MSU Blog

Welcome to the exciting world of community relations! I am your host, Vice President (Education) Joe Finkle and you will need to keep you arms and legs inside while I take you on this exciting ride…in all seriousness I find community relations terribly exciting.

When I ran for this position, I did so by placing a significant emphasis on the local. The reason for this is because we have a once-in-four-years opportunity to have our voices heard and to make the city and community realize that we are important stakeholders in the area. There are just over 20,000 undergraduate students at McMaster, which is the size of a small city. Collectively we are a sleeping giant that has yet to be roused and flex its muscles. We live in the campus bubble that only a small number of students break out of and venture into the City of Hamilton.

This year the MSU, led by me, will be attempting to improve the state of relations between students and the local community. First and foremost we will be working to remove the perception that all McMaster students are drunken, rowdy hooligans bent on destroying Westdale’s gardens and peeing on cars. The MSU knows that these are rare instances and that the 99% of students don’t do that. In order to combat this notion, we will be holding a Community BBQ and Clean Up on the Friday of Welcome Week. For this, First Years will get into teams and clean along a select route with the teams finishing at the MSU Child Care Centre for a free BBQ. The team that has collected the most trash will win a prize. The Board of Directors and SRA will be cooking and members of the local community will be invited to attend.

We are also attempting to display that Mac students care about what happens in the area. This is going to be done through the municipal election occurring in October. Last election, 10 people on campus voted, this has to and will change. It is imperative to education students on local areas of responsibility to show them that what happens in the city effects their lives. Municipal issues are a lot like your mom (no, there isn’t a joke coming). They take care of the little things that no one thinks of, but if they were to disappear life would be a whole lot harder. The city is in charge of garbage/recycling collection, bylaw officers, tenant issues, landlords, snow removal, social services, roads, sewers, water, museums etc. The list could go on and on. Most students don’t know this, but I feel that when we tell them things might begin to change.

These are only two of my main points, and I do not want to ramble on. I doubt many of you will make it to this point in the blog anyway. In the end, community relations are extremely important and without them and without this city, the university would be a much lesser place. McMaster and Hamilton are inexorably tied together, and nothing is going to change that. Hamilton isn’t going anywhere and neither is McMaster, so let’s do what we can to make the most of our time together. Love your city.       

Joe Finkle

Hello all!

I’m sure many of you will be spending the day indoors to avoid the absolute mugginess that is today… if so hopefully you have a few minutes to read my most recent updates on what I’ve been up to over the past few weeks!

Farm Stand – We are now looking for a director for the Farm Stand. Applications are available here! I will be sitting on the hiring committee along with Drew Simon (MacGreen Coordinator) and Greg Lagerquist, a member of the Executive Board. Assuming all goes to plan the Farm Stand will be in operation by the beginning of August. I have a meeting with the Office of Sustainability and Hospitality Services on July 21st so that we can work out many of the unrefined details – I dropped off the 3rd draft of the partnership agreement at the Hospitality Services office last week so they now have a chance to peruse it and add their edits and comments. Applications for Farm Stand staff and volunteers will be available later in the month!

Website Project – At our last SRA meeting on June 19th, the SRA passed two motions: one to allocate and expend $13 790 for new modules, design and structure changes to the website and $6 000 to pay for the integration of MacID with the MSU website. We are now able to go ahead full steam on our project! Last week we sent in the first draft of our design and structure changes to our website company, ORBIS. Apart from how the new website will look and operate, we are also constructing a plan to make sure that content on the website is regularly updated– this will require the work of a large number of MSU staff, part-time managers and volunteers, but will make a huge difference in making the MSU website highly relevant for students. As well, the Website Redevelopment Project team (our Network Administrator Pauline Taggart, Student Life Development Coordinator Michael Wooder, Web & Visual Identity Designer Medina Abdelkader and myself) met with SRA Health Science Theresa Tang to discuss to possibility of integrating an Academic calendar she has been working on into the MSU website.

Vision Conference – I had a meeting with three individuals from Residence Life (including SRA Science Andra Popescu) last week to discuss the possibility of holding a joint leadership conference. We discussed how the MSU and ResLife often operate in isolation of each other and are eager for the chance to collaborate on such a substantive project together.

