2015-2016 Executive Board Meeting
2015-2016 Executive Board Meeting Topic: Date & Time: Place: Items:
Objectives
Motions
Executive Board Meeting 15-12 Thursday, October 8, 2015 8:30 a.m. MSU Boardroom, MUSC 201 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14)
Adopt Agenda Adopt Minutes EB 15-10, EB 15-11 Advocacy Report Elections Report MAC Farmstand Report SCSN Report Spark Report
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17)
Adopt Agenda Adopt Minutes Report Report Report Report Report
Provide Information & Answer Questions Unfinished/Other Business Time of Next Meeting and Motion to Adjourn
Christine Yachouh Priya Gupta Jonathon Patterson Daymon Oliveros Michael Gill
Executive Board Meeting 15-12 Thursday, October 8, 2015 @ 8:30am MSU Boardroom, MUSC room 201 Called to Order 8:43am Present D’Angela, D’Souza, Guarna, Ibe, Nestico-Semianiw, Osazuwa, Stegmaier Late Gillis Absent Others Present J. McGowan (General Manager), V. Scott (Recording Secretary), S. Nadarajah (SRA member), Helen Zhang (DRO), Michael Gill (Spark Coordinator) 1.
Adopt Agenda
Moved by Nestico-Semianiw, seconded by D’Souza that the Executive Board adopt the agenda, as presented. Amendment Guarna – strike Business Items #3 and 5 from the agenda Moved by Nestico-Semianiw, seconded by D’Souza that the Executive Board adopt the agenda, as amended. Passes Unanimously 2.
Adopt Minutes
Moved by Stegmaier, seconded by D’Souza that the Executive Board adopt the minutes from Executive Board meetings 15-10 – September 24, 2015 and 15-11 – October 1, 2015, as circulated. In Favour: 5 Opposed: 0 Abstentions: 2 Motion Passes 2.
Elections Report – Zhang presented
Zhang summarized the report
Questions D’Angela stated that if there were any challenges to the rules to please let them know so that they can support the dept. Nestico-Semianiw asked if they were talking to the faculty societies so that they are aware of everything. Zhang responded that it was not their responsibility to make that effort. She explained that they just change things on their end and reinforce it on the website and through email. Gillis arrived at 8:49am 3.
SCSN Report – attached
4.
Spark – Michael Gill presented
Gill summarized the report.
D’Souza and Guarna left at 8:54am
EB 15-12
October 8, 2015
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Questions McGowan asked if the academic success workshops are similar to SSC, or if they have a different perspective. Gill responded that it was different, as their workshops have three different sessions with smaller groups of students. Ibe asked what the difference was between an average MSU member and someone registered with spark. Gill responded that the workshops are separate from the weekly programs and everyone is welcome. Nestico-Semianiw asked if there were any leaders not enjoying the roles as much as they thought they would. He asked if there were any ideas for engagement. Gill responded that it was a great concern. He explained that they will be having ‘one on one’ sessions with teams, but also that he approaches them if they aren’t enjoying it. Gill added that engagement is over and above. Osazuwa asked if there was any programming that overlapped with spark and the workshops. Gill responded that there are different activities, and while there may be overlap with theory there isn’t repetition. D’Angela pointed out that if spark needed more for their promotions budget that it would have to come to EB to be allocated. 5.
Information and Question Period
6.
