COM220 Cruises to Success

by Jessica Friel
Published in The Point Weekly, November 17, 2003

The boat docked in Mission Bay on Friday night may have looked effortlessly beautiful, but it took three months of planning and hard work from professor Kathleen Czech's COM220 Small Group Communication course to get this event out to sea.

After dividing the class into five groups consisting of human resources, advertising, marketing, production, research and development, each team set out to put on Moonlight Masquerade, a semi-formal bay cruise complete with dinner and entertainment, as part of a requirement for COM220.

The group decided to call itself Paddlewheel Productions and set forth to face a challenge that they met by selling 187 out of the 200 tickets they had available for the cruise.

Each team worked on the project during class periods while still having lectures, homework and tests.  Each item was voted on before any final decisions were made.

"The purpose was to create an organization and have it create a project or event," said Kim Davis, senior societal communications major and member of the human resources team.

Each student was responsible for fundraising $75 out of the $9,500 it took to put on the event.  Students accomplished this by calling alumni and having a booth at Samedi Gras.  Their individual fundraising efforts brought the ticket price down from about $75 to $40 per person.

After a minor setback in ticket sales because of the recent fires in San Diego, the group decided to step up its marketing campaign in order to get more students involved.

"We would go door to door at all the dorms," said Davis. "We went from about 15 tickets being sold to 180 in a short amount of time."

The group also marketed the cruise as a unique event to PLNU students.

"We wanted to offer students at Point Loma something they wouldn't forget," said Jason Sweet, senior management and organizational communication major.  "Seeing what came out of the hard work and stress made it a success."

Kristina Hastings, junior management and organizational communication major, was the board member of the research and development team and the direct contact for the Bahia Resort Hotel, where the cruise boat was docked.  "With all the expenses we didn't make a profit," said Hastings.  "But we really weren't out to make a profit, just looking to put on a fun event."

The night started at 6:30 pm when guests first started to arrive and lasted until 12:00 am after making a trip around the bay.  The event was complete with hors d'oeuvres, a four-course dinner, a dry bar, and a DJ from San Diego's Channel 93.3 FM.

Kate Duffy, senior literature major, attended the event and enjoyed her experience.  "It was a lot more fun than I expected," said Duffy.  "It was a lot of fun to get dressed up and the boat was amazing."

The students of COM220 appeared to be pleased with the outcome of Moonlight Masquerade and that all their time and hard work paid off.

I couldn't believe everything went well," said Davis.  "Everyone was really excited about how well it went."