Kitchen Manager hiring committee – I sat 0n the Kitchen Manager hiring committee and am very pleased to announce Richard Haja as our new Kitchen Manager! He will be starting today (Monday, July 5th). Richard has received a diploma in Culinary Arts Management and Post Graduate Diploma in Culinary Arts, both from George Brown College. Subsequently, he received his red seal accreditation. Over the last two decades, he has operated his own restaurant and led kitchens with cuisines ranging from Italian to Caribbean. With this diverse background he will be a welcome addition to the 1280 team!

Watching the World Cup (okay, not during work hours…) – My mum was born in the Netherlands so I’ve been proudly wearing orange and embracing her maiden name, Olde Damink. Go oranje!

Have a beautiful sweaty week (the thunderstorms are just around the corner…)

Yours,

Mary
(905) 525-9140 x23885
president@msu.mcmaster.ca

Hey Everyone!

For this blog, I wanted to focus on one of my main tasks for the summer: training and goal development. As the Vice-President (Administration), it is my job to give the Student Representative Assembly (SRA) and staff the information and tools they need to succeed for the upcoming year. There are typically 3 trainings each summer, 1 in June for the SRA, 1 in July for the SRA, staff and Faculty Society Presidents and then 1 in August for the staff. After that it’s all Welcome Week for a little while! This past year, the SRA has made it a priority to spend less on these trainings as in the past it has been a large expense. So far, the cost for the June training went from over $13,000 last year to $4,000 this year without losing quality of training.

The June training is the first chance for the SRA to get to know each other, and learn about the MSU. We covered the really important topics for both new and experienced people in the MSU including the organizational structure, available resources and our finances. We also had our first summer meeting at this training where we ratified our clubs, clarified the employment policy, accepted the Board of Director’s year plans, and allocated and expended money to improve our website. We also gave about two hours for your faculty caucuses to set their goals and directives for the year as well as the 6 standing committees (check out the MSU website for more information on each of these groups – under Student Government!)

The July training is considered to be a retreat, as the main goal of this weekend is to get the SRA, staff and Faculty Society Presidents acquainted with each other. Although some argue that it is a frivolous use of money, almost everyone who has attended this weekend has found it significantly helped them accomplish their goals for the year as they had the chance to get to know and work with those they would rely on all year. In the past we have gone offsite 5 hours away to Bark Lake, which was a significant expense. This year we will be going to a camp ground in Paris, Ontario, which is much closer and cost effective. Further to that we will be involving the full-time MSU staff on the Friday on campus, so that they can get acquainted with the group as well.

Finally, we have the part-time manager training in August following Welcome Day. We all spend the Friday giving information to incoming first year students at Welcome Day and then spend the Saturday in training. This includes how to use your budget, what resources are available to get projects done, and setting our goals for the year.

There you have it – the training aspect of my job! I am also working with some of your SRA members to host training sessions in October and January so that they can be continually supported. It is so important to host these trainings in the summer so that the volunteers and staff that are working for you can be as prepared as possible for the upcoming year.

On a quick final note – the CLAY Coordinator job has been posted on the MSU Website – so apply!

Cheers,

John

Over the past month you have (hopefully) read some of my other blog posts, news stories, updates, facebook posts or tweets about what I have been up to…if not, you should get on that, I am terribly interesting. A large part of those communications have been about OUSA and CASA, this is because they are both very important organizations to which the MSU belongs. Unfortunately, most people do not understand (or even know about) OUSA or CASA. This blog will right this wrong and once again bring order to the universe.

OUSA is the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance. It is comprised of seven member schools (McMaster, Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier, Western, Windsor, Brock and Queen’s) and about 140,000 students. Their mission is to lobby the provincial government on issues relating to post-secondary education (university and college). What makes OUSA standout is that they are research based and member driven…don’t worry, I will explain. They base all of their lobbying on solid information rooted in through research, which means their requests and points are respected by the government and simple to justify. Member driven means that their general direction comes right from the students through the General Assembly (GA), held twice a year. GA’s are held in the fall and spring with each school sending delegates who vote on which issues should be addressed. Therefore, WE (the students) decide on what OUSA lobbies on.    