McGowan reported that the University portal for event management has been down, so they’ve been working on that for Clubs. He explained that it was promised that it would be up by yesterday, but some still cannot access it. McGowan reported that the Board of Directors have been talking about some structural changes within the organization for help with pt services, HR, clubs, and training and development. McGowan reported that they have replaced 152 HSR cards, and have cut the first cheque for that. D’Angela reported that the Budget Town Hall will be October 27 from 4-6pm in Council Chambers. He explained that this was for students to know where their money is going. He asked if the Board knew any students who would be interested in forming a working group about the MSU Bursary to let him know. Ibe asked if there was promotion for the Town Hall. D’Angela responded that there was. Nestico-Semianiw reported that today is the debate for Mac Votes in the MUSC Atrium, 12-3. Ibe reported that he has been having conversations with the Librarians and trying to have Innis Library open for longer. Osazuwa reported that he’s still working with the President of the University on the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Wooder reported that Mac Votes is going strong, and that Nestico-Semianiw was on CBC yesterday promoting it. Wooder gave props to Nestico-Semianiw and the Advocacy Team on the election outreach campaign. Adjournment and Time of Next Meeting
Time of Next Meeting: Thursday, October 22, 2015 8:30am MSU Boardroom, MUSC 201 Adjourned at 9:12am
/vs
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REPORT From the office of the…
Elections Department TO: FROM: SUBJECT: DATE:
Members of the Executive Board Priya Gupta, CRO Elections Department Report 2 October 8, 2015
SERVICE USAGE With the end of September we finished our first Election of the year which was for First Year Council. We had a total of 13 candidates running (compared to 11 last year) and a 20.5% voter turnout (compared to 13.6% last year). Both figures have increased since the 2014 FYC election, which we are very pleased with. Moreover the Elections Department ran five external elections in September for a variety of faculty and residence societies. PAST EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES The logo design has been sent back for its second round of edits. We are working with Michael Wooder and Underground on this and we are hoping to have a new logo in time to debut for Presidential Elections in January. We also ran a series of Election Fairs in residence during the third week of September. We ran them in Les Prince and Moulton with IRC. While we did not see as much participation as we had hoped, the students that did attend found great value in the events. UPCOMING EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES Our next big event is Elections 101 which will be held in TwelveEighty on Thursday October 8. Our goal for this event is to teach students about the process of running in an MSU election and to encourage them to specifically run for SRA By-Elections and Presidential Elections which will be happening later in the year. On a similar note, nominations for SRA By-Elecitons will be opening on October 19th and will close on the 23rd. BUDGET Running promotions and renting the venue for Elections 101 has cost approximately $100 and $500 respectively. As well, the cost for the new logo design has been around $200. The logo has not yet been finalized, so there may be further costs associated with this project. Finally, with the changes to By-law 10/10A there will now be reimbursements for every election including First Year Council. These reimbursements have yet to be submitted but will be in the next week or so. External elections will have an expected revenue of $500 once all societies pay. Page 1 of 2
VOLUNTEERS There have been no significant changes with Elections Committee. We met once more on September 30, 2015 for the FYC fines meeting. A deadline for EC to drop and run for President/be in a campaign team has been set for October 29, 2015. This allows them ample time to consider their options, as well will maintain a full council for the October By-Elections fines meet. CURRENT CHALLENGES The only challenge we are currently facing is having faculty elections give us ample time to submit their requests for using our service. Despite saying that we need 2 weeks in advance for all of our elections, we still get societies requesting for elections and not giving us 2 weeks notice. We have had to reject a few socities because of their lack of notice. SUCCESSES At the SRA meeting on September 27, 2015 the changes to By-law 10/10A was passed. This officially allows for the Elections Department to provide reimbusements for all Elections in accordance with the 10% rule. We have also improved on the number of candidates running for FYC and the voter turnout which is promising for the year ahead!
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REPORT From the office of the…
Student Community Support Network TO: FROM: SUBJECT: DATE:
Members of the Executive Board Daymon Oliveros SCSN Report #4 Thursday, October 8, 2015
UPDATE Since our last report, we've had numerous calls sent in to us by Aidan Johnson's office regarding complaints about Homecoming festivities. All have been responded to and we're working on figuring out a meeting time between relevant stakeholders. We also launched our Fall Passport initiative at Homecoming Expo. It's been a rocky start through promoting it via social media, but that can now begin now that we've gotten permission from The Silhouette to use their newspaper racks to distribute the passports. SERVICE USAGE After Homecoming Weekend, we had a few calls related to festivities hosted by McMaster students. A few Westdale residents complained so we sent CAs to speak with these students and followed up with the Ward 1 office, as well as the residents themselves. Due to these events, the City of Hamilton would like to call a meeting between MSU, the University, the City of Hamilton, and Hamilton Police Services about student behaviour. There's no set date, but it's looking to be near the end of October. Myself and Ehima will be attending. PAST EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES At our Homecoming Expo, we did a Hamilton trivia station to promote both our service and the City of Hamilton. Tourism Hamilton gave us free buttons, erasers, and guides for giveaways which we gave to students. Also at the Homecoming Expo, we also launched our Fall Passport contest. Students will have a chance to win a $100 gift card to Earth To Table: Bread Bar if they take pictures with this passport, at certain locations in Hamilton and send the picture to our Twitter. The contest hashtag is #FallingForHamilton and it closes on October 31st at 11:59PM. UPCOMING EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES The Student Housing Campaign will be launching on November 1st and will run over the course of a month. We chose the month of November because it's typically a time when students begin looking for houses. We are collaborating with Advocacy Street Team and Page 1 of 2
