Meeting of the Board of Directors of the
Woodsworth College Students’ Association
Friday, November 20th, 2015
119 St. George Street
CONTENT
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Agenda
Previous Executive Meeting Minutes
Previous Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Board Reports
Appendix
a. Office Hours Attendance
b. Statement of Intent – Mature Students’ Director
1. Agenda
1) Call to Order
2) Approval of the Agenda
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
3) Approval of the Previous Executive Meeting Minutes
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
4) Approval of the Previous Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
5) Approval of the Board Reports
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
6) Student Lounge Renovations
BIRT the WCSA BoD strike an ad hoc 'Student Lounge Renovations' committee to be chaired
by Hauck.
7) Gala Coordinators
BIRT the WCSA BoD ratify the hiring of Brooke Diao and Saadia Esat to the position of Gala
Coordinators for the 2016 Annual Awards Gala.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
8) Committees
Elections and Referenda Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint ________, ________, ________ to the Elections and Referenda
Committee to be co-chaired by Hauck and Alcena.
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
Executive Review Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint ________, ________, ________, ________ to the Executive Review
Committee to be chaired by ________
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
External Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint ________, ________, ________, ________ to the External Committee to be
chaired by Amanda Li.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Editorial Review Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint ________, ________, ________, ________ to the Editorial Review
Committee to be chaired by Amanda Li.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Athletics Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint ________, ________, ________ to the Athletics Committee to be chaired
by Danielle Ouellette and Miranda Li.
Moved: Ouellette
Seconded: Cookson
Policy Review Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint ________, ________, ________, ________ to the Policy Review Committee
to be chaired by Hauck.
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
9) Mature Students’ Director
BIRT the WCSA BoD recommend Amina Jama to the position of Mature Students’ Director for
the 2015-2016 term.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded:
10) Equity Chair
No Motion.
11) Get Well with WCSA Week
No Motion.
12) Other Business
13) Adjournment
2) Previous Executive Meeting Minutes
Meeting of the Executive of the
Woodsworth College Students’ Association
Monday, October 26th, 2015
119 St. George Street
In Attendance:
Olivia Hauck (President)
Danielle Ouellette (Vice-President of Athletic Affairs)
Shonali Lakhani (Vice-President of Public Relations)
Ongio Tsui (Vice-President of Social Affairs)
Aadil Nathani (Vice-President Financial Affairs)
Regrets:
Teeka Cookson (Vice-President of Internal Affairs)
Amanda Li (Vice-President of External Affairs)
Agenda:
1.
Call to Order
2.
Updates
3.
Streetcar Pub Crawl
4.
Write to Excite
5.
AGM Part 2
1.
Call to Order 9:08 pm
2.
Updates
Cookson: Hi all, sorry I can’t be there today! I just wanted to give you a few updates on the
internal portfolio this week:
• We hired Gala Coordinators. They are Saadia and Brooke. I am meeting with them
tomorrow at 2pm to have them sign their contracts and to go over expectations and next
steps. We will ratify them at the next board meeting.
• Pub-crawl fiasco – Olivia and Ongio will update more/have already updated I’m sure but
we dealt with that this week.
• We need to get room 100 cleared out this week/weekend sometime. A lot of it is just
moving stuff to basement. I’m going to designate and area of the basement specifically for
old frosh stuff that can be used for next year as well. Some of the stuff we can use for our
events this year (plates, napkins, etc.)
• I was asked to sit on the Woodsworth Space Planning Committee, which is a new
committee that has been implemented to discuss the use of Woodsworth spaces.
• I’ve also been in touch/meeting this week with all our new directors regarding their
portfolios and they are all great so I’m super excited to work with them!
• I’m working on planning two events for November – both are distress events. Zumba,
which I’m going to collab with Danielle on I think, as part of the Workout with Woodsworth
series, and a therapy dog session. I’ve contacted the St. John’s Ambulance therapy dog
program so just waiting to hear back from them.
Ouellette: Athletics portfolio is 100% under control, which is weird. I ordered shirts over
last week to be sold to our players. We’ll sell it to them for $5. If we run out, we’ll dip into
Shonali’s store, if we have too many we can save them for next year. It did go a little over
budget, but I have a lot of extra in my budget. If you want I can reallocate it but I don’t have
the budget lines in my head now. High Park run will be on November 7. Miranda Li
spearheaded this one. She’s done a great job. We have enough TTC tokens to provide round
trips for 35 students. She’s also organizing a hot chocolate event afterwards. I am also
planning on collaborating with the First Year Directors portfolio. We were thinking we
could do either a varsity hockey game, or our hockey captain contacted me today and it
looks like they’ll make the playoffs. So I think it would be awesome where we could get an
event to a varsity game, have a tailgate party, have some hot chocolate before or something
The First Year portfolio would be a great one to get involved in this and to integrate some
of the directors. The Workout with Woodsworth campaign is also starting.
Tsui: I’ve been dealing with pub crawl over the past weeks, I’ll speak to it in the agenda. I’m
planning coffee cupping at the end of November with the remaining budget. It’ll be a small
event with max 20 people. With Welcome Back Social and Coffee Crawl, the students are
enjoying the passive, simple events we’re having. For the remainder of the month, Ryan
and I will be dealing with the social committee which we’ve already begun drafting emails
for. Coffee Crawl was a success. Winterfest committee page just started, Ryan and I are
already on, but nothing has really been spoken about on it yet. I’ve already been in contact
with the gala coordinators.
Nathani: This is my first exec meeting, so I’m excited to get working. So far, I’ve just been
trying to get my feet wet with it. I’ve met with Teeka to show me what we have so far, and
I’ve also met with Dylan. I’m going to the bank tomorrow to get signing authority. I’ll catch
up with singing with cheques hopefully this week. Dylan and I will be sitting in this office
on Friday for 7-8 hours to catch up with the two months of expensifying and ledger items.
Lakhani: I’ve had people on PR committee working on different things. One person, for
example, is doing blog posts once a month, trying to get people to write on interviews with
clubs and team captains. I’ve had three people ask me about Halloween Haunt and seeing if
we’re selling tickets, so I wanted to see if we could still do that. Barbara asked me for the
exact content of the signs cause she wanted to get a quote on it. The WiNC president asked
me about space. They don’t have a place to store things; they didn’t even know their stuff
was in the office. They were wondering if we would give them space in the basement, or
even a locker. Besides that I’m doing a contest on social media for free movie tickets. So it
would be awesome if you encouraged people to enter. I also spoke to Christina to do an
internal election for Part-Time and Mature students because those positions are still empty.
She said she would reach out to groups and ask around.
Hauck: Ongio, Teeka and I have been dealing with Pub Crawl and comments for The
Varsity, meeting with some of the students who organized the boycott. Teeka and I met
with them on the weekend. The conversation was productive, it went well, we heard each
other’s points. One of the things that came out of that was interest in sitting in on the
Students’ Coalition Against Sexual Violence. They’re looking to do an inter-collegiate
collaboration with all the colleges. I said I was willing to sit in on their meetings and be part
of the convo. There will also be a space committee meeting that I’ll also be sitting on,
beginning of November. The WCSA composites are finally sorted out. The 2014-2015
should be delivered soon and updated to include everyone’s photo. I’m hopefully going to
the swap shop this week, or call them, to see if they got any couches in for the students
lounge. I’ll hopefully have a meeting with Liza this week to go over things and update her.
3.
Streetcar Pub Crawl
Tsui: It has been cancelled. Not because of boycott, due to low-ticket sales. We
implemented many precautions this year as sort of a pilot event of its kind, and the
transition affected the ticket sales. The bars and streetcar has been contacted, we’re not
losing any money. Students will be refunded; they’ll be contacted soon. We’ll have to work
it out how to do so soon. Savannah the former Student Life Coordinator sent us an email
commending us for our efforts for students’ safety and inclusivity. Christina, the current
Student Life Coordinator also sent an email on behalf of the Dean’s Office. I also sent the
sober leaders an email thanking them for volunteering.
Hauck: We’ve had a lot of support from student life and just students in general. It’s sad
that the event isn’t going forward, but at least we took a step in the right direction in
regards to risk management. There was a boycott event page created, I don’t believe it was
endorsed by any organizations but it was asked to be endorsed. Teeka and I reached out to
the students who started the boycott to meet with them. It was a productive conversation,
they gave us goods points and we gave them points on how we changed the event. It may
lead to a larger conversation regarding the Students’ Coalition Against Sexual Violence.
Tsui: I spoke with Teeka and we’ll emphasize more on safety and risk management on all
our future programming.
Hauck: Any questions?
Ouellette: I’m just very impressed how you guys handled it.
Tsui: The Varisty also contacted us, asking us questions on how we planned on handling
precautions. I think the article was really well-written, they did include all our
precautionary measures.
Hauck: I think we handled the situation well. I met with Jasmine from the UTSU because
when they were approached to endorse the boycott, she said that she would speak to us.
But most of the stuff she wanted to talk about was in the article, so it was good. I am very
proud of everyone, and how we handled it.
Tsui: Even board members!
Ouellette: Yeah, even the new elected directors! They handled it well and still were proud
to be on WCSA.
Hauck: Thanks for Ongio for creating such a great risk management proposal.
Tsui: Thanks, yeah I think it was good and very comprehensive.
Nathani: Sorry it didn’t happen.
4.
Write to Excite
Tsui: So Ryan Standil asked if someone from WCSA could attend the first workshop to talk
to possible students. Shonali and Teeka can’t go. It is a WCSA event so there should be some
presence.
Nathani: He’s been asking me as well.
Tsui: He’s willing to give it for free for whoever goes.
Lakhani: Is it only for Woodsworth students?
Tsui: I’m not sure, but he wanted one of us present to talk to the students. When are the
sessions?
Lakhani: 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm or 7 pm - 9 pm on Thursday.
Tsui: Can you go Shonali? Just address the student body and be there, show that WCSA is
endorsing it.
Lakhani: I might be able to work something else
Hauck: Shonali will possibly go, if not we’ll open it up to the board for someone to go.
5.
AGM Part 2
Hauck: As some of you may now, the AGM got cut short because the meeting was running
on forever. AGM Part 2 is November 18th. This meeting they’ll be ratifying the new UTSU
board structure. I really want the whole board to be there. They’re not calling it an SGU,
there’s an SGU happening around the same time. They’ve switched over to online proxy
forms now, and it goes live November 7th and they will be running in until the 17th. Try to
get your friends to come. If they can’t come out, be their proxy, they just submit a form.
Nathani: What time is it?
Lakhani: 5:30 pm – 10:30 pm.
Hauck: You don’t have to stay for the whole thing, but be there for the first part. They need
two thirds for ratifying.
Lakhani: Is this the proposal we wanted?
Hauck: Yes it’s Christina and Damon’s proposal. I’m trying to get the whole board to come,
or get as many proxies as possible.
Ouellette: Can’t you have up to 20?
