Field Notes # 4

I mentioned in my previous assignments how important raising money is to the Face Aids organization, as the HIV/AIDS initiative can not be won with out funding. I feel I can not accurately describe the many activities taking place within this organization through a few short blogs but I will certainly do my best. I say this because, as I have mentioned before, the passion of this group is astounding and I have a flood of emails to prove it. Nothing summed up this group's mentality better than an off-hand comment made by the president, in which he responded to a question saying "seeing as how this group deals with health and makes such a difference in people's lives, you'll find everyone is extremely passionate and not willing to do just an ok job." In the context of the situation I remember feeling the remark to be brazen and off-putting, yet the effect it had on me is one worth noting as it set a certain tone. For me, the comment suggested a particular standard was expected and lazy, flaky, non-committed people need not apply. Perhaps this serves as the reason behind my signing up for over three different fundraising activities with in the group. Unlike many organizations where the leaders typically do the grunt of the work, Face Aids is very much a team effort and relies on the personal involvement of every group. Take for instance the latest Face Aids activity of hosting a dinner party, suggested by a regular member at last week's meeting, one of the three activities I signed up for. With the goal being to raise money, various people signed up to host a party at their place and provide a cheap dinner in which individual members contributed say with the dessert or the side dish, ect. Those of us who signed up to host a party received an email with a letter for us to send our to our friends and family to invite to our party, the goal of course to have as many people attend as possible. Face Aids very much relies on word of mouth as the success of the campaign basically is the result of how much buzz we create to get people to attend. In keeping with our lessons in class, I feel Face Aids most relies on pathos when urging people to become involved; however, in the example email the method most used is logos as citations from experts and authorities. However, ethos is used as well as an entire paragraph is devoted to explaining the purpose and background of Face Aids, by including the year the were established, how much money they have gained in the past and additional sponsorships authority on the topic is established.