members from the External Affairs Committee on this campaign which will cover four major goals: Educating students about legal pieces related to off-campus living (Residential Tenancies Act, Hamilton Bylaws relevant to students) Advocate for Student Housing issues in Westdale and Ainslie Wood Educate and promote self-advocacy practices for students Transitioning into off-campus living Furthermore, we'll be having our annual Pumpkin Hike on October 23rd. We'll be helping students from Cootes Paradise Elementary School to carve pumpkins after school between 3PM and 4PM, and then laying pumpkins out into Cootes from 5PM to 9PM. All are welcome to attend. CHALLENGES Getting our promotions side off the ground has been challenging. There's been slow communication from certain partners to finalize details, and our Pumpkin Hike anAdvod Fall Passport promotions have suffered as a result. In hindsight, earlier and quicker initiative from our end should have been taken to optimize the communication strategies of these events, and we'll definitely keep that in mind moving forward. A future challenge we can identify is how to communicate with other community partners about events which have occurred over Homecoming weekend. BUDGET Budget-wise, we're in good shape. Since our last report, we've spent money renting a plinko board, as well as on business cards for all of our staff. These cards are especially important for CAs if they ever need to communicate with people in Ainslie Wood and Westdale. SUCCESSES The Community Assistants have been doing a fantastic job in writing their reports on their walks. Their reports after speaking to student homes have also been very detailed and much appreciated by the executive team, as well as other stakeholders. Also, our executive team has been working very hard and doing an amazing job. Our Internal Coordinator deserves a nod for already fostering a great relationship with the Community Assistant team – hosting weekly meetings, and monthly socials. Our External Coordinator has also been doing a great job helping out with projects and has begun planning for our Leavin' The Nest workshops, as well as for Discover Your City week in February. Lastly, our Facebook likes have gone up by 100 since hiring a Promotions Coordinator, so we've been making strides online as well.
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REPORT From the office of the…
MSU Spark Coordinator TO: FROM: SUBJECT: DATE:
Members of the Executive Board Mike Gill MSU Spark Report 1 September 18th, 2015
UPDATE Our team knew coming in that September would likely be one of – if not THE – most challenging month of the year. The Exec handled it in spectacular stride. We effectively ran 6 events over the month, as each night had a Camp-Fire event after their first sessions, in addition to Opening Ceremonies. We managed new logistical challenges associated with our team doubling in size, as well as the reality that very many of our TLs didn’t really know what our program would look like. We’ve continued to push forward with our online resources and session design. I’m incredibly proud of how things have gone. SERVICE USAGE We had 151 / 240 total students attend our first session, which is great. This works out to an average of 7.55 students per session – which is 50% higher than the turnout present in Term 1 sessions last year, and matches the turnout for Term 2 last year. Maintaining participation rates this high very much supports the expansion to 20 Team Leader groups – the students who are enrolling aren’t any less excited about the program than the 100 who registered last year. Generally, we expect Term 2 to have a higher turnout, as students will be more comfortable with their routine and will be happier committing time to Spark as a result. We had roughly 80 students attend Opening Ceremonies, which is an impressive number given that the event was held on a Sunday Evening. We had roughly 20 students attend our Academic Success Workshop. This is probably slightly lower than Expected, but a number of reasons for this attendance are explained below. Page 1 of 4
PAST EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES
Opening Ceremonies This event was very different from last year’s iteration. We had 3 different speeches: I presented somewhat mundane information about the program and what we’re hoping they’ll take from it, Rebecca Raminhos shared some personal advice pertaining to her first year experience, and our President Ehima stole the show with a very relatable, humorous, and grounding story about his trajectory thus far. Following this initial large group hype-up session, students splintered off in to groups with their teamleaders and engage in some very relaxed programming to get them talking about what they’re nervous for this year. This added component of session group specific interaction was very valuable in helping to establish comfort before students ever entered in to the session room. As mentioned, roughly 80 students attended, which was great. The only potential negative was that, because turnout was quite reduced, some session groups had 0 students, which was a tad disheartening for Team Leaders. Placing a greater emphasis in doing activities in pairs might mitigate this. Session 1 and 2 Session 1 was focused around some introductory self-relfection, goal setting, and discussion around their hopes for this year. The goal here is really to provide students with an introduction to the format of Spark, to facilitate comfort