Hauck: 10. Try to get people to come out; we really need the two thirds majority. What
sucks is that if they can’t ratify it they’ll have to keep having these meetings because they
have to ratify by the end of the year.
Tsui: Get the Woodsworth Residence Outreach Director to tell the students.
Hauck: Yeah that’s a good idea, but yeah online proxy forms are so much more convenient,
we can hopefully get more proxies.
Adjournment at 9:52 pm.
Motion: Hauck
Motion passed.
Second: Ouellette
Meeting of the Executive of the
Woodsworth College Students’ Association
Monday, November 2nd, 2015
119 St. George Street
In Attendance:
Olivia Hauck (President)
Teeka Cookson (Vice-President of Internal Affairs)
Amanda Li (Vice-President of External Affairs)
Danielle Ouellette (Vice-President of Athletic Affairs)
Shonali Lakhani (Vice-President of Public Relations)
Ongio Tsui (Vice-President of Social Affairs)
Regrets:
Aadil Nathani (Vice-President Financial Affairs)
Agenda:
6.
Call to Order
7.
Updates
8.
Red Party
9.
Individual Initiative Grant
10.
Affiliated Clubs Policy
11.
Varsity Article
12.
Winterfest
13.
Marlies’ Tickets Sales
1.
Call to Order 9:10 pm
2.
Updates
Ouellette: Things are going well. I updated the captains today; also playoffs are this week if
they make it. I also touched base with them on the social event I want them to hold with
their teams. If every team wants to do this, each team will get $63 subsidy. If they don’t
claim their dollars by a certain date I will redistribute the budget based on those who are
participating. Winter intramurals are coming up; teams are due November 18th. Winter
forms are a lot easier than fall forms, but its just bad timing, so it’ll be busy again. Miranda
has organized the High Park this Saturday on the 7th. Should be pretty fun! I’ve got enough
tokens for 35 students. I’m impressed with her work for this. We also have the Marlies’
game coming up and I ‘d love to do another Work Out with Woodsworth initiative. I was
thinking zumba or yoga. I liked our yoga teacher.
Hauck: Not too much new with me, I contacted Cathy from Soldier’s Tower today. She
brought a poppy donation box today. Next Wednesday is the Remembrance Day ceremony,
I’m hoping a lot of the board will be there. We’ll lay the wreath like we usually do which is
awesome. I mentioned the AGM part 2 last week, on Wednesday they’ll be releasing the
proxy form so we’ll try to get as many board members as we can. Ongio will probably talk
about Winterfest, which they set their first meeting for. We’ll also ask the board members
for their hoodie size and Shonali and I will work on the graphics.
Cookson: We hired our gala coordinators last week. I met with them Tuesday to go over
expectations on WCSA’s end and the timeline. We haven’t decided on a final date yet, but it
will be either March 18th, April 1st or 2nd. Classes don’t end until April 8th this year actually.
Some of the venues have better options if they do first week of April. They’re going to look
at a bunch of venues this week. I’ll hopefully set up a meeting with Olivia, Ongio and Aadil
to go over more details. Like Olivia said, Remembrance Day ceremony will be next
Wednesday. I’ve been busy touching base with new board members. I’ve also been working
with Sandleen to get CCR notation for the conference. I’m also looking at getting CCR
notification for the gala coordinators, its only fair since the Orientation Coordinators did.
Aadil and I called MasterCard today so he officially has a credit card for WCSA. We went to
the bank last week and he has signing authority on the account too. I’m also waiting to hear
back from another animal therapy organization. St. John’s was really full this year, but
hopefully we can have an event with them in the new year.
Tsui: I connected with gala coordinators this week over Facebook. Ryan and I are drafting
the outlook for the social committee. For the coffee tasting I went to the café yesterday and
spoke with the manager. Like Olivia said, Winterfest had the first meeting this week which
I’ll talk more about in the agenda item.
Lakhani: I met with the PR committee to talk about a yearbook for graduating students to
see how it would look. There are several things I would need to look into first. I’m getting
Jing to help with the display case, getting it together and getting things printed. I’m looking
into business cards for the two new execs. It’s much harder to get the same rate as before
because there are fewer orders. I do have a buffer, so I may look into how many directors
would use them. The minimum order online would be 100 per person. I also spoke to
Olivia briefly about hoodies so we’ll work on that. We have decided on ash gray with navy
writing.
Li: Spent a lot of time the last few weeks catching up in terms of initiatives that have been
started. I almost completed the affiliated clubs policy. I have also made a decision for the
individual initiative grant. This week I started meeting with the presidents to double-check
their budgets and plans for the year. I know WiNC wants to update their budget and I’m
still waiting to meet with a few other clubs.
3.
Red Party
Tsui: I just wanted to ask, we did look into hosting it somewhere other than L’Espresso. Do
we have a special agreement with them to always host it there?
Cookson: Not that I know of.
Tsui: It is nice, but I wanted to look into other places.
Hauck: They have been very generous in the past, like last year during frosh there were
discounts for the students.
Tsui: So we don’t have to stick with it?
Ouellette: Where else were you looking at?
Tsui: Jimmy’s Coffee. It’s a retro fitted Victorian house. We can book out the entire place.
They also have food there so it can be catered. I’ve been looking around to shake things up
a bit. But I like how L’Espresso is so convenient. But the alcohol aspect, the Streetcar pub
crawl controversy has changed our plans for the year.
Cookson: Yeah I wanted to know your plans for that and how you plan to manage any
backlash we would get?
Tsui: Yeah, so Ryan and I are leaning towards a cocktail party style. Usually Red Party isn’t
too big of a problem, but of course we would still have risk management plans in place.
Cookson: Yeah it’s definitely less risky than pub crawl.
Hauck: In the past it has been a collaboration with the Mature Students’ Association so it’s
been a cocktail party.
Tsui: Yeah I should reach out to them and see if they would collaboration.
Cookson: You could also change the name and re-brand it.
Lakhani: I think L’Espresso is a good idea because if a lot of residence students come and
they can just go back upstairs. Secondly, there was a new article in the Varsity and if we
continue to have alcohol at the event similar stuff could come up and they would try to shut
it down. I also think changing the name would be difficult since it’s always been the
tradition.
Ouellette: I agree with Shonali, the name is a draw in itself for some people. In terms of
alcohol, since we have the entire space to ourselves, it is a lower risk event. I think not
having alcohol events at all isn’t the solution, I think better risk management and
protection is the solution.
Li: Yeah I agree.
Cookson: We need experience handling these things. There’s no sure way to ensure it’s
100% safe.
Ouellette: There’s this culture about needing to drink to have fun, but when we dispel this
culture it’s fine.
Cookson: It’s not even that kind of event, its more classy for people to go out just before
exams to hang out with friends.
Ouellette: Yeah it’s a great way to get our feet wet with dealing with alcohol at an event
with Red Party instead jumping into pub crawl right away.
Li: I think we’ll still see some backlash, but like Teeka said we want to keep it as a more
classy cocktail event, we’ll avoid the issue of people stumbling in and out drunk. It’s better
to solve the issue.
Hauck: If we collaborate with the Mature Students’ Association, it would change the whole
atmosphere to this event.
Cookson: We just don’t have a rep for them yet.
Lakhani: I have contacted Christina and she said we could have another internal election
and she said she could also reach out to mature students’ groups to see if there’s any
interest.
Cookson: Yeah I’ll talk to Christina about this. So Red Party is a month away so we’d have to
start going with it.
Ouellette: The new venue is a pretty cool idea.
Tsui: Yeah I spoke with them and the price is reasonable, it’s comparable to Mercurio.
Li: I think the thing we should consider is whether or not to stay on campus to mitigate
what happened with pub crawl.
Tsui: Yeah we’ll definitely look into everything.
4.
Individual Initiative Grant
Li: I decided on a recipient on the first grant today. I discussed with Teeka about this, I have
$600 to allocate to a grant. I’d rather do this on a rolling basis instead of two separate ones.
This way we can always reconsider individuals who have applied before. I did decide to
give Kevin the first grant. He is one of the applicants who is working alone so he isn’t
getting help elsewhere. There was another applicant who is very strong but is already
getting support from UTSU and Kevin’s is an academic initiative. It is to attend a
conference, the Actuarial Students National Association Conference. I need to run it by
Aadil to see if it’s a reimbursement or give it as a cheque. I’m not going to let Kevin know
just yet. I need to draft emails for those who aren’t getting it and I need to decide if we’ll reconsider them next round. Also, WCSA board members are not allowed to apply just
because it’s a conflict of interest, I got a few questions about that.
Tsui: Where is the conference?
Li: Niagara. I think his $200 budget for transportation is reasonable. I also think a
reimbursement is better for it.
Lakhani: I also agree, just so we see where the money is going.
Li: Yeah I just want to be able to see where these funds are going, if the rest of the exec is
okay with this.
Ouellette: Sounds great.
Cookson: I’m okay with all of the above.
Li: We didn’t get that many applications so maybe next time we could advertise it more.
Ouellette: Was there no promotion this time?
Li: By the time Shonali and I thought of it, it was two days before the due date.
Lakhani: I could put up posters and promote more next time.
5.
Affiliate Clubs Policy
Li: I’ve been working on updating a new affiliate clubs policy. This was an initiative created
by the Interim VP External but not completed. I completed a draft and I wanted to go
through the draft with the rest of the exec on the ones that affect them the most, mainly PR
and finance. Any additional funding from us is to be applied for, this year we don’t have
much a budget to work with but next year we could reallocate a budget with them, but
definitely not as much as for WCSA clubs. What would I do with it after I’m done with the
policy?
Cookson: We would probably sit with Christina and maybe Liza to go through it. We should
make sure they’re okay getting bookings from clubs not under WCSA.
Ouellette: The policy review committee would have to go through with it too. You could just
send it to Olivia and she can call a meeting with her committee.
Hauck: Yup.
Li: Hopefully I can get it done before the next board meeting.
Hauck: It may take time to get the policy review committee to meet so ideally this month’s
board meeting, but if not, December’s.
Ouellette: Does it have it go through Christina?
Cookson: I just want to do it as a curtsey to them since there were some discrepancies this
year with bookings.
Li: Okay I’ll email the Dean’s Office and cc you in it.
Lakhani: Are you going to add something about if they don’t use the space like they said
they would, would you revoke their privileges?
Li: Yeah they have to adhere to all WCSA policies and they’ll have to show that they really
are working to include Woodsworth students, and it’s not just a generic U of T group.
6.
Varsity Article
Tsui: There was another article reported on our cancellation of the event where they also
interview Lisa again on her thoughts regarding the cancellation. It briefly mentioned her
meeting with Teeka and Olivia. Varsity contacted Olivia for comment but we couldn’t get to
it.
Hauck: Yeah they emailed me but I went home on the weekend and when I checked my
WCSA email they wanted a response the day before. I emailed them asking if I could still
submit a statement but they never answered me.
