Presenting your Project on the Messengers of Peace Platform
The Project The project is a series of actions by you and your team, working in a local community, to change positively life within your community or create harmony within your community. The Project has a series of steps
• Doing a survey of your community • Discovering an action that you can undertake • Planning your action/project • Doing your project • Reviewing your project - what did you learn? • Telling your story of your project to others This tutorial will help you in the last element of the cycle of a project – telling your story of your project to others. The telling of your project stories has the function of inspiring other Scouts by your actions. It also formally records your actions for all to see. Telling about your project is an exercise in storytelling. Telling your story to others. We have all been exposed to storytelling from an early age – verbal stories, story books, Television programmes, films and books. Each of these mediums have a particular style of presentation but all have the key features of a story - a beginning, a middle and an end. In creating your story therefore it should have the basic building blocks-a beginning, a middle and an end or outcome.
The beginning…what was your discovery, why did the project you selected appeal to you. The middle.. what you decided to do, how you went
about it, what plans you made, any special features or mini stories connected with your project.
The outcome….what has happened as a result of your project, how are things better, what effect has it had on you or your team, how has your project made the world a better place to live in. The beginning
The outcome The middle
Images A picture tells a thousand words. •
Pictures are always key to providing an image of your project to the reader. A picture creates interest and draws the attention of the reader.
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Pictures showing your team standing together might be interesting to you but hold no fascination to a viewer of your story, so try to include more interesting pictures as well.
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Pictures ( a series of pictures is always better than a single image) should show your team in action doing your project. They should be clear and it should be easy to see and determine what is going on within the pictures.
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Choose your pictures carefully and only upload your best images.
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To create a series of images that illustrate your story you will need to appoint a photographer on your team early in the process to document the project.
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Pictures can be presented in slide shows if you wish or in video format. •
The length of your story Like writing a story for a newspaper or reporting your story on a news programme it is important that the story is tight and precise. Yes, you will want to tell everyone about every aspect of your project but you must do so in a way that is interesting to the reader. Therefore consider your report as a short interesting story that will interest, hold the attention of the reader and inspire them. A report should be at least 300 words and not more than 600 words.
When preparing images for upload to the platform the ideal picture size is 3:2; thus a picture could for instance be 225x150 pixels. However the most ideal size is 2250x1500 or 1125x750 pixels.
Video Video is a really good idea and we suggest you create a short video of your project lasting no more than 3 minutes. This will require some work and it can consist of still images, live footage and reports. Most videos on Youtube are no longer than 3 minutes and this is the general attention span of a casual viewer of your story. You can of course have more extensive videos available on your own social media page or webpage that a viewer can link to from the project report page. The Messengers of Peace social media communities have links to other scout groups who have made videos and they will help you if you require expertise and knowledge.
The headline The title or headline of your project is very important. This is likely to be the first thing that a viewer to the platform will see and it has to grab the attention of the viewer and entice them to read your report. Keep it short, interesting and perhaps dramatic.
The introduction/summary A short brief description of your project is about 20 – 30 words. This sub heading feature allows the viewer to understand quickly your project action and scope. It should be written last after you have written your whole report. This will make it easier to do as you will know the full context of your story and it will be easier to provide a short introduction as a result.
The project information process When you sign in or log in to the Messengers of Peace Platform and visit your profile page you are presented with a form on which you can list the basic information about your project. This is a recording area of the key details of your project. This information is used to provide the outline profile of your project and appears on the flag area connected to your project pin on the map. You can update this information at any time as your project develops. This basic information is not the story of your project but rather the key information and stats about your project. The story that you write and present at the end of our project is the heart of your project the human interaction, the emotion and the inspiration to others. A project story is uploaded via the project story interface. It provides key fields in which information can be pasted. There are a number of fields that require text to be entered – if it does not contain information in these field your project will not upload to the server….so ensure all information is supplied where required. You will notice a series of upload features to allow you to upload pictures and videos. The number of participants must be entered in the field provided. When a project is uploaded the administration team reviews it. If the project is of particular interest and deemed to be inspiring to others it will be tagged as a featured project and appear near the top of the list of projects submitted and on the front page of the platform site. It should be the aim of all groups to have their project receive a ‘featured tag’. Stories with ‘featured tags’ are more likely to be shared across the internet on other social media sites and pages to inspire others worldwide to action.
The Title or headline announcing your project A short description of your project Enter a number of participants
All projects will be approved by the administration team provided the details of your project are in keeping with Scouting and Messengers of Peace ideals and values. Project texts maybe edited by the administration team to make them easier to read or understand. From time to time the administration team may contact you directly to clarify details or request more information or pictures.
Click ‘Choose files’ to select files for upload
To enable better search functions - choose one or more categories to indicate the area that best describes your project. Place little yellow man on the map to show where your group is or where your project is...... please do not place it on your own street or outside your house.