and connection within the group, and to help get students excited for future sessions + the discussions they will hold. Session 2 is focused around Midterms and study habits – which many students expressed concern about during their first session. A number of tangible, research-backed techniques for effective studying were discussed in the first part of the session, and the second part allowed substantial opportunity for students to have their questions answered. Feedback on both of these sessions was very positive. However, some groups tend to run quite a bit over time, which is something we hope to adjust in future sessions. We are also beginning our first three sessions with group ice-breakers, which eat in to this session time. These icebreakers are a response to the overwhelming (~85%) number of students who gave feedback that they met more people outside of their session group through Spark last year. Post-Session Firepit This very optional event absolutely embodied the grounded and levelled-out volues that Spark hopes to embody. Students and TL’s got the chance to connect and converse in a zero-programming environment (with marshmellows). No doubt this event helped to increase turnout for session 2, and also to help students feel closer with their TL’s. We
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hope to maintain a post-session event in term 2, and will be investigating alternatives given that the weather will almost certainly forbid another camp fire. Academic Success Workshop Our Academic Success Workshop was largely a success. First of all, we developed high caliber, professional programming from the ground up (which is specatacular). Second of all, we engaged with the SSC and Faculty Societies to provide a unique perspectives to participants – many students have faculty specific academic concerns and Spark isn’t the best body to address them. Training was provided to the 6 Team Leaders who facilitated the 3 different sessions on the day of the event. Leading these sessions definitely provides a uniwue opportunity for Team Leaders to build skills they otherwise wouldn’t practice in their role. This is one component of our larger push to give Team Leaders more opportunities to grow through their role. Attendance of 20 is rather small when we consider the scale of Spark, but not small for the average “Academic event” that a faculty society or the SSC might host. We faced challenges around rallying consistent promotional support, given that we had just experienced Registration period, which had demanded a lot of promotion. We saw that many attendees weren’t actually Spark students, which is great as it implies a fair bit of room to grow as far as encouraging Spark students to attend as well – given that content is unique from that shared in session. Weekly Training Weekly training is an absolutely critical part of Spark.We introduce the next week’s session to Team Leaders and provide necessary updates for the week ahead. However, it’s also a place for deeper learning, both by exec and the TL’s. Each week we strive to have a short reflective conversation on things we did well and didn’t do well last week (as TLs).. From time to time we also incorporate more pointed discussion on key elements of effective sessions. The goals here are to help share best practices and generally ensure that our TL’s are improving from week to week. Following this, we also strive to collect feedback on the session from this prior week, so that it might be improved for following cohorts and years. Finally, we like to give an opportunity for shout-outs / public recognition, as I firmly believe this is a key component of volunteer motivations. We run each training twice to allow for smaller groups and more meaningful discussion. However, as we only have one hour for each group, we often experience a time crunch. Team Leader Social #1 We had our first Team Leader Social – it was a very low key night of boards games and cards against humanity. Given that TL’s spend a lot of time in pre-programmed environments, we’ve strived to minimize the programing for our socials. We had probably 15 TLs attend throughout the night, and generally the event was well received.
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UPCOMING EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES Future Sessions For sessions 3,4, and 5 the topics will be Time Management and Organization, Teamwork, and Discovering Hamilton. Covering time management as well as midterms early on in the program is valuable from the perspective of giving students skills to succeed in the term. Personally, I’m very excited to see how/if dynamics shift as students get in to less skill-based sessions (i.e. Discovering Hamilton) as often this is where a lot of bonding occurs. Spark Connector / Waterfall Excurssion We’ll be hosting our first intra-Spark social on October 24th. This is a part of our commitement to help more students meet individuals outside of their own Spark group. Team Leader Social #2 This will follow our first intra-Spark social, and may involve laser tag or a more laidback activity. We’re continuing to work towards a sense of cohesion amongst the team. BUDGET Category Special Projects Advertising Promo. Leader Training Wages
Ytd $200 $2,000 $138.43 $2556.61
Pr. YTD $0 $0 $0 $2402
Approved Budget $4,000 $2,400 $500 $6600
VOLUNTEERS The team has been very solid. However, September has shown some variation in availability and total engagement level across TL’s. Some individuals regularly go above and beyond, while others seem strapped for time. This likely stems from lingering discomfort in their roles, a still growing understanding of Spark as a service, and the hectic nature of September. We’re hoping to re-visit and strengthen our mutual understanding of expectations for engagement, communication, and promotional support during our next training. CURRENT CHALLENGES Similar to last report, our biggest challenge lies in uncertainty around our promotional budget. Given the large number of new initiative’s we’ve taken on, we plan to fully analyze costs once we’ve completed our second guidebook and proceed as necessary from there. SUCCESSES Our events have rocked, our sessions have rocked, this executive has rocked, the team is great, this service is great, and I can’t wait to see everything only get better.
