Council Report - October 13, 2009

Good evening all, happy returns from your Thanksgiving break

Thanksgiving Weekend Bus Service

(Caveat, this report is written on Friday morning, and thus outcomes of this bus are not yet known as of writing. Full updates can be provided for you during the meeting upon request.)

The Thanksgiving buses took place this weekend, with three bus routes. The return trip from Kitchener to St. Catharines was cancelled, a decision made on Tuesday last week based on poor ticket sales. Those who had purchased tickets on that route already were accommodated, but we were not prepared to lose the volume of money that we would have on that return trip.

As of the time of writing, sales were approaching the break-even mark for both of the outbound trips. The inbound trip from London is fairly sluggish and will cost BUSU money, but has enough passengers that running the bus is still desirable for the passengers who have purchased tickets. Not every experiment can end as an unqualified success. A full evaluation of this service will take place after the weekend, once feedback has been received from the riders and we know where the final numbers lie.

I have been working through the past few weeks responding to questions, and dealing with both stores as they have sales questions, as well as adjusting information and working with Coach Canada on the issues that arise “on the spot” with such a new service.

OUSA

Along with Justin, my counterpart at Waterloo, I have been working on a paper which will be brought to General Assembly at the end of the month for adoption. It is focused on RAP – the federal Repayment Assistance Plan, which provides support measures for students who may have difficulty paying back their loans. Ontario currently has measures known as Interest Relief (IR) and Debt Reduction in Repayment (DRR), both of which the federal government just eliminated in favour of the new RAP. This policy is focused on convincing the provincial government that harmonizing with the federal RAP is in the best interest of students, as well as recommending some changes to RAP as it exists now. This paper is just under 10 pages, and set to be finalized this week, and will be debated and (hopefully) adopted by the end of the month.

Community Barbecue

The second Community Barbecue this year was held on Wednesday October 7th in St. Catharines, at the Anglican Church on the corner of Glenridge and Glendale. About 250 people were served between 4 and 7pm. We had the assistance of BUSU staff behind the grills and tables once again, and another successful partnership with the host facility. It was, however, very chilly and lacked the grassy surface for playing which made the Thorold barbecues most successful over the past few years. We will need to be very proactive through the summer next year to find and secure a St. Catharines location that fits all of the objectives.

Great Neighbour Program

The Brock Off Campus Living/Brock University Students’ Union Great Neighbour Awards are now live, there is a link on www.busu.net to find the applications. There will be great prizes available for 6 individual students, 6 groups of students, and 4 long-term residents/households. With the Brock website switch-over, the OCL department is not ready to host this information yet, so BUSU is currently the only location for the forms, and OCL will be directing people to our site for the immediate future.

Community Connections Day of Service

Saturday October 3rd was the 2nd Annual Community Connections Day of Service (I’ve attended both now). It attracted close to 100 people, to attend one of multiple sites throughout the region to engage in service projects, and bring students a volunteer experience which they might parlay into a long-term volunteer commitment with a number of agencies. I was located at the Morningstar Mill, at Decew Falls, assisting with cataloguing in great detail all the articles which are owned by the mill and historical site.

BUFAC Meeting

Tuesday October 6th, I arranged for a training session for councillors who were interested in doing a mock-meeting to give them the tools and tips they need to become experts at Robert’s Rules, and our other council procedures. 9 people attended, as well as Damien who served as Speaker. It was a very informative session, and I think the people who went would agree that we should continue this model of training moving forward. 37 motions, covering over 30 types of motions, were made and discussed, giving these councillors practical examples of how and why to get things done at council this year.

Other Meetings

Obviously not every meeting is report-worthy and has substantial outcomes. However, I feel bad that my report looks a little “light” on initiatives this week. Below is a summary of some of the other meetings I had this week on topics which did not become noteworthy enough to warrant extra work, or larger updates.

CASA Policy Committee – discussion about an upcoming childcare policy
Kim Meade + GSA – conversation about accessible events, and regular updates between the two associations with the Brock VP Student Services
O-Week Debrief – The exec are sitting down to formally discuss the process and outcomes of all the events we ran, to incorporate everyone’s feedback from an executive sense into the reports for next year’s staff, and for BUSAC
Legislative Affairs – has held two meetings, I’ve been at both, with two bylaw proposals
Town and Gown – Thorold committee discussed reaction from O-week, but nothing of substance was raised at this meeting, only a few concerns from private citizens
2014 Conference – Brock is bidding to host a major conference in 2014, I attended a reception to help impress the site visit committee
Online Voting – Chris, Lianne, Nazir and I had a web-based presentation from a company that facilitates online voting.
Regular Executive Meetings – we have two to three of these per week, about various topics
Senate Committees – UPC and Governance both had regular meetings with very routine business. Subcommittees are being struck, and both are in the very early stages of planning the paths of action for the year
H1N1 – A staff meeting about the spread and prevention of the flu
Dr. Jack – The exec regularly has a breakfast with Dr. Jack to have updates flow in both directions about activities happening around the school, and for us to raise some concerns
Mr. Harper – Oh right, Lianne, Sohail and I briefly chatted and had a photo WITH THE PRIME MINISTER. No big deal...

VPUA Job Tip of the Week

Tip #3 – Twitter

It may be a fad, it may be a trend, but within the past 3 months, Twitter has emerged as the most vital, and the most timely, link to education and other informational news. All of the “players in the game” have twitter accounts, including OUSA, CASA, CFS, campus newspapers (but not the Brock Press...yet), universities, bloggers, and a hefty amount of student union politicians from across the country. If something relevant happens or gets released, a flurry of re-tweets ensures that it reaches a large number of people in a short amount of time. Check #cdnpse for any national stories, and updated by contributors from all across the sector. #casaacae and #cfsfcee are fairly active surrounding student group initiatives and media releases, and a host of individual bloggers have their own threads. I also follow the @brockuniversity channel for any information flowing either to or from Brock, and often place @brockuniversity in my tweets to make sure it hits a wider audience. You can check my list of follows and followers, and ask me about some of the other major players if you are interested.

Tweet Deck is a great application for your desktop, which updates twitter feeds in real-time, keeping you updated on multiple channels all day long.

Closing Lyric of the BUSAC

“Some people they’re looking for paradise
Others they’re searching for inner light
But me I’m just having the time of my life
I’m headin’ out, to check it out”
- Bryan Adams