MANCHESTER DIVIDED MASTER PLAN

Mackenzie Mance, Brianna Martinez, Brad Newcomer, Erik Russell, and Nick Tirro

Overview:

Manchester Divided is a campus event on Manchester University’s campus. It is designed for

students, faculty and staff to participate together in friendly competition. Our main objectives where to

elicit as much participation as possible, to make sure everyone is aware of the event, and to create

excitement for the future. The event was set up for teams to have five students with one faculty or staff

member on that team. We held the event on the intramural softball fields, the track, and the PERC main

arena. Throughout the event we had multiple mini events that the teams participated in. These events

included (in chronological order): a homerun derby, tug-a-war, a water balloon toss, a relay race, knock

out, and dodge ball. The homerun derby took place on the intramural softball field. The teams picked

three batters, one pitcher, and two shaggers. They were allowed ten swings to try and hit as many

homeruns as they could. The homerun line was exactly 200 feet from home plate. The teams hit tennis

balls with normal bats. The tug-a-war was a randomly-selected tournament style event. During the

water balloon each person partnered up with someone from his or her own team. When a balloon was

caught, only one side of the partners took step back. The relay race took place on the track. We had

four different legs of the races. These were: wheel barrel race, a golf ball on a spoon in the mouth, a

crab walk, and the three-legged race. During knock out, we had two baskets to begin with. Then when

the two lines got smaller, we combined them into one basket. In the lines we staggered the teams so

that one member from a team was next to a member from his or her own team. Dodge ball was set up

like a seeded tournament. During the day, we awarded the first place teams for the events with 5

points, second place with three points, and third place with one points. At the end of the day we

calculated the points and gave the winning team six gift cards to local businesses and a trophy. Our

mission in creating Manchester Divided was to bring faculty and students together in a competitive

event that was enjoyable for all involved. Our values were centered on that concept. One value was to

make the event an opportunity for faculty and students to become more connected. Another was to

make this an event that participants would take pride in and compete in annually.

Marketing:

While planning the event, we knew that we would need a variety of marketing tactics to make

this event as successful as we wanted it to be. In the beginning, we wanted to do as much marketing as

we possibly could. Some strategies that we wanted to execute were sidewalk chalk, flyers, emails, social

media sites, website, and word of mouth. As a group, we did most of the marketing strategies that we

had planned. We had emails sent out to the students and faculty members. One other thing that we

did successfully was sit at lunch and dinner tables advertising the event. One thing to consider for future

years is having signage at the tables to attract attention. The social media sites worked pretty well.

However, we believe starting them sooner may have led to more success. One thing extra that we did

that we did not plan on doing was having one of our members go and discuss our event on the Spartan

Sport Show. Without a doubt, our most successful marketing strategy was the word of mouth. We had

many participants come to our event, because we talked to them about it personally. The email that we

sent to students is attached to the end of the document as object one.

Sponsorship Efforts:

In the beginning, our group hoped to have food donated to us by Chartwells. We wanted to

have a cook out at the end of the event. However, when we contacted Chartwells about the possibility

of this happening, they said they were completely booked for the year. We did have a few sponsors for

the prizes we handed out to the winning team. The three local businesses that donated prizes were

Main View, Sun Tan & Body, and Modern Impressions. They each gave us a gift certificate of some sort

when we contacted them about donations.

Fiscal Information:

Our original budget differed from our actual one greatly. We were planning on getting the

participants bandanas. We believed that this would create team unity and more competition. However,

due to late sign ups we decided not to do this. We also wanted to purchase Gatorade Powder. Since we

received water from the Athletic Training department, we also decided not to do this either. Another

thing that affected our budget was that Coach Dzurick helped us make a trophy so we didn’t have to

purchase one. We originally were planning on spending $123 dollars. We actually ended up spending on

only $34 dollars.

Communications:

In order to make this a successful event, we had to communicate with multiple people. The

person we probably communicated the most was Paula Finton. We had to reserve all of the spaces that

we used for our event through Paula. Another person that we communicated a lot with was Professor

Ryan Hedstrom. We talked to him about the equipment borrowed from MU Intramurals. We also

communicated with Dave Good. He spray painted our line for the homerun derby. One last person we

communicated with for the event was RHA. It let us use the tug-a-war rope. Jacob Sweet also did a wrap

up article about our event for us. It was featured in the Oak Leaves.

$25 $4$2 $30$2 Subway

$85 Pizza Hut$9 El Mez

$123 $34

Manchester Divided Actual Budget

Total Expenses

Expenses:Water Balloons:

Gift Cards:

Gatorade PowderTotal Expenses:

Manchester Divided BudgetExpenses:

TrophyEggs

Water BalloonsBandanas

Risk Management:

Before the event we had a few strategies that we planned on executing for risk management.

Some of these included: create a waiver, alert campus safety of the event, make a code of conduct, and

make sure the venue is safe. If we had practiced our mini events ahead of time, we would have seen

that bare hands are not safe on a track. We ended up having a bunch of participants with torn up hands

from the wheel barrel leg on the track, which was a part of the relay race. Luckily, we had Jen Beer

there. She helped clean peoples’ hands and gave them advice on what to do with their injuries. Instead

of holding the race on the track, in future years it could be in the grassy area in the middle of the track.