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Objectives
Motions
Executive Board Meeting 15-12 Thursday, October 8, 2015 8:30 a.m. MSU Boardroom, MUSC 201 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14)
Adopt Agenda Adopt Minutes EB 15-10, EB 15-11 Advocacy Report Elections Report MAC Farmstand Report SCSN Report Spark Report
1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17)
Adopt Agenda Adopt Minutes Report Report Report Report Report
Provide Information & Answer Questions Unfinished/Other Business Time of Next Meeting and Motion to Adjourn
Christine Yachouh Priya Gupta Jonathon Patterson Daymon Oliveros Michael Gill
Executive Board Meeting 15-12 Thursday, October 8, 2015 @ 8:30am MSU Boardroom, MUSC room 201 Called to Order 8:43am Present D’Angela, D’Souza, Guarna, Ibe, Nestico-Semianiw, Osazuwa, Stegmaier Late Gillis Absent Others Present J. McGowan (General Manager), V. Scott (Recording Secretary), S. Nadarajah (SRA member), Helen Zhang (DRO), Michael Gill (Spark Coordinator) 1.
Adopt Agenda
Moved by Nestico-Semianiw, seconded by D’Souza that the Executive Board adopt the agenda, as presented. Amendment Guarna – strike Business Items #3 and 5 from the agenda Moved by Nestico-Semianiw, seconded by D’Souza that the Executive Board adopt the agenda, as amended. Passes Unanimously 2.
Adopt Minutes
Moved by Stegmaier, seconded by D’Souza that the Executive Board adopt the minutes from Executive Board meetings 15-10 – September 24, 2015 and 15-11 – October 1, 2015, as circulated. In Favour: 5 Opposed: 0 Abstentions: 2 Motion Passes 2.
Elections Report – Zhang presented
Zhang summarized the report
Questions D’Angela stated that if there were any challenges to the rules to please let them know so that they can support the dept. Nestico-Semianiw asked if they were talking to the faculty societies so that they are aware of everything. Zhang responded that it was not their responsibility to make that effort. She explained that they just change things on their end and reinforce it on the website and through email. Gillis arrived at 8:49am 3.
SCSN Report – attached
4.
Spark – Michael Gill presented
Gill summarized the report.
D’Souza and Guarna left at 8:54am
EB 15-12
October 8, 2015
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Questions McGowan asked if the academic success workshops are similar to SSC, or if they have a different perspective. Gill responded that it was different, as their workshops have three different sessions with smaller groups of students. Ibe asked what the difference was between an average MSU member and someone registered with spark. Gill responded that the workshops are separate from the weekly programs and everyone is welcome. Nestico-Semianiw asked if there were any leaders not enjoying the roles as much as they thought they would. He asked if there were any ideas for engagement. Gill responded that it was a great concern. He explained that they will be having ‘one on one’ sessions with teams, but also that he approaches them if they aren’t enjoying it. Gill added that engagement is over and above. Osazuwa asked if there was any programming that overlapped with spark and the workshops. Gill responded that there are different activities, and while there may be overlap with theory there isn’t repetition. D’Angela pointed out that if spark needed more for their promotions budget that it would have to come to EB to be allocated. 5.
Information and Question Period
6.