Li: I don’t think we should necessarily say we aren’t doing alcohol events going forward.
That just solidifies their opinions and we’re admitting to these ‘issues’. I think we should
just focus on risk management plans. We need the chance to show them we can host events
that are safe and accessible to all students. Like we said, we aren’t the only group that hosts
alcohol at our events, and I don’t want to be the one that doesn’t because of this.
Cookson: Going forward it might be worth including them in risk management planning.
They have interesting and valuable opinions on things we might overlook. It’ll also show
them that we care and want to include them in our consultation for events.
Ouellette: I don’t even know if they would go for it, I think it ran it course. All the risk
management needs to go forward but I don’t think there will be any boycott.
Tsui: Is there a request to meet with the Varsity to talk about events instead of them
contacting us?
Cookson: The only thing is that we never know what articles are being published until
there are.
Li: There’s no harm in reaching out.
Cookson: Maybe we can release a statement, not in response to the articles, but just stating
all the new initiatives we’re taking, like hiring an equity chair and having an equity
committee on how we’re leading the pack at U of T.
7.
Winterfest
Tsui: Last year Olivia and I were the reps for the social portfolio. I just want to outline if
we’ll approach Winterfest the same way?
CooksonL: I think so, are you okay with that?
Tsui: Yeah I budgeted $1000 for Winterfest. We’ll talk about budgeting this week on
Wednesday at the meeting. I’ll go with Ryan. Olivia will you be there too?
Hauck: Depends if I finish my two assignments, but I’ll let you know!
Tsui: Preliminarily speaking, that’s another alcoholic event on our plate. We have a history
of hosting the pancake kegger during the week.
Cookson: Who would bring the beer?
Tsui: CBS. That’s a safe as it gets.
Ouellette: And it’s during the day, people won’t get that drunk during the day.
Cookson: It’s also a collaboration with all the colleges so they can’t boycott just us.
Tsui: They may want to switch up the events so who knows if it’ll be happening this year.
8.
Marlies’ Tickets Sales
Ouellette: So we have 50 tickets for the game, which is on a Sunday this year. A bit of a
different event. I wanted to bring up whether we want to sell tickets in the normal way by
putting up a link at 10 am and there will be a line up out the door. Or should we do a lottery
style? It was Kevin’s idea. We could have them purchase $0 on the system and then do a
lottery with Christina overseeing it.
Cookson: I don’t think we’ll be able to do that logistically. We would have to run each of
their credit card numbers through a Moneris machine individually.
Li: I think it would be a good pilot to have a lottery before the Raptors game.
Ouellette: Should we have them come in and physically drop their name in a hat or
something?
Lakhani: Would that be hard for commuters?
Ouellette: I’m sure they’ll be on campus at least once a week as a student.
Li: We can have a Google form that randomizes their information?
Cookson: Yeah there’s an excel formula you can write to randomize.
Ouellette: That sounds great, if someone could help me set that up.
Lakhani: Yeah I could!
Li: So would we email them if they win the tickets and then they would have to pay to get
the tickets?
Ouellette: Yeah that’s what we would have to do.
Tsui: We have 3 weeks to do this.
Ouellette: They could pay in office?
Cookson: Yeah they have to come in to get the tickets anyway, the office staff will have a
excel list of all the names and they could check their IDs.
Ouellette: Okay, we can give them a deadline to pick up and pay for the tickets and the next
day we can have free for all for those that are left. Are we okay with selling them for $10 for
Woodsworth and $15 for non-Woodsworth?
Cookson: Yeah that’s good.
Li: Yeah this is a good test before the Raptors game.
9.
Gala
Cookson: Are we still doing open bar?
Hauck: Yes.
Lakhani: Are we gonna have different price options like last year for drinkers and nondrinkers?
Ouellette: Yes that’s a good idea.
Cookson: Yeah I just want to make sure we’re all okay with it.
Tsui: Uhhh…
Ouellette: For now we’ll say yes, if there any complaints we can change it.
Cookson: Okay the gala coordinators just need to know when looking around at venues.
Ouellette: Where are they looking at?
Cookson: They’re looking at the Steamwhistle Brewery, Casa Loma and the Trump hotel.
Ouellette: That’s awesome. What about the aquarium? I went to an event there and it was
incredible.
Cookson: Oh that’s cool, I’m open to suggesting it to them. When we were looking to book it
out for frosh last year it wasn’t too expensive.
Lakhani: Are they getting people to and from the gala?
Cookson: Yeah I told them they need to consider TTC tokens in the budget.
10.
Holiday Cards
Cookson: Are we doing holiday cards this year?
Ouellette: Yes!
Li: Yeah!
Cookson: Okay that’s good, we used Shutterfly last year. I was actually looking at their
website today. I can handle this, I just need to know how many we need.
Ouellette: I sent it to everyone last year, like anyone in our contacts.
Cookson: Okay so we can do holiday pictures on November 16th at the exec meeting.
Tsui: Do we have to dress in a certain way?
Cookson: Ugly Christmas sweaters! Or anything Christmas like. Or if you don’t celebrate
Christmas, you don’t have to wear anything special, the card will say ‘Happy Holidays’.
11.
Zumba Event
Cookson: I wanted to do a de-stress event since it was fun during frosh. But Danielle if you
want to have a yoga event, we can work on it together.
Ouellette: We could do zumba then yoga!
Lakhani: We’ve had a healthy week in the past where there were different days with
different activities.
Ouellette: We can have a de-stress day too, we had balloon popping before.
Cookson: Okay there would be zumba, yoga, balloon popping, what else?
Li: When’s Red Party? We could end the week off with it.
Ouellette: Yeah that would be great!
Cookson: We could do some meditation with mental wellness at U of T.
Li: I ‘d also like to have a clubs day in mini Kruger or something.
Ouellette: We can have: Get Involved: Clubs Day; Get Active: Zumba; Get Balanced: Yoga;
Get Centred: Wellness Workshop, Get Red-y: Red Party.
Cookson: Okay so this would be the week of November 30th to December 4th. Can you guys
start working on your respective portfolios for it?
Tsui: I’ll start working on Red Party for it.
Li: Yeah I’ll start contacting clubs.
Ouellette: I can reach out to our yoga contact. So we can call it ‘Get Well with WCSA Week’.
Lakhani: We can get the directors to collaborate on it too.
Ouellette: Yeah we’ve got a good group, I’m sure they’ll jump on this initiative. Wow this
was such a great think-tank moment going.
Cookson: Kruger is completely open for the Thursday, so I’d like to have zumba then.
Li: I’ll take whatever day is left for clubs day.
Cookson: I also want to have a WCSA goes to the Distillery District for the Christmas
Market! I’ll try to get the Full-Time Students’ Directors on this, and maybe a skating event
for the First Year Directors.
Ouellette: I want to get the first years to work on a varsity hockey event too.
Adjournment 10:32 pm.
Motion: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
Meeting of the Executive of the
Woodsworth College Students’ Association
Monday, November 16th, 2015
119 St. George Street
In Attendance:
Olivia Hauck (President)
Teeka Cookson (Vice-President of Internal Affairs)
Amanda Li (Vice-President of External Affairs)
Danielle Ouellette (Vice-President of Athletic Affairs)
Shonali Lakhani (Vice-President of Public Relations)
Ongio Tsui (Vice-President of Social Affairs)
Aadil Nathani (Vice-President Financial Affairs)
Agenda:
14.
Call to Order
15.
Updates
16.
Kettle for Student Lounge
17.
Grad Reception
18.
Board Retreat
19.
Winterfest
20.
Reallocation
21.
Yearbook
22.
Signage
23.
Gala
24.
Equity Committee
25.
Get Well with WCSA Yoga Session
26.
Get Well with WCSA – Get Involved
27.
The Howl
28.
Other Business
1.
Call to Order 9:29 pm
2.
Updates
Hauck: I have an SGRT meeting tomorrow. Today we hosted an AGM town hall to get
students to get more information to proxy their votes. We had a few show up. The AGM is
this Wednesday from 5:30-10:30. If anyone can come that’d be great. The space committee
met the week before, but I wasn’t able to attend so Teeka went in my place, I heard the
meeting went well. I also met with Liza talking about initiative I want to go forward with.
She gave me the idea of striking an ad-hoc student lounge renovating committee. I also
attended the Remembrance Day ceremony it was beautiful. I was also at the equity
planning meeting that went well.
Tsui: I coordinated with Ryan and the social committee, we’re going to have a launch event
on November 26th. Gala coordinators will also be present to advertise their committee
members. Red Party is confirmed for December 4th from 7:30 pm to 11:30pm. Full Time
Students’ Director will be taking care of music. I reached out to APUS and MatSA, Academic
Bridging and Off Campus portfolios to see if they want to contribute somehow. We can
incorporate that into how to advertise the wellness week. Coffee tasting is booked for
December 7th from 3-4 pm. It’ll be a ‘know your coffee’, ‘de-stress before finals’ event at
Boxcar Social in Summerhill. It’ll be $5 for everyone but Woodsworth students have
priority as it is a small event. Winterfest had a meeting last Friday. The planning is going
well. I’m on the pub crawl sub-committee which we had our first meeting today. Otherwise
it’s all good.
Lakhani: I put a banner in the student lounge with the help of directors. I ordered business
cards for Amanda, Aadil, Sandleen, Kristine and Sarah. Besides that I have been talking to
Barbara about signage. I had a meeting with the PR committee on Friday, we delegated
tasks trying to figure out if the yearbook is going to happen. I also started advertising for
students to come to our board meetings if they are part time or mature students so we can
hopefully internally elect them. I advertised for the town hall today.
Nathani: Since the last time I spoke, we’re done at the bank finally. Me, Teeka and Olivia are
signing authorities. Mastercard is approved but we’re waiting for it to come in still. In
terms of the audit, due to miscommunication we just submitted it last week. I sent over the
letter or engagement and few other documents. In terms of catching up with this big pile,
Dylan’s been a big help in his office hours. We’re halfway through October so we’re getting
there.
Cookson: Get Well With WCSA is going well. I’m still waiting to hear back from a zumba
instructor. Nasra and Wenjun want to hold a Movember event so I think we’ll do that in
Kruger on the 30th. Alyy and Zack are handling the balloon de-stresser event, which is
happening on Tuesday. A puppy playtime therapy with Jack.org will be happening on the
9th in Waters Lounge. Zack and Alyy will be handling the PR for that. All the spaces have
been booked for these events already. Over the next week I’ll be sending the request for the
holiday cards and working more on the events.
Ouellette: I want to thank everyone for being so on top of things. I’m super impressed with
all our initiatives and programming. Great job guys. For the Marlies we have 42 responses!
