The Power of a Team

The best work feels more like fun than tedious labor. It’s a job, but not really. Even when the days run long, it’s a pleasure. So it was with one of my most recent team projects here at Moore Communications Group.

In an office more Garnet and Gold than Orange and Blue, we have had the great fortune of overseeing graphic design, public relations and outreach for a number of special events and annual traditions hosted by the University of Florida Alumni Association. From designing game-day T-shirts to promoting the volunteer projects of International Gator Day, the growing contingent of MCG staffers who chomp instead of chop has been hard at work promoting our alma mater.

The mother of these projects, truly a labor of love, was overseeing the design, copy, editing and production of the 2012 F Book.  Dating back to 1925, the F Book is a living piece of UF history that chronicles in nearly 140 pages the many traditions that have defined the UF and its students throughout the decades.

All incoming freshmen receive the book as a guide to making the most of their time on campus and beyond as alumni. Recently revived since its disappearance in the early 1960s, the F Book is a scrapbook of sorts, allowing students to chronicle their participation in long-running traditions while creating plenty of their own.

The F Book was revived in 2006, seven years after I graduated from UF. So as my colleagues and I pored through the copy and searched many hours for just the right photo to depict the traditions we had so enjoyed as students, it was like stepping back in time. I didn’t get the chance to enjoy the F Book as a student, but here I was not only enjoying it – I was helping to create it for the next generation of UF Gators. When the books were finally printed and arrived in our Tallahassee office here at MCG, my colleagues and I were as giddy as kids on Christmas morning.

Even more, we were proud to have put in so much work to benefit our alma mater.  Our professors and our personal experiences at UF had given us the knowledge and experience to work at a firm as amazing as MCG, and to put that expertise into the F Book was a true case of coming full circle.

We used MCG’s Dynamic Flexible Team© (DFT) model, our proven approach to teamwork that guarantees client satisfaction and results by pairing clients with team members whose skill sets and passions best suit the project needs. In this case, we had three avid Gator alumni skilled in public relations, special event planning and media relations. Patrick Sheffield brought his retail and customer service experience, along with his Gator sports pride; Director Jordan Jacobs, former UF Cheerleader, brought her strong organization skills to oversee the myriad projects and various deadlines; and I brought my strong writing skills, work efficiency and knowledge of UF from having been a higher education reporter. Topping the team off was Justin Smith, our award winning graphic designer whose calm demeanor ensured smooth sailing through multiple tight deadlines. It was, truly, a dream team. The proof is in the results.

The UFAA loved this year’s F Book, and students so far are saying the same. The first group of freshmen has received the books as part of Freshmen Preview sessions that began in Gainesville last month. I feel happy knowing MCG helped provide them with a colorful, vibrant guide to their college years. Go Gators!