McGowan reported that the University portal for event management has been down, so they’ve been working on that for Clubs. He explained that it was promised that it would be up by yesterday, but some still cannot access it. McGowan reported that the Board of Directors have been talking about some structural changes within the organization for help with pt services, HR, clubs, and training and development. McGowan reported that they have replaced 152 HSR cards, and have cut the first cheque for that. D’Angela reported that the Budget Town Hall will be October 27 from 4-6pm in Council Chambers. He explained that this was for students to know where their money is going. He asked if the Board knew any students who would be interested in forming a working group about the MSU Bursary to let him know. Ibe asked if there was promotion for the Town Hall. D’Angela responded that there was. Nestico-Semianiw reported that today is the debate for Mac Votes in the MUSC Atrium, 12-3. Ibe reported that he has been having conversations with the Librarians and trying to have Innis Library open for longer. Osazuwa reported that he’s still working with the President of the University on the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Wooder reported that Mac Votes is going strong, and that Nestico-Semianiw was on CBC yesterday promoting it. Wooder gave props to Nestico-Semianiw and the Advocacy Team on the election outreach campaign. Adjournment and Time of Next Meeting
Time of Next Meeting: Thursday, October 22, 2015 8:30am MSU Boardroom, MUSC 201 Adjourned at 9:12am
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REPORT From the office of the…
Elections Department TO: FROM: SUBJECT: DATE:
Members of the Executive Board Priya Gupta, CRO Elections Department Report 2 October 8, 2015
SERVICE USAGE With the end of September we finished our first Election of the year which was for First Year Council. We had a total of 13 candidates running (compared to 11 last year) and a 20.5% voter turnout (compared to 13.6% last year). Both figures have increased since the 2014 FYC election, which we are very pleased with. Moreover the Elections Department ran five external elections in September for a variety of faculty and residence societies. PAST EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES The logo design has been sent back for its second round of edits. We are working with Michael Wooder and Underground on this and we are hoping to have a new logo in time to debut for Presidential Elections in January. We also ran a series of Election Fairs in residence during the third week of September. We ran them in Les Prince and Moulton with IRC. While we did not see as much participation as we had hoped, the students that did attend found great value in the events. UPCOMING EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES Our next big event is Elections 101 which will be held in TwelveEighty on Thursday October 8. Our goal for this event is to teach students about the process of running in an MSU election and to encourage them to specifically run for SRA By-Elections and Presidential Elections which will be happening later in the year. On a similar note, nominations for SRA By-Elecitons will be opening on October 19th and will close on the 23rd. BUDGET Running promotions and renting the venue for Elections 101 has cost approximately $100 and $500 respectively. As well, the cost for the new logo design has been around $200. The logo has not yet been finalized, so there may be further costs associated with this project. Finally, with the changes to By-law 10/10A there will now be reimbursements for every election including First Year Council. These reimbursements have yet to be submitted but will be in the next week or so. External elections will have an expected revenue of $500 once all societies pay. Page 1 of 2
VOLUNTEERS There have been no significant changes with Elections Committee. We met once more on September 30, 2015 for the FYC fines meeting. A deadline for EC to drop and run for President/be in a campaign team has been set for October 29, 2015. This allows them ample time to consider their options, as well will maintain a full council for the October By-Elections fines meet. CURRENT CHALLENGES The only challenge we are currently facing is having faculty elections give us ample time to submit their requests for using our service. Despite saying that we need 2 weeks in advance for all of our elections, we still get societies requesting for elections and not giving us 2 weeks notice. We have had to reject a few socities because of their lack of notice. SUCCESSES At the SRA meeting on September 27, 2015 the changes to By-law 10/10A was passed. This officially allows for the Elections Department to provide reimbusements for all Elections in accordance with the 10% rule. We have also improved on the number of candidates running for FYC and the voter turnout which is promising for the year ahead!
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REPORT From the office of the…
Student Community Support Network TO: FROM: SUBJECT: DATE:
Members of the Executive Board Daymon Oliveros SCSN Report #4 Thursday, October 8, 2015
UPDATE Since our last report, we've had numerous calls sent in to us by Aidan Johnson's office regarding complaints about Homecoming festivities. All have been responded to and we're working on figuring out a meeting time between relevant stakeholders. We also launched our Fall Passport initiative at Homecoming Expo. It's been a rocky start through promoting it via social media, but that can now begin now that we've gotten permission from The Silhouette to use their newspaper racks to distribute the passports. SERVICE USAGE After Homecoming Weekend, we had a few calls related to festivities hosted by McMaster students. A few Westdale residents complained so we sent CAs to speak with these students and followed up with the Ward 1 office, as well as the residents themselves. Due to these events, the City of Hamilton would like to call a meeting between MSU, the University, the City of Hamilton, and Hamilton Police Services about student behaviour. There's no set date, but it's looking to be near the end of October. Myself and Ehima will be attending. PAST EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES At our Homecoming Expo, we did a Hamilton trivia station to promote both our service and the City of Hamilton. Tourism Hamilton gave us free buttons, erasers, and guides for giveaways which we gave to students. Also at the Homecoming Expo, we also launched our Fall Passport contest. Students will have a chance to win a $100 gift card to Earth To Table: Bread Bar if they take pictures with this passport, at certain locations in Hamilton and send the picture to our Twitter. The contest hashtag is #FallingForHamilton and it closes on October 31st at 11:59PM. UPCOMING EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES The Student Housing Campaign will be launching on November 1st and will run over the course of a month. We chose the month of November because it's typically a time when students begin looking for houses. We are collaborating with Advocacy Street Team and Page 1 of 2
