College of Business Administration

GROUP MEMBERS:

Lance Lund
Alberto Martinez
Crystal McCune
Clint Oliver
Michelle Tumini
Travis Woolley
Wes De Renouard

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Our group believes the best way to make a social change is to bring smiles to peoples faces. We chose to work with the San Diego Mission Bay Boat and Ski Club Blind Ski program. With working with the Blind Ski program, and with communication among our group, we have attempted to help this program as much as possible. When we met with Colleen McCune, the Blink Ski director, she had specified and prioritized the Blind Ski programs needs and wants to our group. Among these needs and wants were a web page and donations from local businesses to supply an insurance policy for the next event. We also wanted to provide money to acquire new equipment. Although this was not a priority of Colleen’s, our group made it one of our priorities. We started our project by creating a web site for the Blind Ski event with a link that can be connected back and forth to the Boat Clubs web site. Our group worked with their web page designer and produced a website that is corresponding with what she recommended as well as all of the needs and wants that Colleen specified. We organized everything into an easy to use web site that includes lots of helpful information. Our group incorporated a calendar of their future events along with directions on how to get to the boat club and the Blind Ski events, which are held at Hidden Anchorage on Fiesta Island. We included contact information and instructions on how people can get involved in this event. The web page also contains pictures given to us from past events in addition to pictures that we took at their last event in September 2004. Our next task as a group was to raise the already established insurance policy of $750. Unfortunately we were unable to raise all of the money due to certain circumstances. One reason was because most businesses were reluctant to donate money until it was closer to the next event, which will happen in May of 2005. Most businesses that we asked to help, were small local businesses, therefore many of them said they were interested but that they would like to wait until after the holiday season when they could afford the money and time. In addition to raising the insurance money we intended to update some of their outdated equipment. Updating this equipment would have been possible had we had enough money left over from the donations, but since we didn’t we were unable to reach that goal. We realize that this project to date is not as complete as we would have hoped, but that it is a work in progress and will be complete in the near future.

Throughout this course we have learned that there are five decision making principles. Our project coincides with one of these approaches. That approach is Utilitarianism. As defined in “Business Ethics” on page 80, the Utilitarian approach states: 1) An Action is morally right if it produces the greatest good for the greatest number of people affected by it; 2) An Action is morally right if its immediate and future direct and indirect benefits are greatest for each individual and if these benefits outweigh the costs and benefits of the other alternatives. The way we sold our ideas to businesses was based upon this approach. It was our task to explain to businesses how they could be supportive of the Blind Ski program and how it would benefit them simultaneously. For instance, when businesses donate over $100, the Blind Ski program agrees to advertise their business for a whole year in their monthly newsletter and on their website. This was a huge incentive for businesses to donate over $100. By this example you can see that in the long run the benefits will outweigh the costs.

In this course we were also taught that there are four social responsibility roles. The role that corresponds to our project is the Philanthropic approach. As Weiss says on page 91, “Philanthropists, who also have a stockholder view of the corporation, hold that social responsibility is justified in terms of a moral duty toward helping less advantaged members of society through organized, tax-deductible charity and stewardship.” This approach was observed when businesses donated money to causes such as the Blind Ski program, because they are showing their belief that those who have wealth should share some of it with less-advantage people. It was through these two approaches that people were given the opportunity to experience something they would not usually be able to.

This program has been nothing but successful in the past, and with our groups’ assistance it only got better. We’ve realized that it takes longer than a semester to create an ever-lasting change. Although our goal of raising all the money was not met at the time that this project was due, it will be done in the future. The web page will provide the support needed to accumulate more attention on the widespread benefit of this event. The ski club will have the opportunity to serve the community by providing the space and equipment for the event. Local businesses will have the opportunity to provide financial support and in turn have advertising for a year, tax benefits, and reconciliation in the community for helping a good cause. It was through this class that we were able to bring smiles to the faces of others as well as witness the Utilitarian and Philanthropic approaches in action.