On Campus OUSA has a Street Team and a Campus Coordinator. This is how I first became involved in the MSU (and look where it’s taken me). The Street Team runs various events on campus to raise awareness about issues (OSAP, accessibility, quality etc) and often have sick t-shirts to give out. I highly recommend talking to them in September.   

CASA is the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations and is much the same as OUSA, except they lobby the federal government. They are comprised of 18 full member schools and 6 associate member schools (of which Mac is one) and about 300,000 students. They are also research based and member driven which has resulted in a tremendous amount of respect from the federal government. They differ from OUSA in that their focus is on issues the federal government can deal with, such as funding transfer to the provinces and a Pan-Canadian Accord on Education. They also hold an Annual General Assembly, but only once a year.

This is only the most basic of information in order to give you a general idea about the two organizations. The key is that both are extremely successful in what they do. The provincial government has mentioned on numerous occasions how much they respect OUSA and the federal government has included CASA on many events involving education. If you are interested in learning more about these groups, as always, drop me an email or give me a call.    

Best,

Joe

Next time on Joe’s blog: Community Relations! (get excited!)

Hey McMaster,

I never could have imagined one and a half months could move so quickly. It seems just like yesterday that I assumed this job and yet when I look back over what has been done I realize that a lot has occurred. As I continue into the summer I’ve been reflecting a lot on this job and life in general.

My job entails a lot of day to day responsibilities. This generally involves meeting with stakeholders, communicating regularly and working on projects both on the fly and long term. The most notable long term project is our Operating Budget. As of right now, I am working with our Comptroller and Finance Committee to dig deeper into each budget and gather supporting documentation to see where we can provide more support or make other strategic changes. This process is very tedious and requires a lot of delegation and communication between all parties. The end result will be a clear budget which students and Student Representative Assembly Members will be able dig into to see more detailed and disclosed aspects of our organization.

As I ponder life, I realize that the more I learn the more interesting it becomes and the more I desire to learn. I think this is one of the key ways of keeping motivated throughout my time in University and in life. The more context which is revealed as to why anything is the way it is appears to fuel the passion to learn. This, at least from a philosophical stand point, is an invigorating connection between why a detailed budget is similar to reflecting on the world around oneself. The lack of understanding towards the actions of another is as boring, or even annoying, as a numbers without context. Hopefully I can make it more interesting for all of you. 

 Financially yours,

Nick Shorten

Vice-President (Finance) & CFO

McMaster Students Union

Hello all,

Thanks for everyone who took the time to fill out the MacsList survey (if you haven’t, you still can)! For anyone who is interested, here are the results. I got some really fantastic suggestions that I plan to implement including additional categories (such as buy/sell bikes, looking for housemates/sublets, buy/sell kitchen appliances) as well as a creative suggestions as to how to organize it.

One comment that I need clarification on - someone suggested under “other” to include a category for “Missed Connections” … is there anyone who could help me understand what this is supposed to mean? Please send me an e-mail!

If you have any more ideas, please let me know. Through these surveys I’ve begun to see how invaluable gathering input can be; we emerge with ideas that are much more dynamic and accommodate a much larger group of students. For the student who commented “don’t let us down” … I’ll do my best

MacsList survey results

Expect more surveys and opportunities to provide feedback in the near future! Til then, always feel free to drop me a line. I now have my weekly schedules posted online and will soon be arranging weekly office hours.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Yours,

Mary

president@msu.mcmaster.ca

(905) 525-9140 ext. 23885

Hello all!

So my sincere thanks for everyone who took their time to fill out the Website Survey; the feedback thus far has been invaluable. I have spent the past few days working on an overview for the Website Renovations Project outlining the areas for change, goals of the project and proposed critical path. This is being edited and revised by the members involved in the Website Renovations Project (our SLDC coordinator and Network Administrator) so that we can set out a clear timeline to ensure the project is completed by the end of summer. With projects such as the website, there are bound to be unforeseeable obstacles so we are attempting to be as proactive as possible with our planning and scheduling.

