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TEAM MEMO

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To:  Debbie Oesch-Minor

From: Team Hire Attire: Jullina, Sam, Jacky, Elizabeth

Date:  March 1, 2025

RE:  Team Proposal and Progress on Marketing Events for IUPUI Women4Change

 

The Office of Student Employment at IU Indianapolis is experiencing difficulties when it comes to the Hire Attire program. Keeping inventory, organizational tactics, and accepting donations are issues that the office is struggling to maintain.

 

Our team proposal will contain new inventory strategies, techniques on how to accept donations and proper donation steps, website formatting, and the variety of strategies will be explored in our team proposal. 

 

Community Client: Samantha Brown is the Coordinator of the Hire Attire Program

Samantha Brown is the Coordinator of the Hire Attire Program on the IU Indianapolis campus. She informed the team of the struggles she is facing since taking on the Hire Attire Program. They receive high numbers in drop-in events that the office hosts, but they struggle to keep up inventory with these events. Sam is unsure how to maintain inventory and unsure how to manage the data for inventory, also she is unsure how to properly organize the closet, and her final struggle is not knowing how to properly accept donations. In all, Sam’s struggles with the Hire Attire Program is not having a stable organization and inventory strategies. 

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Project Focus: Developing inventory and organizational strategies

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For The Client

Our team is focusing on organizational and inventory management tactics within thrift stores and other college professional closets. We are also looking at techniques on accepting donations and how to properly display this information on the office websites.

 

For our project, we have found multiple articles that discuss inventory management and organizational strategies for thrift stores. Using this information is beneficial since thrift stores and the Hire Attire Program are similar in values (the difference is the program is a free site and a significantly smaller space). Our team has also found sites that provide information on how to accept donations and promote proper donation strategies that can be used on the office's public website. Then our team viewed other universities that have professional clothing closets that are free for their students. Using the information from these sites, our team is able to find effective inventory management, organizational tactics, and donation strategies.

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Research Objectives and Methods: Using Proquest and Google to Find Our Best Support

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Research Questions:

Our research questions were made by Jullina, she did a great job focusing on the clients needs, the rest of the members asked questions during the initial meeting. These questions were among the following: What has the organization done previously to address the challenge? What are you currently doing to organize the hire attire? What does your inventory look like now, and do you keep track? How do you accept donations? What do you expect our team might find/recommend as we learn more about the issue? What are you wanting to learn? Or specific recommendations you are looking for? Where should we look to find information? What are the stakeholders we should keep in mind as we research/write? (Who will read and act on the report information?) Have you looked into other competitors on how they conduct their donated professional attire? Do you have your own website? 

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Research Online and in Databases:

Resources that our group has looked into, will continue to help us in understanding and expanding our knowledge on what would benefit our client the most, while keeping in mind our needs as well. This also helps in knowing what strategies don’t work so there is no time wasted. Our project being based in retail and college students is helpful since there is so much information that has already been put to good use.

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Our research into clothing donation programs for college student interview attire will continue to help us understand and expand our knowledge of what best serves students' needs. This will also help us identify ineffective strategies, saving time and resources. Analyzing feedback from students who have utilized these resources can highlight areas for improvement, ensuring that the programs are genuinely beneficial. Focusing on retail and college student resources is beneficial because of the wealth of existing information.

 

 

The IUPUI Library Database (EBSCO Academic Search Premier) and Google were great at finding results Some of the terms we will use for our research will include the following:

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• ("free clothing" for interviews) 

• Process of donating to Goodwill

• How to organize small rooms

• How to organize small rooms for retail

• Retail and donations

• Donating free clothes for students

• Free clothes for college students 

• Donating professional attire

• Designing small layouts

• Inventory for small business

• Organizing various sizes of clothes

• closet AND "professional attire" AND inventory

• "handling donations"

• “Professional wardrobe” AND college students

• “Thrift stores”

• How to reject clothes from donations

• Plato’s closet “donation process”

• Plato’s closet rejection slip

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Google searches will provide a broad overview of each term, offering definitions, related concepts, and real-world examples. This will help us understand the context and scope of each topic.  Academic searches, on the other hand, will provide more in-depth, scholarly information, including research papers, articles, and studies. This will allow us to analyze the terms from a more rigorous and evidence-based perspective.

 

 

Responsibilities and Goals

During class time we discussed which tasks each member of the group would be best at tackling and a general idea of what it is we were aiming to achieve with the report. To best communicate as a team, we shared phone numbers and set up a group text. Sam had some issues with this and provided his email as another way to reach him as well. For our work, we set up a Google document that we all had editing access to, allowing us to easily share resources and write up works such as this report together.