And most people want 2 tickets so we’ll sell out! I also have lots of intramural stuff to go
through. I’m in the process of submitting teams for the winter semester and setting up the
teams in IMLeagues. Our men’s hockey team, two of our soccer teams and our women’s
basketball team are all in the finals! The teams have been doing their socials. They had until
this Wednesday to claim their money, I’m being a bit more leinient since not every team
claimed theirs. Also I am pitching an idea for the First Year Directors to do a social where
they bring people from residence to a hockey playoff game. Miranda did a High Park run for
us, it was a huge success and I’m very proud of her for that. The other thing I want to
mention is the team social reimbursement. If any team captains come in, make sure they
can only claim up to $70 and keep track of who’s who.
Li: I did the Howl interviews today and I completed the affiliated clubs policy I sent it to the
exec today. Hopefully I can meet with Liza soon and run through the policy committee and
have it ratified at the December board meeting. We’re going to run this years version of a
clubs launch on the Monday of Get Well With WCSA.
3.
Kettle for the Student Lounge
Hauck: During my office hours a student came in and was interested in getting a kettle for
the student lounge.
Lakhani: There’s one in the office why don’t we put it out there?
Cookson: We can try it out and see it if it works.
Tsui: What if people steal it?
Nathani: Yeah.
Hauck: It’s like a $12 kettle.
Ouellette: We can try to trust people. So the consensus is that it’s a yes for the kettle.
Cookson: It works!
4.
Grad Reception
Hauck: Grace from APUS contacted me, they’re hosting a grad reception this Thursday in
Waters Lounge. They want out exec to be present, they were also talking about money for
food.
Cookson: Is it a grad reception for part-time students?
Hauck: I believe so.
Lakhani: Woodsworth ones?
Hauck: I think it’s everyone. They just wanted publicity, food for money and exec present.
Nathani: Is it a college collaboration?
Hauck: I don’t think so, she didn’t state who else was involved.
Cookson: We do have $500 in the budget for part time students. We could give them $50$100.
Lakhani: Make sure they have an itemized receipt.
Hauck: Good, perfect.
5.
Board Retreat
Hauck: I’m in the process of planning our board retreat, it’ll be a little different this year,
it’ll be some sort of activity. I just wanted some ideas from you guys. Should we have it this
semester or next?
Cookson: I think it’s getting a little tight right now especially with all our events.
Tsui: I would suggest like one night at the Hart House farm.
Cookson: It would be too cold in January and I don’t want to drive up there in the snow.
Hauck: Go out for dinner?
Cookson: Skyzone!
Nathani: I can maybe work out a cheaper price for Skyzone.
Cookson: One of the directors has a friend that works there and said we can get it
discounted.
Tsui: Is there a budget?
Hauck: We actually have a pretty decent budget, I think $1500.
Nathani: $1200.
Tsui: Can we get food?
Ouellette: Drinks!
Hauck: I was thinking of going out for food and drinks after. Should we go out or go to
someone’s place?
Ouellette: I think someone’s place is good!
Li: We can try my place, my condo has a nice party room!
Nathani: Yeah look into it.
Hauck: Okay should I give the board some suggestions for activities?
Li: Paintballing?
Ouellette: Bowling? Archery tag?
Hauck: Okay I’ll post in the facebook group.
6.
Winterfest
Tsui: I want to inquire about asecurecart. I know we can put in an input for student
numbers, do we verify people are a U of T students?
Cookson: We can, we can send it to Christina after and she can check.
Tsui: Winterfest wants to verify that people who buy online are actually U of T students. I
mentioned we do it normally so I was wondering if we could open it to other divisions?
Cookson: The dean’s office can do it; they just have to set it up. Maybe if they set it up so
that students have to log into their UTORid before buying the tickets that would be good.
But you’d have to talk to the IT department and that’s huge.
Tsui: I also need asecurecart for Red Party and the Coffee Crawl.
Cookson: Okay I’ll try to get it to you as soon as possible, how much are you selling tickets
for?
Tsui: Coffee Crawl is $5. Red Party, I don’t know. How much was it last year?
Hauck: $5 and $10 last year.
Tsui: Okay that sounds good.
Lakhani: Why don’t we do it $5 and $7?
Tsui: It will depend on how many non-Woodsworth students come, if APUS and MatSA get
involved there could be a lot more.
Hauck: Is there anything else for Winterfest?
Tsui: Here’s the schedule:
Monday: Open Mic night at Vic
Tuesday: Pub Crawl
Wednesday: Drag show at Hart House
Thursday: Battle of the Band at Lee’s Palace/Club Night at the Nest
Friday: Pancake Social and possible athletic event.
Pancake crawl we’re still deciding when, it’ll be either Thursday or Friday and Innis has
Wednesdays.
Cookson: But we have WCSA Wednesdays!
Hauck: Can we ask to switch with them?
Tsui: I’ll bring it up.
7.
Reallocation
Lakhani: I spent money on business cards and I wasn’t sure if I can directly pull that from
emergency buffer somewhere or if I have to put that in the business cards line.
Cookson: We don’t usually reallocate after we purchased it but I guess it’s fine.
Nathani: Yeah just motion to reallocate it.
Cookson: Is there anywhere else to reallocate it from other than the emergency buffer?
Lakhani: I have a surplus from Rave Cards but I may want to buy more next semester.
Ouellette: You can just reallocate it then if you decide to buy more.
Motion to reallocate $25 from Rave Cards line to Contact Cards.
Moved: Lakhani
8.
Seconded: Cookson.
Yearbook
Lakhani: We want to do a yearbook for graduating students in June. We would need to get
consent from all students so we would need to send emails to everyone. I also don’t know
how we’ll get photos from Lassman with all the names.
Hauck: I think its too last minute for this year, there should have been a yearbook
committee starting to work on it in September. We can add it in our survey at the end of the
year to see if students are interested in this. It would be too much for Shonali and the PR
team to start now and it’s expensive and we can’t pay for it ourselves.
Lakhani: We just wanted all your opinions.
Ouellette: I think Olivia summed it up.
Hauck: I think a one-page summary of the year, as a collage, would be nice for this year
instead. I think a yearbook would be too much for this year.
Ouellette: The first years would be so down for this.
Tsui: Should the end of year survey be geared towards third year students then?
Lakhani: That would be for the graduating one but if a general one is happening then
everyone should be surveyed.
Hauck: We can always just ask people their year and then filter the data.
9.
Signage
Lakhani: I got a quotation from Barbara as to how much it’ll cost us to put a sign to direct
people and she said $807. I have a picture of what it will look like.
Hauck: Wow.
Li: I don’t know how far I can go with this, but my friend’s dad owns a signage company so
we can try to get it for cheaper.
Ouellette: It’ll be mounted on U of T property so I don’t know if it’ll have to go through
Barbara.
Cookson: Why does WCSA have to pay for it?
Hauck: Yeah did she mention anything about us paying for it?
Lakhani: Not really, I’m not sure.
Cookson: There will be a lot of renovations the next 2-3 years at Woodsworth so I don’t
want to pay for an $800 sign if it’ll be obsolete.
Hauck: Maybe ask if we get a foam one with the same information printed on?
Ouellette: We can make one ourselves, honestly.
10.
Gala
Nathani: The gala coordinators have booked the venue, it’ll be the Steamwhistle Brewery.
As it stands gala will need a bit more money to operate. We were discussing taking $3000
from the Mature students Budget which has $10,000.
Ouellette: Don’t we try to have gala less than $30,000? We get a lot of pushback from
students on how we spend our money, which is why ski trip didn’t happen.
Cookson: The catering is a lot more than anticipated and we’re already implementing cost
cutting measures like just purchasing their liquor license and getting our own alcohol
rather than using their bar. We told the coordinators that if this does pass it’s the absolute
cap.
Nathani: They’ve got the ball rolling with the gala committee I just got to sign the cheque
for them tomorrow so they can send the deposit of $5000 to Steamwhistle.
Lakhani: Where will the extra funds be taken from?
Li: They have $3000 in the conference
Hauck: that was cancelled last year so we can take it from there
Ouellette: That would be fine.
Motion to reallocate $3000 from the line for the Mature Students to the Gala Budget.
Motion: Nathani
Seconded: Ouellette
Motion passes.
Nathani: The reason its more this year, it’s a downtown venue, last year we went up to
Yonge and Eglinton to cut costs, but we want to keep it local here.
11.
Equity Committee
Cookson: We had an equity committee meeting on Friday evening, which was to discuss the
need for an equity chair or commissioner at the college. The outcome was that we decided
it would be someone on our board that can provide guidance for our events to make it
inclusive and safe for all our students. It should be someone with an equity background;
how we envision it unfolding will be an ex-officio member. They can speak to motion and
speak to recommendation, they just can’t vote. We decided the equity chair would chair an
equity committee. The chair will be hired through an interview and application process.
Sydney and Cailyn created an application to outline their background and experience in
community building and planning and to define the term intersectionality. Essentially they
want to start getting the application out soon, they were wondering if we could do the
advertising for it. We’d like applications to close December 2nd. Following that, the
successful applicants will be invited to the equity meeting and they can speak to why they
want the position. We would then put our recommendations forward and then it would go
to the board to ratify this person. We then have to consider writing this position into our
bylaws. This has to be done by the December 11th board meeting so we can ratify hiring a
chair. After this board meeting, this weekend we can get the policy review committee
together perhaps. I don’t think it’ll be that difficult to come up with.
Lakhani: Are we officially going to make it an elected position for April?
Cookson: No we don’t have control over that and we can’t have just any person. We were
thinking of every time we have a general meeting we would put a call out for a new equity
chair.
Lakhani: When you say hired, is it a paid position?
Cookson: No, I just said it that way because they have to go through an application and
interview process.
Hauck: Another thing we were thinking is that when Aakanksha brought up the idea, it
should be separate form the board and when you make them a voting member the lines get
a little blurry.
Cookson: I can send you all the application.
12.
Get Well With WCSA Yoga Session
Ouellette: We got contacted by Alexis from MoveU, she was hoping to collaborate with
WCSA for a yoga event on December 2nd conveniently. I was perfect because our usual yoga
instructor wasn’t available. They will be providing mats and instructors. Jack.org is getting
in on this and there will be food available. I’m putting in the PR request tomorrow, we are
going to advertise it under the Get Well With WCSA banner but we have to promote that its
open to all U of T students.
Lakhani: We can have both our logos on there.
Ouellette: That was something Alexis was concerned about but I was thinking we can put
our posters up in Woodsworth.
Cookson: I think we should keep it as Get Well With WCSA to keep it cohesive. They can
advertise it under their own banner around the AC but here we have it under Woodsworth.
Ouellette: Yeah, that’s not unreasonable to ask is it?
Cookson: No that’s fine.
Ouellette: I was thinking we could have a poster for the whole week’s schedule and others
for each individual day. We just need to make sure every poster looks kind of the same so
people know its one whole week.
13.
