Country Assignment for David Cohen for WOOD 120 (25% of Final Grade)

Country Briefing Assignment for Wood 120 2014 Country Assignment for David Cohen for WOOD 120 (25% of final grade) The Assignment The Federal government has hired your consulting firm (represented by your group) as one of eleven consulting firms who will each present a different country briefing to a group of newly hired Federal bureaucrats. This represents a great opportunity to your firm since your performance, both in your oral presentation and your briefing note, could provide lucrative work with the government far into the future. You only have a few pages and a short time to make a memorable impression. Who is the audience? The target audience is a group of young multicultural Federal bureaucrats with only a few years of work in the government. They hold undergraduate University degrees and have applied for positions as trade representatives in Embassies abroad. They require some knowledge of wood products trade since wood products are one of Canada’s major exports. This group has no previous background or education in wood products or international trade. However, as part of their preparation they have just completed a short course on Forestry and the taxonomy of wood products presented by the amazing Dr. Simon Ellis from UBC. What is required? You have to make a short presentation (a maximum 3 minutes for each person in the group) and a short briefing note (3 pages not including cover page or appendices) on a country. Below are the specific parameters of each of these two requirements A) Oral Presentation (1/2 of grade) on either Thursday Nov. 6 or 13, 2014 1. Each group will have a maximum of 12 minutes (15 minutes for groups of 5) and a minimum of 10 minutes (12.5 minutes for groups of 5) to present relevant information on a country anywhere in the world. There is a 10% penalty for each minute over/under the allotted time. Please provide a brief background to the country, an overview of its governance and economy, describe its forests and its forest products industry and discuss its role in production, exports and/or imports of forest products in a global context. There should be some specific reference to Canada: as potential competitor, market, and supplier or if they are irrelevant to Canada. Each group should answer questions after their presentation. Make sure to tell a simple but compelling story.

1. Each person in each group must speak during the oral presentation (with approximately equal time for each person). Professionalism is essential, both in your PowerPoint presentation as well as your dress and actions. Remember you are not students but consultants and be sure to target your presentation towards your specific audience.

B) Written Report (1/2 of grade) ELECTRONIC draft of final briefing due Nov 3, returned by Nov. 7 and resubmitted by November 21. 1. The grade for this portion is based on 60% for the rough draft and 40% for the final briefing note. 2. The written report is a briefing note that is a maximum of 3 pages using headings, point form, graphs and tables (if appropriate). You can also include a cover page and if you want a maximum of a 2 page appendix of tables, figures or photos that you MUST refer to in the report.

Evaluation for Wood 120 Country Presentation and Briefing Note page 1/5 Country Briefing Assignment for Wood 120 2014 3. Please use endnotes to indicate the source for ALL information used in the briefing note. Please use the APA reference style http://wiki.ubc.ca/images/6/6f/Apastyle.pdf If you have never used citations/references see http://wiki.ubc.ca/Library:How_to_Cite_Sources#Start Keep the points short and relevant. Each page should have headers and/or footers that include title, authors, date and other relevant information. Think about what your audience needs to know and how to present it so they can remember it. The key is in picking the relevant information NOT cramming as much in as possible. The challenge is to keep it short, focussed and relevant.

TEAMS Nov 6 or 13 Country A Graham Bailey, Declan Kelly, Huaqing Zheng, Kathy Bi, Tommy Ma B Ben McKinnon, Lara Damen, Derrick Yu, Ryan Foong C Alex Boulay, James Fan, Joseph Kim, Dani Camacho D Maxwell Kelsch, Victor Cai, Lukie Leung, MichaelPang E Karim Munaf, Rhys Godin, Megan Chua, Congbin Jin F Paul Smith, Danting (Eilin) He, Brandon Ling, Kevin Wang G Kevin Chan, Nick Hindley, Chenxi (Cissy) Lu, Zi Min (Simon) Yang H Brogan Cram, Yun (Lillian) Cen, Andrew Ho, Bevan Yau I Jaime Millan, Wei (Rina) Li, Sam Clark, Chris Marginson

EXAMPLES OF POSSIBLE COUNTRIES Russian Far East, Western Russia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, France, UK, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, SE USA, PNW of USA, Alberta, Quebec, Atlantic Canada, Brazil, Chile, Papua New Guinea, Turkey and any other you may think of.