I have summarized the feedback from the Website Survey below. There were a lot of common themes which were really helpful in establishing what exactly within the website needs improvement.
An interesting comment was raised about whether the process can be done transparently and let students see the changes and provide feedback during the process (ex. Wikipedia) rather than just work on changes from the backend and then reveal the new website all that once. Unfortunately, that would have substantial costs and really slow down the process. However, what I am committed to doing is having regular surveys to collect feedback on various aspects of the site renovations (like my new survey about the classifieds system, MacsList), using my blog posts as a way to provide regular updates and gathering as much feedback in every stage of the process as possible.

Without further ado, here are the results from the survey:

NUMBER OF RESPONSES: 180
1. How often do you visit the MSU website?
Daily 14%
Weekly 29%
Every Couple of Months 41%
Never 15%

2. Do you work and/or volunteer for the MSU?
YES 51%
NO 49%

3. In general, what information are you looking for when you visit the MSU website?
Homepage/news 56%
Services and Businesses 53%
Contact List 38%
Clubs 54%
Jobs/Volunteer 58%
Student Government (SRA/EB/FYC) 38%
Board of Directors 13%
Events Calendar 48%
MSU Blog 14%
Bylaws and Operating Policies 17%
Other 3%

4. What would make you visit the website more often?
Pictures and News from events 67%
Frequently updated Businesses+Services pages 46%
Online forums 24%
A McMaster-specific classified list 59%
Information about the local community 47%
Information about the campus 68%
Website re-design 42%
Other 3%

What do you like/dislike about the MSU website, and other suggestions (general themes):

Site is unattractive and not intuitive. Information is difficult to find and often out-of-date.
Desire to see it integrated with MacInsiders or with mobile phone
Desire to see it follow a simple format such as the WordPress blog format
Needs to be more interactive
Not enough pictures, media
Too cluttered, flashy, too much text
Too plain, boring
Many dead links
Inadequate clubs system, lack of information regarding clubs
Lack of consistency between sections
Lots of people don’t use it/aren’t aware of its many features especially the blogs and Board of Directors section
Desire for the process to be transparent
Include important dates in calendar ex. When OSAP is due, varsity games, make calendar the comprehensive calendar for all things going on on campus
Likes: the Twitter feed, the amount of information available, the colour scheme

If you have additional comments or queries, please e-mail me at president@msu.mcmaster.ca

Yours,

Mary

Time for another update!

I went to a Social Media conference on May 14-16 that was held in Niagara Falls. It was put on by Square Crop studios and attended by student unions from across the country. It was a great opportunity for networking and discussing the one issue we all face: engaging our students. We all struggle with it; poor voter turnout is a common example of lack of student engagement. Some student unions see voter turnout below 10%, others as high as 40 or 50%. Voter turnout is an excellent indicator of how engaged students are, because they have to care enough about the person or the issues to go out and vote.

The conference encompassed several socializing and networking activities, three guest speakers and a roundtable discussion facilitated by the speakers. The three guest speakers were:

-Rob Dyer, founder of Skate 4 Cancer. Rob talked about how he used social media tools (YouTube videos, Twitter) to gain international recognition for his organization
-Stacey Boguslavskaya, the social media coordinator for the Toronto Real Estate Board, who has a specialty in Social Media, start-ups, strategic planning. She spoke about how to user Twitter effectively as a social media tool
-Stephen Sills, the creative director and co-founder of Square Crop, His speciality is in buzz-marketing, advertising, design, and brand identity. He spoke about how to engage a student population.

One of the most important things I took away from the conference is the importance of engaging in a dialogue and collecting feedback and opinion – not to tell students what you’re going to give them, but figure out what they want.

Speaking of feedback, have you filled out the Website Survey yet? We’ve had about 150 responses so far. In a few weeks I will be compiling the data from the survey into a blog post, discussing general themes of what students want to see from the website renovations and addressing questions that were raised. Please take 10 minutes to fill it out!

Expect another update from me shortly; stay tuned for my Guide to CASA/OUSA (for the average student): In Plain English

Til then, feel free to drop me a line!