Get Well with WCSA – Get Involved
Li: I submitted my PR request today, it was very vague because we wanted it to be cohesive
but we can all work on it when Shoanli starts working on it. I also sent out an email to all
the clubs to get them involved, I said I would give them food as I do have a $1200 budget. I
wanted to talk to Krispy Kreme so we can discounted donuts like we did for frosh. I know
food is a huge incentive. I know some of the sports teams wanted to come out to do
recruiting. If anyone knows of any clubs that are looking for Woodsworth members let me
know.
Tsui: What about summer abroad? They’re Woodsworth.
Li: Yeah that’d be great if we can have a contact there.
Hauck: You can try to contact the dean’s office if they want to set up a table.
Li: Yeah anyone that wants to come, I’m more than okay with them coming.
Lakhani: People who came to frosh, they would love to come.
Li: Whoever has the contacts for this please send it over.
Cookson: I have them all from WOLF.
Li: Great. I was also thinking of doing a holiday theme like with candy canes and
gingerbread.
Ouellette: I think if we shape it for how people want to change for next year, like getting
involved or something, as a New Year’s resolution, that would be great.
Lakahni: What time is it?
Li: I have mini Kruger booked for November 30th from 11:30-4:30. I’m not sure if we will
need all that time but we’ll see how it goes.
Ouellette: We actually might if it’s going well, if it’s good we can keep it going.
Cookson: I can send you the email and all the clubs that we contacted for frosh.
Hauck: If our community outreach wanted to have a table and have bake sale or toy drive
that would be great.
Li: That’s a great idea, I’d love to have it there.
Cookson: Let me speak to Nasra and Wenjun and we can see how we can collaborate with it
for Movember. We can have a bake sale and raise funds.
Nathani: But if we have free donuts…
Cookson: We can sell them…
Tsui: WRC has a charitable event every year so we can see if they want to be involved.
Li: Yes I forgot about them, I’ll reach out.
Tsui: We have to make sure we have gluten free and peanut free options!
Li: Yeah I have a large budget if anything I can buy them.
14.
The Howl
Li: I only had one response for interviews.
Lakhani: How come?
Li: I only really had two applications to begin with. I interviewed Kevin today and he seems
the best for it, he was on it before and has great ideas on how to run it. Coincidentally, the
printing company did email me today asking if we still wanted to have a print. I’m thinking
not for this year since we don’t have a budget. I think we’re moving towards a blog type
publication. Kevin also mentioned he has a team of writers who use to be on it. I think if I
hired him before the clubs fair that would be perfect.
15.
Other Business
Tsui: I just want to recap Get Well With WCSA.
Monday: Clubs Fair and Movember
Tuesday Balloon Popping
Wednesday: Zumba
Thursday: Yoga
Friday: Red Party
Second thing. I came into my office hours and it was armed, we set off an alarm and we
were locked out from inputting a code. We contacted campus police and told them it was
just us. Radha came and fixed it, so if campus police follows up, you guys know.
Lakhani: I started to work on the poster, does anyone want to see?
Cookson: Yeah!
Nathani: If anyone hasn’t updated their budget, please do it soon, I’d like to have it before
December break.
Cookson: Mariposa Cruises already wants to book us for frosh next year. They feel bad for
messing up this year so they wanted to tentatively book for September. I’ll tentatively book
for now and see if the OCs want to go with them.
Adjournment 10:59 pm.
Motion: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
3) Previous Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Meeting of the Board of Directors of the
Woodsworth College Students’ Association
Monday, September 14th, 2015
119 St. George Street
In Attendance:
Olivia Hauck (President)
Teeka Cookson (Vice-President of Internal Affairs)
Shonali Lakhani (Vice President of Public Relations)
Ongio Tsui (Vice-President of Social Affairs)
Aadil Nathani (Vice-President Financial Affairs)
Amanda Li (Vice-President External Affairs)
Sarah Bear (Upper-Year Students Director)
Kristine Medrero (Upper-Year Students Director)
Novera Khan (Off-Campus Students Director)
Sandleen Azam (Professional Development Director)
Ryan Jeong (Associate Director of Social Affairs)
Dylan Forgas (Associate Director of Financial Affairs)
Jing Bian (Associate Director of Public Relations)
Zack Habi (Full Time Students' Director)
Alyy Patel (Full Time Students' Director)
Justin Zelnicker (First Year Students' Director)
Barbara Dacal (First Year Students' Director)
Nasra Mahad (Community Outreach Director)
Brad Dalgleish (Academic Bridging Director)
Wenjun (Sarah) Deng (Woodsworth Residence Director)
Julia Standish (89 Chestnut Residence Director)
Ex-Officio:
Christina Alcena (Incoming CRO)
Sabrina Lane-Smith (Outgoing Orientation Coordinator)
Chantal Issa (Outgoing Orientation Coordinator)
Cailyn Stewart (Woodsworth Director on the UTSU)
Aakanksha John (Outgoing VP External Affairs)
Other:
Sydney Lang
Defne Arslan
Ryan Standil
Regrets:
Danielle Oullette (Vice-President of Athletic Affairs)
Miranda Li (Associate Director of Athletic Affairs)
1) Call to Order 4:17 pm
2) Approval of the Agenda
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
Arslan: Could we add in to the agenda Write to Excite line to item number 9?
Motion to add Write to Excite as item number 9 to agenda.
Motion passed.
John: I’d like to move items 15 and 16 underneath Frosh Presentation, as I will no longer be
part of the board after item 8.
Motion to move item 15, Hiring an Equity Chair and item 16, Creating a team for the Legacy
Project to items 7 and 8, respectively.
Motion passed.
Cookson: Can I add a motion to Internal Elections?
Motion to appoint _____ to the position of Chestnut Director for 2015-2016.
Motion passes.
3) Approval of the Previous Executive Meeting Minutes
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
Motion passes.
4) Approval of the Previous Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
Motion passes.
5) Approval of the Board Reports
Hauck: My board report was added a bit later but will be added on the website as part of
the president’s blog. I wanted to wish everyone good luck on their assignments. WCSA has
been busy planning all our events. I also wanted to congratulate the newly elected board
members; I’m really excited to work with you guys this year.
Azam: I’d like to start off by congratulating new board member, looking forward to working
with you all. I’m in charge of the ‘Are You Woodsworthy?’ conference, it is set for February
27th and I’ve booked Kruger Hall so far, but I may change venues altogether. Please spread
the word about the planning committee, the deadline to apply is this Friday. I’m also
planning an event with U of T improve team. Last year had a good turn out; we’re aiming
for November 4.
John: This is my last board meeting, it has been an interesting time and I am very honoured
to serve my college. I wanted to give you all a summary of what the portfolio has been up
to. We’re looking to change to have an external policy to affiliate groups. An external
contract is being made for them specifically. I was also a head leader for frosh, I hope to
submit a reflection during the frosh presentation. We’ve started conversations for gaining
CCR notification for our clubs; we want them to be recognized for all the hard work they
put in. We also finished getting applications for the Howl. Interviews will be done this
week. I’ve also been working on the Legacy Project. It is a program for first years to shadow
senior students for a day, which will begin next month, keep an eye out for that. Thanks for
giving me the chance to serve.
Cookson: Huge thanks to Aakanksha for stepping up to the plate when we needed to fill this
position. We loved working with you and will miss you.
Moved: Hauck
Motion passed.
Seconded: Cookson
6) Frosh Presentation
Issa: There is a full breakdown in appendix.
- Under budget by a couple hundred dollars. Frosh revenue: surplus of $6000,
brought it up to $110 000 for WCSA.
- Frosh kits were a big saving after we changed suppliers.
- Block party had a lot of unexpected expenses: Pay for street signs mentioning it was
closed and parking. Other than that, everything was on budget. We got a lot of extra
funds when people registered the day of.
- We got $500 from Trinity on collaboration. $500 from Zipcar as sponsor.
- We bought TTC tokens that we didn’t need so we’re giving it to WCSA.
- We got to keep a lot of the leader deposits because some we had to take away, but
most people just didn’t pick it up. We decided with Teeka and we will be donating
this amount to Make A Wish.
Lane-Smith: We have a brief summary of how each event went in the appendix as well,
there were a few hiccups but we dealt with it well. The full one will be available in the
manual, but I didn’t want to put it in the board package as there is sensitive information
and it will be published online. If you have any questions let me know.
Please see appendix item 1, Aakanksha’s Frosh Reflection.
Issa: When we were hired the theme was supposed to be around the world. Travelling to a
different continent each day. We were hired to do that. After discussing with dean of
students, and sexual orientation offices they told us not to keep the theme, because of
exactly what Aakanksha talked about. We were nervous that people would take it out of
context. We changed it to celebrating different possible events from different places. Noting
changing the around the world theme to make it easier on us and people who could
possible criticize us. The theme was “Welcome to Your One Love Woodsworth”. No actual
things were being said other than during opening ceremonies to explain the theme. The
flags were up to welcome. The last thing we wanted to do was to disrespect or offend
anyone. We tried our best to make it as welcoming as possible.
John: Around the world theme itself was supposed to represent cultural diversity. And I
understand you tried to do so. On the frosh schedule itself that’s what it said and that’s
what everyone thought the theme is. When you talk about One Love Woodsworth, you’re
still talking about cultural diversity. Who are you welcoming? I’m saying that the frosh
events were not what you were trying to celebrate.
Issa: I agree, we bit on way more than we could chew. That’s what we’re apologizing for, we
realize how hard it would have been to do what we wanted to do with our orig. proposal.
That’s why people steer away from around the world theme, that’s why we changed it mid
way throughout the summer. We sought advice and we tried to keep it similar but focused
on celebrating specific events after. It was a pleasure working with everyone and good luck
with all the newly admitted board members.
Lane-Smith: Shout out to the OEC!
7) Hiring an Equity Chair
John: I would like to hire an equity chair speaking to the issue of frosh. There are still holes
and gaps. For example, we don’t recognize First Nation’s sovereign land, even when we
start WCSA meetings, which is ridiculous. When I was first year rep we had to approach our
VP internal but frankly I wasn’t sure how to approach her, I was afraid of offending her and
afraid being reprimanded. As a board member, you have a lot on your plate and
responsibility. But we need more inclusive framework; I think we need someone who is
dedicated to this. There should be applications for someone with the appropriate
knowledge and background, appointed by the college. They should not be part of WCSA,
but have an authority in it. A committee would be necessary as well. I strongly feel we need
someone not on the board to ensure everything is fair. I was thinking that the UTSU has a
racialized student collective and we could use their resources, I strongly support people
part of that space. I feel they are very educated on this topic. I think getting people
recognized by the university externally, who know and understand this topic, to form this
committee. We need people who have experience, and are not currently on the board,
which is a safe enough distance to form an appropriate committee.
Hauck: I just want to clarify, are we striking an ad-hoc committee, or are we looking at
external committee?
John: I’m concerned with whether we make it an open call, it may over lap with external. I
have another question, is TYP under a college?
Lakhani: I asked the registrar and TYP is not part of a college until they graduate into it.
Tsui: TYP is not part of the board, but Academic Bridging is.
