I was not able to attend the challenge announcement because
of my class schedule, so my knowledge of it is spotty at best. Luckily, Ian was able to fill me in on the
overarching goal of the challenge.
(We have the same class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we can catch each
other up if we miss anything.) He
described the challenge as which team could get the most cars, trucks, and
boats donated towards the Goodwill Columbus Auto Auction. Then, based on the info gathered from
our iTunesU course, it was told that teams were to be judged on: 1. The number
of cars they were personally accounted for in the auction. 2. The revenue that
those same cars garner. The cars
would have to be received by December 31st and auctioned January 7th
(I believe).
My
first reaction to this challenge was “Ian, do you know what my dad does?” --For those who don’t know, my dad owns
and operates a used car dealership back in my hometown. --> http://remysusedcars.com/.-- I was
pretty ecstatic that my connections, both my grandfathers’ were/are car
dealers, in the auto world could actually come in handy for once. I texted my dad as soon as I could with
the details I knew, while still half-paying attention in class. Ideas about whom I knew and what I
could bring to the table started racing through my head; however, my dad
brought a lot of reality back into my life when he started talking about the
minute details. He wanted to know
how the auction was run, how nice of cars, what type of condition do they need
to be in, how did the titles transfer, tax questions, payment styles, etc. The biggest complication he posed to me
was that not many car dealerships would just give cars away, even to a great
charity like Goodwill
Columbus. Even after all the
little details hit me, I am still super excited for this challenge and want to
hit the ground running as soon as my studies allow me to.
The
skills and strengths that I am going to be able to bring to my club are the
possible connections that I have through my family. I am unaware of anybody else in the BLF juniors having the
inside track that I have, in regards to inside connections. The challenge for me is to be able to
use the resources my dad has, while even connecting with dealers he does not
know, and try to convince them that donating to Goodwill Columbus is something
that each of them should do out of the goodness of their hearts. I understand that outside resources and
alumni not in the auto business will also be valuable, but for me, in
particular, I need to exasperate the dealership world for all the cars they are
worth.
The
skills that I will need to work on through this challenge is my communication
skills to be able to articulate my words and vocabulary in a way that best
represents my group, BLF, OSU, and Goodwill Columbus. I will need to be able to grow my creative skills in
how to actually pull this accomplishment off. Also, I will need to polish off my family skill of bartering
and negotiating in the best interest of my group. In the two years of BLF, there will be no better challenge
for me to test the connections I have.
I feel that my group has the upper hand due to me, and I do not want to
let them down. I guess we will see
how this all plays out in the upcoming months…Let the games begin!
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