Good evening all, apologies for being sick during the last meeting and unable to attend to answer questions. The illness kept me away from the office for much of the week, coming in only for specific meetings and then leaving again. I can respond to questions about this report or the last one during this meeting.
OUSA
I spent some time these past two weeks working on two very important initiatives for OUSA. Alexi and I have been going over quotes and types of insurance that might be necessary for the organization, and this has come with some time spent on education for myself as well as a deeper understanding of the insurance that BUSU carries for various reasons. The second project is financial policies – I have completed the first draft of a brand new set of procedures for the organization, and this will bounce back and forth a few times over the next few months before being finalized and adopted.
The OUSA website should now be back up and running as of when you read this. Check out the new www.ousa.ca and check out some of the new content, including the revamped OUSA blog which I contributed to last Monday.
On Friday, I attended workshop hosted by the Council of Ontario Universities, which was dedicated to lobby training and public policy. This report was written before that date, so I can update BUSAC verbally about how this went, if the question is asked.
CASA
I held a conference call with the rest of the Strategic Planning Committee two weeks ago to go over the timelines and deadlines for that initiative.
The pre-conference materials for next week’s AGM have been sent out, so I have spent time reviewing these, and discussing the conference with my counterparts at other institutions. Discussions will include very major issues of policy, strategic plan, governance review, voting structure, and fee structure.
Niagara Prosperity Advisory Committee
The NPAC hosted a Community Conversation last week on Tuesday on campus. Lianne and I both attended to learn more about their committee, and bring back some ideas of how we might be able to increase our service offerings. One particular initiative, a “Good Food Bag” filled with healthy local fruits and vegetables, is one service that we may be able to add on to our existing food voucher and ESLP initiatives to help students in need.
BUSAC Committees
I am the chair of two committees: External Affairs and Academic Affairs. Both attempted to meet for the first time two weeks ago. Unfortunately, only three people including myself were in attendance at External Affairs, but we still were able to go over an outline of the year, and discuss some CASA-related initiatives.
The Academic Affairs met however, and I’m proud to say that it reached quorum for the first time ever! The committee will be hosting an open town hall this week, Thursday at 3:30 in AS 215 to gather student concerns about academic matters within Brock. We also have a list of about a dozen issues to tackle this year, beginning with the creation of a student-driven Teaching Award here at Brock.
Referendums
There will be a presentation at this meeting to propose a referendum to be held at the same time as the Executive elections in February, to take $5 in existing ancillary fees and redistribute them for next year into a Clubs Levy, Green Levy, and an increase to the BUSU operating budget. There have been two executive meetings exclusively for this topic this past week, and I took the responsibility of writing the first draft of the Memorandum of Understanding.
Presidents’ Ball
I also spent a bit of time running around the Region to collect some Presidents’ Ball prizes from various local politicians – Chairman Peter Partington, Mayor Damian Goulbourne, Mayor Ted Salci, MP Rob Nicholson, and MPP Jim Bradley.
Canadian Student Survey
Monday, you hopefully (will) receive(d) an e-mail within your Badger account about the National Student Survey. This is a HUGE deal with major implications and buy-in from across the country. This is the first time that students in Canada have produced a full-scale national survey where the data is created and owned by the students, providing cross-sections on a national, provincial and institutional scale.
As many of you might know, the non-renewal of the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation is creating a huge data void within postsecondary education. With the limited research of Statistics Canada excepted (and that is based mostly on census data only), there is no public data and research on education anymore. The only surveys, the only research, the only data, is being collected and held by the groups that commission the research. All too often, this is private companies, groups and think tanks which have a certain agenda and purpose to their data collection. Information and statistics are only released when favourable and when necessary. Statistics that do not support their mission are never released. Those who hold the data hold the control.
This survey, owned by “the partnership” including CASA and OUSA, will allow students access to the data that we can’t get otherwise. It also delves far beyond that, asking students for the first time about many public policy preferences relating to PSE which will help inform future organizational direction. It tests knowledge to indicate whether current government programs are known and are being utilized. And it asks some questions that no other research has been asking because they don’t serve students as members.
I beg of you that you do not ignore this survey. We as Vice Presidents, Presidents, we can only do so much with the experiences we have and the friends that we know. The data of thousands of students is so much stronger than our “belief that this is the case” in our universities. Please take the fifteen minutes to fill it out, and encourage your friends to do the same. BUSU, OUSA, CASA, we can only serve your interests if we know what your interests are, and for the first time we have a large-scale mechanism to evaluate it.
Other Meetings
BUSU Exec meetings – at least 2x per week
Appeals meeting – I am on the appeals board for one of the University services which shall remain nameless. We had a meeting to discuss 9 appeal situations.
Educational Technology Advisory Group
Senate Governance Committee
VPUA Job Tip of the Week
Tip #5 – Meet Your Deadlines
This tip may sound simple, it may sound logical, it may sound like downright common sense. But all too often in this job and student union politics in general, people are not able to meet the commitments that they make. When you get a series of busy people together, whether they are students, reporters, politicians, and a date or time gets agreed upon for a meeting, work to be completed, or a follow up, there is somebody counting on you to hold up your end of the bargain. The most frustrating thing is when busy people get together, and the time is wasted when the preliminary information has not been done.
I hesitate to point out any names of people who do not meet this standard, but there are many people that I have encountered over the past two years. One of the reasons that BUSU has one of the highest meeting rates and influence with our local politicians is based on our prompt use of meeting debrief forms and follow-ups on requests for information. The reason that we are among the most prepared at OUSA and CASA meetings is that material is reviewed and commented on during the preliminary stages based on the deadlines, which gives us greater influence into the initial documents and more knowledge about the process, adding greater weight to the outcomes.
I’m proud to say that no newspaper story of mine has ever appeared with a “Rob/BUSU was unavailable for comment at press time”, and that timely information has led to the retraction of various inaccuracies. We’ve never cancelled, or even delayed, an event that I have been responsible for due to lack of preparation or forward thinking. Being prepared for a meeting when others aren’t immediately increases your credibility in the eyes of everyone else watching, and in this business, if you don’t have credibility, then you don’t have anything.
How does this get done? Get yourself into a routine of writing things down. Blackberries and electronic calendars are technologically cool and can give you a handy beep 15 minutes before you need to be somewhere. But a physical calendar allows you to scan weeks at a glance. I place “internal reminders” throughout my calendar hours or days in advance of the actual deadline, just to remind myself to work on them. I scan at least two weeks ahead in my calendar, every day, to make sure I’m leaving time for something that needs to be done. I may be VP Travel and Tourism, but I’ve never missed a BUSAC report deadline in two years. It’s time prioritization.
I hesitate to even include this as a “job tip” because I wish it was just common sense, but it jumps all the way up my list to number 5 because it’s such a basic function that takes just a few minutes of organization. You’re going to be doing the work, the readings, the reports, the planning, the thinking, and the follow-ups anyway. Do them early before you get caught on the treadmill of being late for everything, and your access and influence increases exponentially.
Closing Lyric of the BUSAC
“It’s the perfect time of day
To throw all your cares away
Put a sprinkler on the lawn
And run through with my gym shorts on”
- Barenaked Ladies
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