Evaluation for Wood 120 Country Presentation and Briefing Note page 2/5 Country Briefing Assignment for Wood 120 2014

GRADING

Below are the rubrics by which this assignment will be graded. Please look at these BEFORE you prepare your assignment. Each person in the group may not necessarily receive the same grade.

GRADING RUBRIC FOR ORAL PRESENTATION

Poor Excellent Oral Presentation (1/3 of grade)

Voice (clarity, timing, enunciation, language, volume, etc.) 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 Professionalism (dress, manner, word selection, etc.) 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 Non verbal communication (eye contact, body language, etc.) 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 Visuals were creative, engaging but not distracting, etc. 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10

Organization & Content (1/3 of grade) Talks had flow (introduction, body and close) 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 Good teamwork –transitions, themes, 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 Quantity and quality well targeted to audience 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 Complimentary content in visuals and talk 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10

Targeting and General Impression (1/3 of grade) Style, content & visuals targeted towards audience. 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 Talk was right length & targeted key points. DO NOT GO OVER 12 MINUTES (15 for groups of 5) 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 General impression of story in presentation 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10

NOTE: There will be a 10% penalty for each minute below 10 minutes and each minute over 12 minutes for groups of 4 and 13 and 15 minutes for groups of 5.

GRADING RUBRIC FOR WRITTEN BRIEFING NOTE Outstanding 90% to All spelling & grammar correct; Very professional looking with 100% headers, footers, and page numbers. There is an engaging mix of formats (e.g. point form, paragraphs, tables, photos and/or figures). Material is easily accessible and not crammed into 3 pages. The note is visually appealing with sufficient white space and is not wordy or filled with too many numbers. Key points are salient and well selected. There is good flow and story line. Both the content and appearance are targeted and unfold in an engaging story line. Very Good 80% to A few minor typos or spelling errors; professional looking with a 90% good use of headers, footers and page numbers. There is a mix of formats (e.g. point form, paragraphs, table, photos and figures). Material is easily to follow with a good visual appearance. The content could be improved e.g. missing some relevant information or a bit too much detail, or irrelevant information for target audience. There is a story but it is not simple and clear. Good 70% to A few spelling &/or grammar errors; professional looking with use of 80% headers, footers, page numbers, and some mix of formats; Material does not flow well and the appearance could be improved e.g. somewhat crammed, too much white space, or only one type of presentation (e.g. just written paragraphs), etc. The content is not quite right e.g. too much detail, not enough information, incorrect information, etc. There is some flow and a story line. Adequate 60% to A few spelling &/or grammar errors; minimally professional looking 70% despite the use of some headers, footers, page numbers, and some mix of formats; Material is difficult to follow. Little flow or story line Minimal 50% to The report has some spelling and grammatical errors, is not 60% professionally looking and is difficult to follow. A good attempt but badly executed Poor below Too many spelling and grammatical errors; not professionally looking 50% and difficult to follow; Little apparent effort to provide proper briefing note.

VERY IMPORTANT One of the great problems with group assignment is the free ride, the member who contributes but not very much. Thus for this assignment not every person will necessarily get the same grade. Individual grades are adjusted based on their contribution to the team effort. After completing the assignment each student should email me a contribution table (in Excel format) based on the level of contribution for each team member for the entire assignment, please do not separate the oral and written portion. See below for example.

contribution Elvis 35 Obama 25 Alphonse 20 Me 20 Total 100

Evaluation for Wood 120 Country Presentation and Briefing Note page 5/5