Yours,

Mary
president@msu.mcmaster.ca

Wow, what a crazy month it has been.

Since taking office nearly four weeks ago, it has been nonstop working for all of the board, including me. The first two weeks were filled with meetings, mainly with high level university administration to introduce myself and begin building a good relationship with them. I have also been meeting a lot with the City of Hamilton. These meetings have been very productive and together we have made great strides towards developing new outside the classroom experiences for McMaster Students. Personally, I am attempting to facilitate new coop and internship opportunities with the city to improve experiential education.

We were caught off guard by the attempt to reconsider the motion to close Art History at Senate during the second week in May. Thankfully and due to the hard work of many in the MSU we were able to speak against the motion over our concerns regarding the lack of student input on the issue. In part because of our efforts, in addition to other Senators, Student Senators and other, the motion failed. This means that Art History will remain operating for the time being. For more on this issue, please contact Matthew Dillon-Leitch, the MSU University Affairs Commissioner, or myself. 

The past two weeks have been spent on conferences (I am writing this blog post from Toronto). Last week I was in Ottawa for the Town and Gown Association, which works to improve university- community relations around the province. Joining me was the SCSN Director, who benefitted greatly from the discussions and lectures. We plan on bringing some of the new ideas presented back to the MSU and using them to improve community relations in Hamilton.

Right after I was off to Waterloo for the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) central transition. It was extremely interesting, but I will save the exciting CASA details for after the major CASA conference which is occurring in two weeks. This is a very important year for the Alliance in that a proposal to completely change the organizational structure will be discussed. Additionally, the MSU will be deciding on whether or not to remain members of CASA this year (for more information please contact me or the External Affairs Commissioner).

Currently, I am in Toronto at the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) transition conference. I will be talking a fair amount about OUSA this year as we will be involved in writing policy, a possible expansion of the alliance, and in changing the structure of CASA. Being a transition conference, most of the time is spent getting me, and my counterparts, up to speed on what is going on in the organization. Once major changes or decision are made, you will find out on the MSU website (later today the OUSA executive will be elected and a release will follow!). My next blog post will explain in greater detail our role in OUSA and CASA, once the direction for the year for both alliances has been set. 

This promises to be a very exciting year we have the CASA review, a municipal election, and OUSA possibly expanding, just to name a few….well it is exciting to me. If this is exciting to you, or would like to being excited about what I do, please feel free to contact me!

All the best,

Joe Finkle

What is up McMaster!

I can’t believe I’ve already been on the job for over two weeks. The job is just as hectic as I imagined but even more fun than I expected. It’s hard to summarize exactly what I’ve been doing over the past two weeks. I’ve had tons of meetings, lots of introductions, a multitude of brain storming sessions and a number of awesome bonding moments with the rest of the team.

What I’ve really enjoyed is collaborating with a number of various people, mainly the BoD, SRA members and University faculty, to work on various projects. There’s a number of exciting projects that numerous people are working on which promise a big year for McMaster students. But aside from starting a few projects and setting a direction I’ve also done a lot of learning. This job has a very steep learning curve and the expectations are very high.

                I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of support to provide information and dive into several projects while I fulfil a number of the other obligations with the job. The SRA Finance Commissioner, James Steels, the Standing Committee on Finance and the MSU accounting staff have done a terrific job in doing year-ends and beginning work on reviewing and amending the budget. In regards to this project, the definition of capital expenditures is currently under review which provides a necessary and strong starting point. We couldn’t possibly begin adjusting the budget expenses if we change the definition of what is an expenditure by reclassifying what is considered a capital expense. From this we will dive into elaborating on and adjusting the budget appropriately to be passed in September. 

                I would also like to thank everyone else who’s given me professional and emotional support as I swim deeper past the tip of the iceberg. Though I hear it gets colder the deeper you swim, I know the MSU has a strong crew to maintain focus. I’m always available for some professional or personal advice so please give me a shout if you have any concerns.

All the best,

Nick Shorten

Vice-President (Finance)

vpfinance@msu.mcmaster.ca