 

Communication, research and completing our project

To communicate for assignments and to plan meetings Jullina created a phone group chat after we shared phone numbers with each other. We also provided emails to one another as an alternate form of contact if needed. During one of our classes, we took the time to discuss when we would be meeting with the client and decided on a Tuesday afternoon at the Hire Attire office. We also spoke about the research each of us was doing, sharing the sources and abstracts we’d individually compiled so far with one another. Jullina created a shared Google document, in which all members are able to add notes and make necessary edits. So far nobody has had any issues with missing team meetings or classes; however, everyone has the relevant contact details to manage this if it happens. There will be notes taken for any important meetings regardless of absences, meaning if someone was to be absent; they could at least get a semblance of what they needed to know via the notes.

 

The team is using the aforementioned Google Document to share the materials needed to create the recommendation report. By using the document tabs feature, we’ve been able to put multiple documents in one singular document, having a designated place for notes, our bibliography, and our team memo. All sorts of things relating to meetings are discussed in person and often agreed upon in person; however, meeting information is also stored in the team notes document as well. Julinna has set up the website template, and it will be filled in as we progress through our project.

 

Team Member Strengths: DISC Results and Strong Personal Traits

Our team will flourish because of our diverse strengths and characteristics, where one person may struggle, someone else is able to help, which keeps things balanced. This teamwork will help us stay on track, support each other, and help us reach our goals.

 

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Jullina Sherrick

The first group member, Jullina has a mix of Steadiness (s) and Conscientiousness © traits making them detail oriented and supportive. She is logical, kind, reserved, and methodical making sure everything is done in the right order and in a timely manner. Though she is reserved, her calm and kind traits help make the team feel comfortable and supported. Jullina’s methodical trait helps keep the group focused and on track.

 

Samuel Moore

The second group member, Sam has a mix of Conscientiousness ©, Steadiness (s), and Dominance (D). He is detail oriented, very direct, and is willing to accept difficult challenges. His careful approach to things helps ensure accuracy and prevents the group from making mistakes. With the Dominance trait being the strongest, Sam's leadership skills help the team stay on track.

 

Jackelyn Munoz

The third group member, Jackelyn has a mix of Conscientiousness ©, Steadiness (s), and Dominance (D). She enjoys Independence and is detail oriented. She is careful and is focused on only putting out her best work, Jackelyn also fears being wrong. While she would rather work alone when collaboration is needed she is willing to work with others. Jackelyns focus on putting out her best work and her determination to take on a challenge help the team stay organized and helps them put in more effort as well.

 

Oluwaseun Akanbi

The fourth group member, Elizabeth has a mix of steadiness (s) and Influence (I) traits making them both supportive and collaborative. Although they might not enjoy social interaction. They are kind, helpful, and would rather avoid conflict. Their steadiness helps keep the group cooperative and calm while their influence allows them to motivate others. With patience and optimism Elizabeth helps the team stay focused and work well together.

 

Attendance Policy

• All team members should make their best efforts to attend all class sessions and outside team meetings.

• If one of the team members is unable to attend, they must notify other team members via text or email.

• If absent from a meeting, team members must make an effort to catch up. (Facetime, created gc, etc)

• All assignments must be completed and submitted by the deadline, regardless of attendance 

• Team members who miss a meeting should review meeting notes after class and reach out with any questions.

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Workload Policy

• Each team member is assigned a task

• Must finish task in a timely manner and before due date

• Work must be completed to team members best ability

• If team member is struggling with their section, ask others for assistance

• If a team member is unable to complete their section before due date, make rest of team aware

• Communicate all workload issues

• If workload or productivity issues occur and do not improve, contact Professor Debbie for guidance

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Conflict Issues

• If issues arise, we discuss as a group what the underlying issue is and provide solutions

• Avoid discussing conflict without third party team member present

• If issues cannot be solved within group, contact Professor Debbie

• Communicate all team issues 

 

Conclusion

As a group we believe that the best ways to improve the organization and inventory management of Hire Attire at IUPUI is through structured tracking systems and clear donation guidelines. Previously, the closet served as a space where kids could drop off all types of clothing but now it is designed specifically for professional attire. However, many donations still do not align with their focus creating challenges in maintaining inventory.

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Our team is committed to researching efficient strategies to help Hire Attire properly accept, track, and store work related items. We aim to create a more accessible system that ensures students can get the professional attire they need to succeed in their careers

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If you have any questions or concerns on the project thus far, please contact us via email. Our emails are below:

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jsherri@iu.edu

sjm27@iu.edu

oakanbi@iu.edu

jacmunoz@iu.edu

 

Our team referenced Sophie, Annemarie, Hannah, Lauren. (2020). Team Memo - Women4Change. Wix W231. 

https://scarrison16.wixsite.com/teamwebsite/team-memo

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