Cookson grants speaking rights to Lang.
Lang: As an external person I want to enforce the seriousness of this. If someone on the
board experiences racism, that is a serious issue. I have been a part of the board for years
before this one, and ever year I have experienced sexism and sexual harassment. It needs to
be addressed and I want to make sure everyone is engaged in this issue and realize how
important it is.
John: It is important that we recognize this gap we have, it is incredibly critical. Regular
students can’t speak for themselves here. As a board, we have opinions for the majority, but
we need to critically analyze these opinions. We can’t exclude the minority.
Stewart: I know these issues make people uncomfortable, but it is important to recognize
that this is the first step in dealing with these issues and going through with the
investigation.
Motion to strike ad-hoc committee chaired by Cailyn Steward and Sydney Lang to investigate
the hiring of an Equity Chair.
Moved: John
Seconded: Stewart
Motion passed.
8) Creating a team for the Legacy Project
John: The legacy project is something Ongio wanted to bring up encouraging first year
engagement after frosh. We had an idea of mentor shadowing for the day. I want to strike a
committee to carry this forward after I leave the board to establish my framework of ideas.
I suggest the First Year Reps and Upper Year reps to take part in this initative.
Sydney: This is a great idea, but just to note, the dean’s office already has a mentorship and
e-mentorship program. So use them as a tool to see what they found successful in their
model or see if we can do something different.
John: Looking at existing frameworks is great and it is also to recognize upper year
students and what we go through. There’s three steps. The students would come to an
event, names get put in a pot and drawn to get matched up for the day, and then a final
reflection. There will be an open call for seniors to sign up.
Nathani: The idea is good in principle; but we also have the First Year Mentorship Program
with the Dean’s Office, which is the same thing you’re outlining.
John: I wanted something short term, the First Year Mentorship Program is long-term, this
is just one day. The work is going into making sure people are matched up.
Dacal: First year students aren’t really sure what’s going on and having the guidance of a
senior student would be very helpful to tell you what to do. Not having guidance now kind
of leaves us feeling stranded. I know that this program would help them find someone with
the experience to shadow, to help with the transition.
Justin: I just wanted to say I love your ideas and your opinions, keep saying what you are,
it’s important. I hope we can keep in touch.
John: Thank you, I really appreciate that.
Hauck: We need to think of a unique way to approach this, there are a lot of firs year
mentorship programs. So it has to be something unique but I’m definitely willing to explore
this.
John: It’s pretty much us giving them one on one advice. It works with commuter and
mature students’ schedules. Other programs require much more commitment where we
don’t as much.
Motion to strike an ad-hoc committee that is responsible for overseeing the mentorship
program.
Amendment: Motion to strike an ad-hoc committee that is responsible for discussing and
developing the Legacy Project
Moved: John
Seconded: Cookson
Motion passed.
9) Approval of the CRO Report
BIRT the WCSA BoD approve the report from the Chief Returning Office on the WCSA 2015
Fall by-elections as presented.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Motion passed.
10) By-Elections Results
BIRT the WCSA BoD ratify results of the 2015 Fall by-elections as presented.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Cookson: Congratulations to all those elected, it was a clean election with no issues or
challenges. I’ve read through the report, and there are no issues there. Klara also wants to
congratulate everyone, and thanks for listening to us and our rules.
Hauck: Congrats guys!
Motion passed.
11) Write to Excite Program
Hauck grants Standil speaking rights.
Standil: Thanks for having me! I was invited here by Defne, and we’ve had some positive
email dialogue with Olivia and Teeka. I was tutoring students one on one for 7 years at
Western. I finished law school and worked at a corporate law firm and was bored. I wanted
to go back to what I really enjoyed doing at Western. I am now giving a prep course
teaching students how to get great marks on essays. It’s interesting how so many bright
and high achieving students struggle the most articulating themselves. Write to Excite
encourages students to have the most complex ideas and articulating it in simple prose.
The course starts two Thursdays from now at OISE, if the board could help me spread the
word that would be great. The full price of the course is $199. The early bird price is $169 if
you sign up 7 days before. If you have any questions please let me know.
John: I definitely think there’s a need and that this works well with our portfolios, I
commend you for starting this. I like the framework of the idea that you encourage the
complex ideas students have. I wanted to propose to the board donating a sum of money
from the external portfolio to get a discounted rate for Woodsworth students.
Li: I think this is a great idea, I would definitely look into but we can’t make decisions about
this at the moment.
Cookson: Can external, professional development and upper years talk with Ryan further
about this after the meeting for a few minutes?
Dacal: Is there any specific processes with the essay writing workshop?
Ryan: I believe 99% of writing follows similar style, but of course they’re all different.
Will review and discuss further with Standil.
12) Services and Initiatives Assistant
BIRT the WCSA BoD ratify the hiring of Radha Lamba to the position of Services and
Initiatives Assistant.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Cookson: She’s our new office staff member, I wanted to ratify her to the board in
accordance with our policies. She’s been great so far.
Motion passed.
13) Chief Returning Officer
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Christina Alcena as the new Chief Returning Officer for the 20152016 term.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Vote.
Motion passed.
14) Internal Elections
Cookson: We put a call out to the general Woodsworth students for positions that have yet
to be filled and Julia expressed her interest and she will speak to why she wants to join.
Whoever is appointed will be an ex-officio and will not have voting rights. Julia, why don’t
you speak to why you want to be the Chestnut Director.
Standish: I live at Chestnut at the Woodsworth floor, and I didn’t even know there was a
position, which says a lot. I know Chestnut is far but we are part of the college just as much
as everyone else. I would like to bridge that gap.
Lakhani: What kind of events or initiatives do you want to put in place?
Standish: I think a big part of it is just getting people informed and get them aware that
there are events. We could have more posters around the floor for example.
Motion to appoint Julia Standish to the position of Chestnut Director for 2015-2016.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Vote.
Motion passed.
15) Dissolving Current Committees
BIRT the WCSA BoD dissolve all current standing committees, effective immediately.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Cookson: As I mentioned in the email I sent, WCSA has some standing committees that
meet once a month to discuss certain topics. We had some committees struck in the
summer that need to be dissolved now that we have the full board. You have to be on a
minimum of 1 and a maximum of 4. If you’re chairing a committee, you have to be on at
least another as well.
Khan: Are we dissolving the off campus committee?
Cookson: No that’s’ not ad-hoc.
Motion passed.
Lang: I have to leave soon, and I wanted to inform the board of something quickly, can I do
it here?
Cookson: Yeah sure, go ahead.
Lang: I work with Fossil Free for U of T working with the university to diverse from the top
200 fossil fuel committees. We’re having a march next Thursday from 5-7pm starting in the
halls of Sid Smith. It would be great if Woodsworth could spread the word and share the
event on Facebook.
16) Committees
Cookson: There can be unlimited amount of people as long as it’s not an even number for
voting purposes. And the executive review committee cannot have executives on it, for
obvious reasons.
Medrero: Does my hiring committee count as one?
Cookson: We’ll dissolve after gala and re-strike for hiring for orientation, so no.
Elections and Referenda Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Teeka, Jing, and Sarah to the Elections and Referenda Committee
to be co-chaired by Hauck and Alcena.
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
Cookson: The ERC oversees any elections we have. You would help the CRO monitor any
promotional materials online and in the college and report to the CRO anything you see.
Hauck: If you are on the ERC, you can’t sign anyone’s nomination form and support their
campaign.
Lakhani: Also if you plan on running again, you would have to drop the committee.
Executive Review Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Justin, Kristine, Novera, and Zack to the Executive Review
Committee to be chaired by Dylan.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Forgas: I just learned about this, but I’m think I’m a pretty fair person and would do a good
job as Chair.
Vote. Forgas appointed chair.
External Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Sarah, Wenjun, Julia, Justin, Teeka, Aadil, Kristine, and Nasra to
the External Committee to be chaired by Amanda Li.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Editorial Review Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Sarah, Novera, Ryan, and Brad to the Editorial Review
Committee to be chaired by Amanda Li.
Moved: Cookson
Seconded: Hauck
Athletics Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Ongio, Zack, Olivia, Dylan, Kristine, Wenjun, and Ryan to the
Athletics Committee to be chaired by Danielle Ouellette and Miranda Li.
Moved: Ouellette
Seconded: Cookson
Policy Review Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Teeka, Amanda, Shonali, Wenjun, Nasra, Julia, Ryan, Justin, Brad,
and Zack to the Policy Review Committee to be chaired by Hauck.
Moved: Hauck
Seconded: Cookson
Social Committee
BIRT the WCSA BoD appoint Amanda, Alyy, Zack, Kristine, Sarah, Justin, Wenjun, Nasra, and
Novera to the Social Committee to be chaired by Ongio Tsui and Ryan Jeong.
Moved: Tsui
Seconded: Cookson
Motions passed.
17) Streetcar Pub Crawl
Tsui: After much discussion and many meetings, the Pub Crawl will be happening next
Tuesday, October 27th. One of the reasons I chose a weeknight was that I wanted to avoid
any risks of the weekend, especially with Halloween on a Saturday this year. All the bars
are confirmed, the first is round in Kensington at Round, we have the whole place to
ourselves, then we’ll go down to SPiN, where we have a section booked out, and then
O’Grady’s where we have the entire second floor. I was wondering who on the board would
like to be a sober leader? Right now I have Ryan, Teeka and myself. If we don’t have enough
I may call the event off. There have been many years with incidents happening and I don’t
want it happening this year.
Bian: When will the even being?
Tsui: There will be a workshop in Kruger around 7 to give students info and a run down on
how the night will go. Pickup is at Spadina and Sussex around 7:15 pm.
Hauck: I wanted to see if people would be able to drink at the last bar if they were sober?
Tsui: No because I’m organizing the streetcar to drop us off where we get picked up. I
realize it is midterm season, but in order to minimize risk, it had to be on a Tuesday.
Medrero: Will board members have to pay?
Tsui: In the past yes, but I’ll speak to Teeka about it afterwards.
Cookson: If you’re a sober leader no, but if you plan on drinking then you will have to pay.
18) Other Business
Hauck: If you haven’t voted yet, please vote in the federal election!
Medrero: Coffee Crawl is happening on Friday! Four coffee shops are Manic Coffee, Voodoo
Child, Fika Café, and Jimmy’s Coffee. All board members will not have to sign up, but I am
capping it at 25 people, so please message me by tonight. We will be having tour groups, so
if you want to lead a group that would be great because at least one of us have to stay at
each coffee shop the whole time. I was also wondering if directors could have business
cards. When we were approaching coffee shops, it was very unprofessional that we didn’t
have any cards to give out. I was getting looks because I had to write my name and number
down on the back of someone else’s card.
Cookson: We can look into it and see if we can afford it in the budget, if anything, if you
guys are willing to pay a part of the fee and we’ll cover the rest, which could be an option
too.
Medrero: Yeah anything would be great.