members from the External Affairs Committee on this campaign which will cover four major goals: Educating students about legal pieces related to off-campus living (Residential Tenancies Act, Hamilton Bylaws relevant to students) Advocate for Student Housing issues in Westdale and Ainslie Wood Educate and promote self-advocacy practices for students Transitioning into off-campus living Furthermore, we'll be having our annual Pumpkin Hike on October 23rd. We'll be helping students from Cootes Paradise Elementary School to carve pumpkins after school between 3PM and 4PM, and then laying pumpkins out into Cootes from 5PM to 9PM. All are welcome to attend. CHALLENGES Getting our promotions side off the ground has been challenging. There's been slow communication from certain partners to finalize details, and our Pumpkin Hike anAdvod Fall Passport promotions have suffered as a result. In hindsight, earlier and quicker initiative from our end should have been taken to optimize the communication strategies of these events, and we'll definitely keep that in mind moving forward. A future challenge we can identify is how to communicate with other community partners about events which have occurred over Homecoming weekend. BUDGET Budget-wise, we're in good shape. Since our last report, we've spent money renting a plinko board, as well as on business cards for all of our staff. These cards are especially important for CAs if they ever need to communicate with people in Ainslie Wood and Westdale. SUCCESSES The Community Assistants have been doing a fantastic job in writing their reports on their walks. Their reports after speaking to student homes have also been very detailed and much appreciated by the executive team, as well as other stakeholders. Also, our executive team has been working very hard and doing an amazing job. Our Internal Coordinator deserves a nod for already fostering a great relationship with the Community Assistant team – hosting weekly meetings, and monthly socials. Our External Coordinator has also been doing a great job helping out with projects and has begun planning for our Leavin' The Nest workshops, as well as for Discover Your City week in February. Lastly, our Facebook likes have gone up by 100 since hiring a Promotions Coordinator, so we've been making strides online as well.
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REPORT From the office of the…
MSU Spark Coordinator TO: FROM: SUBJECT: DATE:
Members of the Executive Board Mike Gill MSU Spark Report 1 September 18th, 2015
UPDATE Our team knew coming in that September would likely be one of – if not THE – most challenging month of the year. The Exec handled it in spectacular stride. We effectively ran 6 events over the month, as each night had a Camp-Fire event after their first sessions, in addition to Opening Ceremonies. We managed new logistical challenges associated with our team doubling in size, as well as the reality that very many of our TLs didn’t really know what our program would look like. We’ve continued to push forward with our online resources and session design. I’m incredibly proud of how things have gone. SERVICE USAGE We had 151 / 240 total students attend our first session, which is great. This works out to an average of 7.55 students per session – which is 50% higher than the turnout present in Term 1 sessions last year, and matches the turnout for Term 2 last year. Maintaining participation rates this high very much supports the expansion to 20 Team Leader groups – the students who are enrolling aren’t any less excited about the program than the 100 who registered last year. Generally, we expect Term 2 to have a higher turnout, as students will be more comfortable with their routine and will be happier committing time to Spark as a result. We had roughly 80 students attend Opening Ceremonies, which is an impressive number given that the event was held on a Sunday Evening. We had roughly 20 students attend our Academic Success Workshop. This is probably slightly lower than Expected, but a number of reasons for this attendance are explained below. Page 1 of 4
PAST EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES
Opening Ceremonies This event was very different from last year’s iteration. We had 3 different speeches: I presented somewhat mundane information about the program and what we’re hoping they’ll take from it, Rebecca Raminhos shared some personal advice pertaining to her first year experience, and our President Ehima stole the show with a very relatable, humorous, and grounding story about his trajectory thus far. Following this initial large group hype-up session, students splintered off in to groups with their teamleaders and engage in some very relaxed programming to get them talking about what they’re nervous for this year. This added component of session group specific interaction was very valuable in helping to establish comfort before students ever entered in to the session room. As mentioned, roughly 80 students attended, which was great. The only potential negative was that, because turnout was quite reduced, some session groups had 0 students, which was a tad disheartening for Team Leaders. Placing a greater emphasis in doing activities in pairs might mitigate this. Session 1 and 2 Session 1 was focused around some introductory self-relfection, goal setting, and discussion around their hopes for this year. The goal here is really to provide students with an introduction to the format of Spark, to facilitate comfort and connection within the group, and