Our waiver and code of conduct that is attached at the end of this document as object two.

Operations

Being a campus event, we believed that having the event on a Sunday afternoon would be the

best for the students. We knew that students wouldn’t want to do an event like this on a school night

because of the length. Also we didn’t want to keep professors and faculty members away from their

families or free time during the week. During the week of the event we made sure we had all the

equipment we needed to make the event possible. We also made sure we had the teams set for

Sunday. The day before the event we emailed all of the participants and reminded them of the event.

We stuck to our day of schedule pretty well. One thing we did not see lasting as long as it did was the

home run derby. However, we adjusted to this set back pretty well. Our day of schedule will be attached

at the end as object three.

Evaluation:

After our event was completely over and we tore everything down that day, our group was

pretty happy with the way things turned out for our event. We believed we were prepared and had the

correct signage for participants to know what was happening and where it was happening. One positive

for our event was the fact that everyone stayed for the duration of the event. For us to keep students

there for four hours was a huge success for us. Another positive was the fact that the participants

looked like they were having fun. Even when things weren’t going as planned, such as the hands being

injured, people were still smiling and having fun. One last positive of our event was that we got the

amount of teams that we aimed to get. This showed that our marketing strategies worked.

Despite the positives of our event, we did have some negatives. One negative was the lack of

details with the rules. We saw this present with dodge ball. There were multiple times where having a

set of rules would have alleviated some confusion. Another downfall of our event was that we did not

practice our mini events ahead of time. If we did we would have seen that 200 feet was a little far for

the homerun derby. We would’ve also seen that having the relay race on the track was not a good idea.

One last thing we would change for future years is that we had a lot of lag time between events and

while other teams were awaiting their turn to compete. This may have been boring for a participant. In

order to change this, I would have had music going and something to occupy the down time. We could

have had corn hole or ladder golf for teams that were just waiting around.

Object One:

Object Two:

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Manchester Divided 2014 Participant Waiver

Team Name: p

Manchester Divided is a field day event hosted by the Spring Semester Event Management & Promotion class. It will consist of seven events, including a home-run derby, water balloon toss, a relay race, tug-of-war, knock-out, dodgeball, and a mystery event. I fully understand that these activities are physical and competitive in nature, which comes with the inherent risk of possible injury or even death; for which, I waive all responsibility and/or liability from the student and volunteer staff for the event, my fellow participants, and the institution of Manchester University. Furthermore, I assume all risk associated and/or directly related with my participation in this event, which is my own choice, free of coerciveness or force into doing so. I assert that I am participating in this event of my own free will.

Additionally, I have read and understand the Manchester Divided Code of Conduct as follows:

Manchester Divided is a class-sponsored event in which participants are expected to engage in friendly, sportsmanlike competition. It is expected that participants adhere to the behavioral and moral expectations of the hosting institution of Manchester University by respecting the other participants, the leading and volunteer staff, and themselves. It is also to be understood that the following will not be accepted and will result in possible ejection from the competition and pending forfeit of the team as a whole: excessive profanity, violent or unreasonably physical behavior, fighting, inappropriate name-calling or insults, attempted cheating at the various events in any manner, misuse of supplied equipment, destruction of event facilities, or any other unsportsmanlike conduct that directly interferes with another participant’s safety or enjoyment of the event experience. It is expected that the participants compete, but also help in promoting respect, fair play, and integrity.

I attest that I have read the event liability waiver and the Code of Conduct fully and completely understand the expectations for this event.

Printed Name: Signature:

P

p

p

p

p

p

Object Three:

TIME Events Happening Behind the Scenes12:00 Make sure everything is in place12:30 REGISTRATION Starts12:3512:4012:4512:50 REGISTRATION Ends12:55 GET PEOPLE TOGETHER, GO OVER THE DAY

1:00 Home-Run Derby Starts1:051:10 Erik and Nick setting up water balloons1:151:20 Home Run Derby Ends1:25 Head over to track1:30 Water Balloon Starts1:351:40 Get Tug-a-War Set1:451:50 Water Balloon Toss over1:55 Head over to tug-a-war2:00 Tug-a-War Starts2:002:052:10 Set up Relay Race2:152:20 Tug-A-War Ends2:25 Head over to Relay Race2:30 Relay Race Starts2:35 Set up Knock Out2:402:45 Relay Race Ends2:50 Head into the PERC2:55 Start Knock-Out3:003:05 Get Balls out for dodgeball3:103:15 Knock Out Ends3:20 Dodgeball Starts3:25 Get Music Qued up for Dance Off3:303:353:403:453:503:554:00 Dodgeball Ends4:05 Start Dance-Off 4:104:154:204:25 Dance-Off Ends4:30 Announce Winner and take pictures4:35 Finish Tear Down4:404:454:504:555:00 Leave