Cookson: Please sign up for office hours, I want a maximum of 2 people at a time. Directors
hold office hours in room 105. If there is no other time convenient for oyu and its
conflicting with someone else’s schedule, just let me know, but try not to have more than
two people in the office at a time. You will also be getting CCR notation, I will be sending
out the document around the board tonight.
19) Adjournment
Moved: Tsui Seconded: Khan
Adjourned 6:01 pm.
Motion passed.
Appendix
1. Aakanksha’s Frosh Reflection
WCSA Exec/Frosh Head Leader reflection; Monday Oct 19th 2015
I would like to start by acknowledging that we celebrated student-run events that were
organized with a lot of blood, sweat and tears , for our students to enjoy, on land that
Canada or more correctly, Turtle Island’s Indigenous people are prevented from enjoying.
It is a great privilege I did not earn and therefore, recognize Indigenous sovereignty on
stolen land that we sit on. I am honoured to have been a part of Frosh, representing WCSA
during it. That being said, for a Frosh that had an “Around the World Theme”, our events
and facilitative frameworks were ironically not as culturally diverse and reflective as they
could have been. I am not alone, for several of Woodsworth’s community members and
board members share my views.
While I understand and in some cases, can even empathise with the OCs, OECs and the
board applauding the success of Frosh, it was first time I experienced Frosh outside being a
Froshee 3 years ago and the first time I experienced as a WCSA executive. Yet, looking back
at frosh…personally and professionally, I have never been more disrespected or demeaned
as a member of this board or as a racialized student. As a person with a very visible and
vocal pride in my ethnic heritage, cultural diversity is not term that can be thrown around
lightly. And yet it was; mentioned twice during the intro of Frosh; a nice way to highlight
Woodsworth’s cultural make-up.
Cultural diversity is more than just a selling point; it should have been more respected.
Having Portuguese chicken for lunch, Zumba, and an Around the World Karaoke and flags
around Krueger, is not good enough. There is a difference between cultural appropriation
and cultural appreciation: the only way you perform the latter is by centralising the
culturally diverse voice in your framework. To me as a racialized student and as a member
of this board, and a Woodsworth Student we could have done so much better. I recognized
this pretty early on, and when I noticed it and spoke up about it; I was shut down like
others. Every time I stepped up to try and make the college look better that week, try to
make it look like it was actually reflecting what it promised its students, reprimands and
complaints were delivered against me and others; shout out to the sensitive part of the
Frosh Reflection dossier, what’s good?
If at this point, anyone is doubting or confused at the intention behind why I’m saying this,
here’s what I have to say: I’ve been on this board and been dedicated to my college since
day 1 (albeit a break in the 2nd year). I love my college and I hold it to a certain standard as
student that pays fees and a racialized student that has to navigate extremely
instutionalized spaces. And I am human being, not without error, not without being
complicit. But here’s the thing: my personal experience as a racialized student is extremely
critical to the lens through which I view my professional responsibility to the college as a
board member. I don’t have the luxury of separating the two. And yet, quite
unprofessionally, my personal “errors” were highlighted above the systemic and
organizational issues I was trying to raise. Still, my position as an executive was useless in
the entire power scheme of things, because I was silenced and made to remember how we
repeatedly ignore those that are racialized and diverse in this college.
Maybe I should make it more explicit that my intentions that week were not to disturb an
organizational structure or power dynamic. Nonetheless, I don’t owe it to anyone neither
should I have to explain the way I approach saving my college’s face as a racialized student.
No. But we do owe it to our students to explain why we didn’t deliver, because we didn’t.
Frosh had amazing events that were more on the theme of living in Toronto rather being
living Around the World. They are not the same thing; take it from someone who’s actually
lived around the world. Take it from someone who had to keep quiet for two months
because she didn’t feel safe enough to bring it up, someone who had to work with the
people that disrespected her opinions and demeaned her actions through
misunderstanding them, someone’s who’s equity education is appreciated just as long as
they don’t disturb popular rhetoric...
That someone is me.
I was elected and appointed to have a critical opinion as a duty to better serve my college
and work collaboratively with those that share the honour of representing it. Not to ignore
or silence those that have been historically discounted from spaces exactly like this. My
experiences need to be seen and my voice needs to be heard. If I have caused any offense,
please feel free to ask me questions, I welcome the chance.
Thank you.
4) Board Reports
President
Hi Woodsworth!
I hope you are all surviving this busy time of year as we get closer and closer to the end of
the semester!
For those of you that are graduating I would like to extend a huge CONGRATULATIONS on
behalf of the Woodsworth College Students’ Association! We hope that as you leave
Woodsworth and embark on this new and exciting chapter of your life you take a moment
to take pride in all that you have accomplished and overcome during your time at
UofT! Over the past two weeks, I have attended two grad events hosted by Woodsworth
College and APUS. It was so nice to be a part of these exciting moments! It has been a
pleasure to represent you and we wish you all luck in your future endeavors!
On November 11th, I attended the Remembrance Day ceremony at the Soldiers Tower with
some of my fellow executives. The ceremony was a beautiful commemoration of all those
who made sacrifices for our country. I was honoured to have been a part of the event.
Last week I also attended the Woodsworth Equity Committee planning meeting to
brainstorm ways Woodsworth can work towards having an equity committee and equity
chair. I am excited to see what developments arise from this group. If you are interested in
being a part of this process you can contact Sydney Lang at sydney.lang@mail.utoronto.ca
or join the facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/883606665079636/884671548306481/?notif_t=gro
up_activity.
Finally, at this board meeting I am hoping to strike an ad hoc ‘Student Lounge Renovation’
committee to work with students, board members, and staff to plan what the renovations
to the student lounge will look like. If you are interested in joining please feel free to
contact me!
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, and/or ideas please do not hesitate to email
me at president@mywcsa.com! #1<3WW
Best,
Olivia
Vice-President of Internal Affairs
Hey Woodsworth!
Happy Movember! I hope all your midterms and papers went/are going well!
This past month has been busy once again for the Internal portfolio. We hired our Gala
Coordinators, Brooke and Saadia, and I have been working closely with them and Aadil to
finalize the budget and venue.
Myself and the other execs have been working on a new initiative called “Get Well with
WCSA Week”, which will be taking place from Nov. 30 – Dec. 4 . This week is geared
towards keeping a balance between school work, physical and mental wellness, and extracurriculars. We will be holding events everyday that week, including a clubs fair and
charity event, a de-stress balloon popping event, a yoga class and social, a Zumba class, and
Red Party as the end of week social. Hope to see lots of you there!
th
th
I have also been working on organizing a puppy therapy event which will be happening on
December 9 . It is going to be a collaboration between jack.org, the Buddhism and
Psychology Students’ Union, and WCSA. The full-time directors, Alyy and Zack, will be
helping me out with this.
th
As always, I’d love to chat to you if you have any ideas, questions, or concerns, so please
don’t hesitate to come by my office hours (Tuesdays 10am-12pm in the WCSA Office) or
send me an email at vp.internal@mywcsa.com.
#1loveWW
Teeka
Vice-President of Financial Affairs
Hey Woodsworth!
So the Finance portfolio has been busy this past month. Dylan and I have been trying to get
everything caught up in the general ledger and we are almost there! Only November left to
do, which is great considering we had to catch up from August onwards.
We are also working on this years audit. I have mailed out some initial documents and
some of the other key documents, still have quite a bit to go. The audit is due on December
31st and we are hoping to be done on time.
I am also happy to say that we have a great team working for Gala. I have had initial sitdowns with the gala coordinators regarding the event this year. Everything seems to be
going well, in terms of finance and overall planning. The directors are also doing a
wonderful job this year, we have a lot more programming and initiatives than I've ever
seen and its keeping me busy signing off cheques but I am so proud of everyone's work
ethic. I look forward to the Wellness with WCSA coming up. Some directors have
approached me regarding funding and I am more than happy to work with you all to ensure
each portfolio has the money they need. Keep up the good work and I'm looking forward to
being a part of all the great events happening! Woodsworth is buzzing and I love it!
As always, if you have questions, concerns, or just want to talk about WCSA finances,
budgeting or anything at all (I can talk for hours - literally, I'll do anything to distract myself
from studying), feel free to drop by my office hours from 4-6PM on Tuesday. The best way
to get in touch with me is actually to set up a time to meet via e-mail
at vp.finance@mywcsa.com.
I hope everyone manages to survive and grind through this last chunk of school before the
winter holidays! See you guys around! 1<3WW
Aadi
Vice-President of Social Affairs
Coffee Crawl
The first Coffee Crawl in WCSA history was a huge success. The portfolios and partnering
cafes were extremely nice to work with, and props to those who helped make it a positive
event!
Halloween Streetcar Pub Crawl
After much controversy, the Streetcar Pub Crawl case has been closed. In the mean time,
WCSA will continue to commit to creating a safe and inclusive environment for all of our
students, executing the highest level of precautions and risk management plans in the
future. I thank all the Board Members, the Dean’s Office, and other members of the
Woodsworth community for their continued support.
WCSA Social Committee Launch
The Social Committee will host its official launch event on November 26th, 2015 at 5pm in
the Students’ Lounge. Ryan and I have worked hard in structuring the committee, and will
be supporting the members on further student initiatives for the remainder of the school
year.
Woodsworth Annual Awards Gala
I have been working with the newly hired Gala Coordinators, Brooke and Saadia, for the
planning of Gala. Preliminary details are as follows: location at Steamwhistle Brewery,
caterers the Food Dudes.
Red Party
This year’s annual Red Party will be incorporated into WCSA’s Wellness Week: "Get Well
with WCSA!” The final celebration will be held at L’Espresso Bar Mercurio, on December
4th, 2015 in the evening. This cross-portfolio collaboration will be much welcomed as
students enter into exam mode for December.
Winterfest 2016
Woodsworth is involved with planning Winterfest 2016, a St. George Roundtable Initiative.
I will be a part of the Pub Crawl Subcommittee. Events are as follows:
January 11th-15th
Monday: Open Mic at Vic
Tuesday: Pub Crawl
Wednesday: Drag Show
Thursday: Battle of the Bands and Club Night
Friday: Pancake Social, Possible Athletic Event
Monday through Friday: Brunch Crawl
Coffee Cupping with Boxcar Social
A first of its kind, the Social Portfolio will be continuing the success of the Coffee Crawl and
collaborating with Boxcar Social to host a coffee cupping event. Woodsworth Students have
been showing immense interest in passive social events, and this will be a perfect destressor before the exam season.
Monday, December 7th, 2015
3-4pm
Boxcar Social - Summerhill
A busy time for WCSA, we hope that all Woodsworth Students will be able to come out to
our events!
Ongio Tsui
WCSA Vice-President of Social Affairs
Vice-President of External Affairs
No Report Submitted.
Vice-President of Athletic Affairs
Hey guys!
