two weakest sites, Michilimackinac and Historic Mill Creek Discovery Park. My supervisor has asked those who work mainly in the mainland sites to help brainstorm a solution, to get the numbers up.
Week 10 was focused on creating and continuing content production for social media and YouTube.
Journal #6
July 14–July 27
64 hours (32 hrs/week)
Week 11 was mainly concentrated on creating promotional videos and social media content. We worked on the newsletter I worked on multiple archaeology content videos for Mr. Miller to post to YouTube and potentially Facebook. I have been putting small clips of videos on Instagram to try and steer the audience to YouTube to watch the entire video. We also created a promotional video for our Vintage Base Ball game, which obtained nearly 5,000 views from Thursday–Saturday (game-day) on Facebook. On Saturday, I took photos for the Vintage Base Ball Game. I have been working on going through all the photos I have taken this season and sorting them. A bigger task Mr. Miller asked me to do is take photos of each building and the exhibits inside at each of the sites.
Week 12 has been full of last minute tasks that Mr. Miller wants completed before the end of my internship. Monday I worked on the newsletter and then did some exploring at Mill Creek Discovery Park, where the curator of natural history took us on a more in depth tour about the site and what it has to offer. Tuesday we were in the office all day, I worked further on the newsletter and on miscellaneous commercials that we need to get out for each site.
After the conclusion of my internship, I returned for an extended weekend where I continued to create content for Dominick Miller. I finished up some videos he had asked for, welcomed media at Colonial Michilimackinac, worked a Mackinac Associates annual meeting, and agreed to create a blog post for him to use in the future about a new program that is being built for Fort Mackinac.
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