October Update

Despite the lack of updates since the end of August, we've been keeping busy!

Sector Survey

All of our survey responses have been inputted and we have spent some time analyzing our data. We have also been working on a summary of our findings to include in a preliminary report that will be shared with the project coordinators. It is expected that they will be sharing this report with some select few agricultural professionals for feedback. So far, the results are looking very promising and a lot of our respondents have shown support for the centre and/or given us a lot of good suggestions!

Student Survey

In order to increase the number of respondents for our student survey, we have also been working on a PowerPoint presentation to sum up our entire research process (from May until now). This presentation will take place on October 11th from 11:30-1pm in an Agricultural Communications class at the University of Guelph. We will be including some preliminary findings from the sector interviews to help students better understand the concept of the proposed centre as well as the importance of their responses. Involvement from both the students and the sector will be necessary to establish the proposed communications centre, and it will not be deemed feasible if the sector shows enthusiasm for the concept but none of the students at the university will work at the centre! More importantly, we need more responses in order to get a representative view of the centre from students' perspective. The results will be equally disappointing if we are only getting responses from a small sample of students who are biased in any respect.

So... STUDENTS! PLEASE FILL OUT OUR SURVEY, WE WANT YOUR INPUT AND SUGGESTIONS!! E-mail us at acestudy@uoguelph.ca for a link to the online survey. It will take no more than 10-15 minutes of your time to complete! Responses are completely anonymous and confidential.

Hopefully, with our next update, we would know the feasibility of the centre and be well on our way to writing a business plan!