First and foremost I really want to say how crazy PROUD I am of the board right now! The
energy is amazing and the dedication to your positions is what is taking WCSA to the next
level. We would not be what we are without you! THANK YOU!
The athletics portfolio is rocking and rolling right now. Huge props to Miranda for hosting a
super successful High Park Run, the first initiative in our Work Out with WW program. Next
up is a collab with the first year directors: taking students to a WW hockey playoff game!
Intramural teams are in playoffs right now, with our men's soccer, women's basketball,
volleyball teams, and hockey teams all performing extremely well. Winter intramurals are
all submitted for next semester with a whopping 15 teams! Our intramural program is
really taking off this year!
Our Marlies game is on Sunday and the lottery style of selling worked really really well. I
will be using this to sell Raptors tickets in January as well. Another sold out event!
Also WCSA will be hosting a Get Well with WCSA week from Nov 30 to Dec 4. Athletics is
responsible for a collab with MoveU and Jack.org for a free yoga session in Kruger on Dec 2,
the Wednesday. Try and make it out to that week's programming, as it is jam-packed with
tools for a fresh-start next semester!
Great job everyone!
1<3WW forever.
Vice-President of Public Relations
Hi everyone,
This past month, I worked on posters and promotions for all the events, programs and
initiatives that took place. I also put a banner up in the student lounge with the help of
some directors to inform students about the main purpose of the space. There are several
other projects that I have been working on, such as improving signage in Woodsworth,
generating ideas for a graduating class yearbook, and student lounge renovation among
others. Lastly, I met with the PR committee and my associate to delegate tasks and get
feedback on how we could reach more of the student population.
Please get in touch with me if you have any questions, comments, or ideas!
Associate Director of Financial Affairs
No Report Submitted.
Associate Director of Social Affairs
No Report Submitted.
Associate Director of Athletic Affairs
Hello everyone! There are lots of things happening with the athletics portfolio last month.
We started our first Work Out with Woodsworth initiation event, which is the High Park
Run. It was very successful and people were all having a good time exercising. Marlies
Game is coming this Sunday. Danielle created a sign up sheet and the ticket will be allocated
by lottery so that it is more fair to everyone. The athletics portfolio will also be
participating the WCSA Wellness Week. We are super looking forward to that. Stay warm!
Regards,
Miranda
Associate Director of Public Relations
Greetings Woodsworth! First of all, thanks so much for electing me as your associate PR
director. I can promise you that by working with your VP pr, Shonali, you will expect an
excellent year ahead on staying informed.
Since I was elected, lots of things have happened that I helped to promote. Coffee Crawl,
High Park Run, to name a few. Along the way, I picked up skills on creating web content and
learning tips on increasing engagement. In addition, I’ve created social media, newsletter
content and help updating physical posters around the college. There’s definitely no
slowing here in the PR portfolio and I’m taking it all in stride
In the meantime, look out for Get Well with WCSA promotions coming your way, as this is
happening the week of Nov 30 to Dec 4. Good luck on your 2 round of midterms and/or
final papers!
nd
Part-Time Students’ Directors
No Report Submitted.
Mature Students’ Directors
No Report Submitted.
Professional Development Director
Hey Woodsworth! I hope you're all surviving the midterms and assignments. It has been a
busy time for the professional development portfolio. We had a very successful improv
basic workshop on November 5th. Thank you to all the WCSA board members and
Woodsworth students that came to support the event. In addition, the Conference
Committee has been meeting to discuss ideas and planning details for this years
conference. If you have any questions or ideas please contact me
at development@mywcsa.com
Community Outreach Director
No Report Submitted.
Off-Campus Students’ Directors
Hey Woodsworth!
This has been a wonderful month for the Off-Campus portfolio. The WCSA Wednesdays in
November have been a huge success, with a greater turnout every week and a lot of prizes
given out to the commuter students at Woodsworth. We’ve also had external organizations
such as the Centre for Community Partnerships (CCP) and the Career Centre booth at the
event and interact with students. We hope to conduct many more contests in the future to
offer more opportunities for off-campus students, as well as make WCSA Wednesdays and
pancakes much more exciting for everyone.
We are also currently in talks with Off-Campus Directors from all the colleges at UofT
regarding Commuter Appreciation Week. We are currently working on the budget and
potential dates for next semester. Details will be revealed as soon as the event is finalized.
Additionally, the Off-Campus portfolio will be collaborating with the Social portfolio on the
Red Party happening this December, as well as the Upper Year and Academic Bridging
portfolio to host a bunch of events aimed towards both on and off-campus students next
semester (Hint: All the events involve a lot of food).
If you have any ideas for the Off-Campus portfolio, please feel free to message us!
Novera Khan and Samantha Davis
Full-Time Students’ Directors
In our first month as full-time students’ directors we have yet to carry out or collaborate on
any events as we are still learning the ropes. However, we have done a lot of brainstorming
of events; we have decided to host at least one event per month next term and plan to have
all of our research done for possible costs, etc. over our holiday break to be prepared for
the new semester. As for this semester, Alyy took the initiative to bring forward a couple of
events. She got in contact with Teeka in regards to look into a puppy de-stressor. We just
received an email that outlines the dates, location and costs and are taking the next step.
The puppy de-stressor, Paws for a Study Break, will be held on December 9th from 11 am – 1
pm in Waters Lounge, Woodsworth Residence. We are looking to collaborate on this event
to split the costs, as our budget is not enough to run all of the events we are hoping to. A
four way split for puppy therapy would be $70 per fourth. So far we are collaborating with
the Woodsworth Residence Director, Wen Jung. Another event we are looking to host this
semester is the “Popping balloons de-stressor”. Zack has booked Waters Lounge on
December 1st from 3 pm – 5 pm. We will shortly be advertising this event- as students and
from experience in other student groups, we understand that too much prior notice for an
event may see a decline in the number of attendees, unlike being invited closer to the date.
(Hope to see all of you guys there btw)! One of the events we have been looking into
planning is a Woodsworth FROST Week: Woodsworth Pub Night specifically. We will first
be looking to discuss the possibility of hosting such an event in regards to safety concerns,
especially because of the presence of alcohol. We are highly motivated to bring events this
year that students can enjoy and benefit from in all aspects. One of our primary goals as full
time students’ directors are to foster inclusivity and create a healthy connected
environment within Woodsworth. We hope to do this by planning events that
accommodate all Woodsworth students (i.e. we will be avoiding Friday events as Friday is
the least commuter friendly weekday and there are religious minorities that believe Friday
is a religious day, thus must follow through with their religious/family commitments,
which means they cannot attend our events). That is why our two events planned so far are
on a Tuesday/Wednesday, and they are both de-stressing events since exam time can be
very stressful.
Alyy Patel and Zack Habi
Upper Year Students’ Directors
Hey Wolfpack!
Congrats on making it through midterm season! If you’ve still got a bunch of essays and
midterms to do, then GOOD LUCK! You’re going to ace them :)
Since our last board meeting, not much has happened with the Upper-Year portfolio. The
last event that we had was the MCAT/LSAT Prep event that was held in collaboration with
The Princeton Review and we hope that it provided students with some insight as to what
both those tests will be like. We have our next Cram Jam coming up on Dec. 11th just in
time for the December exams so bring your books and get ready to study while we provide
you with food and drinks to keep you going throughout the day!
We’ve also started planning two events for the second semester in collaboration with both
the Off-Campus directors and the Academic Bridging director. For the first event, we were
planning on having a pie social, to be held on Pi Day. The the second event, we were
planning on having an ice cream social, to be held sometime in January, so keep a lookout
for those events!
All the best,
Kristine Sarah Medrero and Sarah Bear
89 Chestnut Director
No Report Submitted.
Woodsworth College Residence Director
Hey Woodsworth!
It is a great pleasure for me to be elected as Woodsworth College Residence Director
for this year. I start to get to know the members within WCSA and be familiar with my roles
and get involved with different kinds of activities. It is quite nice to meet everybody and
organize events with other members within WCSA and help Woodsworth students to solve
problems.
In this month, I got in contact with the President of Woodsworth Residence Council
(WRC), Stephanie Bianco. I understand that the liaison between WCSA and WRC was a little
bit weak before. Stephanie and I had an agreement on helping each other for the rest of the
academic year and we will talk more about the way of collaboration and how WCSA and
WRC can help each other in the future later. I will also collaborate with the Community
Outreach Director, Narsra to organize an event called “Movember Mustache Decorating
Contest” on November 30, 2015. We will provide various sorts of materials for decorating
the mustache and give prizes at the end for people who win the first three places.
Moreover, I got in contact with both of the Fulltime Student Directors and we are going to
organize a Puppy Therapy event before this semester ends. We will talk more about the
details later together.
By the end of my term, I will try to be familiar with the staffs in residence and contact
them or schedule meetings with them when necessary. I am also going to explore more
roles of the position of Woodsworth College Residence Director and make better
connections between residents and WCSA.
If you have any questions regarding the residence life or events, please feel free to
email me or come and talk to me during my office hour. I’d love to chat with you! Also, final
exams are coming in just several weeks. Good luck with everything and try to get some
rest!
Best Regards,
Wenjun
First Year Students’ Directors
No Report Submitted.
Academic Bridging Students’ Director
No Report Submitted.
Orientation Coordinators
No Report Submitted.
5) Appendix
a.
Office Hours Attendance
Week Of
Name
Oct 19-23 Oct 26-30 Nov 2-6 Nov 9-13
Olivia Hauck
P
P
H
P
P - Present
Teeka Cookson
P
P
P
P
H - Half hours
Aadil Nathani
P
P
P
P
A - Absent with vaild reason
Danielle Ouellette P
P
P
P
X - Absent without reason
Ongio Tsui
P
P
P
A
Shonali Lakhani
P
P
P
P
Amanda Li
P
P
P
A
Ryan Jeong
P
P
P
A
Miranda Li
P
A
P
P
Dylan Forgas
P
P
P
A
Jing Bian
P
P
P
P
Novera Khan
P
P
P
P
Sam Davis
P
P
P
X
Kristine Medrero
P
P
P
P
Sarah Bear
P
P
P
P
Sandleen Azam
P
P
P
P
Brad Dalgleish
X
P
P
P
Zack Habi
P
P
P
P
Alyy Patel
A
P
P
P
Justin Zelnicker
X
P
P
X
Barbara Dacal
X
X
P
P
Nasra Mahad
P
P
P
P
Julia Standish
A
A
P
P
Wenjun Deng
P
P
P
P
b. Statement of Intent – Mature Students’ Director
My name is Amina Jama, am a mother of three and also a third year student. I am also
interested in the mature student position. I have not been involved in any student
organization since I enrolled in this institution, due to the fact that I never saw anything
that was suitable for me to join. I can bring different perspective on the table as mature
student if am allowed to join the committee. I would love to join this committee and
encourage many mature to get involved in participating among many events that occur in
the campus.
Thanks in advance.
Amina Jama.