to help get students excited for future sessions + the discussions they will hold. Session 2 is focused around Midterms and study habits – which many students expressed concern about during their first session. A number of tangible, research-backed techniques for effective studying were discussed in the first part of the session, and the second part allowed substantial opportunity for students to have their questions answered. Feedback on both of these sessions was very positive. However, some groups tend to run quite a bit over time, which is something we hope to adjust in future sessions. We are also beginning our first three sessions with group ice-breakers, which eat in to this session time. These icebreakers are a response to the overwhelming (~85%) number of students who gave feedback that they met more people outside of their session group through Spark last year. Post-Session Firepit This very optional event absolutely embodied the grounded and levelled-out volues that Spark hopes to embody. Students and TL’s got the chance to connect and converse in a zero-programming environment (with marshmellows). No doubt this event helped to increase turnout for session 2, and also to help students feel closer with their TL’s. We
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hope to maintain a post-session event in term 2, and will be investigating alternatives given that the weather will almost certainly forbid another camp fire. Academic Success Workshop Our Academic Success Workshop was largely a success. First of all, we developed high caliber, professional programming from the ground up (which is specatacular). Second of all, we engaged with the SSC and Faculty Societies to provide a unique perspectives to participants – many students have faculty specific academic concerns and Spark isn’t the best body to address them. Training was provided to the 6 Team Leaders who facilitated the 3 different sessions on the day of the event. Leading these sessions definitely provides a uniwue opportunity for Team Leaders to build skills they otherwise wouldn’t practice in their role. This is one component of our larger push to give Team Leaders more opportunities to grow through their role. Attendance of 20 is rather small when we consider the scale of Spark, but not small for the average “Academic event” that a faculty society or the SSC might host. We faced challenges around rallying consistent promotional support, given that we had just experienced Registration period, which had demanded a lot of promotion. We saw that many attendees weren’t actually Spark students, which is great as it implies a fair bit of room to grow as far as encouraging Spark students to attend as well – given that content is unique from that shared in session. Weekly Training Weekly training is an absolutely critical part of Spark.We introduce the next week’s session to Team Leaders and provide necessary updates for the week ahead. However, it’s also a place for deeper learning, both by exec and the TL’s. Each week we strive to have a short reflective conversation on things we did well and didn’t do well last week (as TLs).. From time to time we also incorporate more pointed discussion on key elements of effective sessions. The goals here are to help share best practices and generally ensure that our TL’s are improving from week to week. Following this, we also strive to collect feedback on the session from this prior week, so that it might be improved for following cohorts and years. Finally, we like to give an opportunity for shout-outs / public recognition, as I firmly believe this is a key component of volunteer motivations. We run each training twice to allow for smaller groups and more meaningful discussion. However, as we only have one hour for each group, we often experience a time crunch. Team Leader Social #1 We had our first Team Leader Social – it was a very low key night of boards games and cards against humanity. Given that TL’s spend a lot of time in pre-programmed environments, we’ve strived to minimize the programing for our socials. We had probably 15 TLs attend throughout the night, and generally the event was well received.
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UPCOMING EVENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES Future Sessions For sessions 3,4, and 5 the topics will be Time Management and Organization, Teamwork, and Discovering Hamilton. Covering time management as well as midterms early on in the program is valuable from the perspective of giving students skills to succeed in the term. Personally, I’m very excited to see how/if dynamics shift as students get in to less skill-based sessions (i.e. Discovering Hamilton) as often this is where a lot of bonding occurs. Spark Connector / Waterfall Excurssion We’ll be hosting our first intra-Spark social on October 24th. This is a part of our commitement to help more students meet individuals outside of their own Spark group. Team Leader Social #2 This will follow our first intra-Spark social, and may involve laser tag or a more laidback activity. We’re continuing to work towards a sense of cohesion amongst the team. BUDGET Category Special Projects Advertising Promo. Leader Training Wages
Ytd $200 $2,000 $138.43 $2556.61
Pr. YTD $0 $0 $0 $2402
Approved Budget $4,000 $2,400 $500 $6600
VOLUNTEERS The team has been very solid. However, September has shown some variation in availability and total engagement level across TL’s. Some individuals regularly go above and beyond, while others seem strapped for time. This likely stems from lingering discomfort in their roles, a still growing understanding of Spark as a service, and the hectic nature of September. We’re hoping to re-visit and strengthen our mutual understanding of expectations for engagement, communication, and promotional support during our next training. CURRENT CHALLENGES Similar to last report, our biggest challenge lies in uncertainty around our promotional budget. Given the large number of new initiative’s we’ve taken on, we plan to fully analyze costs once we’ve completed our second guidebook and proceed as necessary from there. SUCCESSES Our events have rocked, our sessions have rocked, this executive has rocked, the team is great, this service is great, and I can’t wait to see everything only get better.
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