| October | Monthly Report to Council. |
"Here comes Spiderman. Here comes Jane. Here comes Tarzan. Astroplane.
You've been up. You've been down. You've been round this town.
You drink. You're drowning. Listen to the new sound."
- B.K.S. (Bekker, Kavanagh & Sheppard)
"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."
- Dan Quayle
"The line must be drawn here!"
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard, First Contact
It seems that everyone knows that my term is half over. If you’re wondering if I’m a ‘glass is
half-full’ kind of dude or a ‘glass is half-empty’ kind of dude, I would like to draw everyone’s
attention to a comic we circulated around the office this summer. I’m going to change it a tad
and present it in text-only mode:
How would each board member react?
(insert a picture of a man behind a table with a glass of water at the half way mark)
Jerry: "Yeah! The glass is half full! Rah Rah! We’re the half full team!"
Scott: "The glass is half empty. But that’s okay, because I’m in love. Besides, I’m the head club guy."
Keith: "Who paid for this glass? I could look it up, but ACCPAC is down."
Walsh: "The glass is half full. Wait! The glass is half empty. No, the glass is half... Wait! I’ll flip a coin... no, There’s a fifty-fifty chance that I’m not entirely sure what I think, but nevertheless, I am concerned about how the glass feels."
Ron: "Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. I could argue that it’s half empty. Yeah, but I could also argue that it’s half full. Yeah, either way I think we’re covered. Yeah, there’s no precedent for this."
Dave: "Hey! I ordered a cheeseburger! And if I wanted water, I would have asked for water."
For all you people that had your heart set on a mid-year report, I’m sorry. After just two more council meetings I’m going to present my preliminary year-end report to council, and it just doesn’t seem like a good investment of my time to do a mid-year report right now. If you really want, re-read my six monthly reports, or come and talk to me. This month is a double-length report to help fill that void. Double your pleasure... double your fun.
Fredericton definitely has lots of pretty trees. The town was smaller than I thought, and very friendly. The night life in Fredericton is... well, um... did I mention they have pretty trees? It was a good trip, and Walsh and I managed to get through a lot of policy issues (and they’ll be coming to council any day now ...) Highlights of the trip include:
A hearty congratulations to Russ and the rest of the Homecoming crew. I was especially impressed with the UCC decorations, Kate’s driving abilities, Meigan’s knack with movie credits, and the staff’s ability to alienate me at the King / Queen contest. A special thanks to Kevin and everyone who helped out with the USC Homecoming / Christmas / Michael Rubinoff float. The Santa outfit was good practice, as I’m scheduled to be Santa a couple more times before the end of this year. The game was great. I had fun racing Wally Gibson (the Alumni President) around the track on a bicycle, and I’ll never forget "President toss! President toss! I want to see a President toss!"
You can’t talk about Homecoming without considering the odd house party and neighbourhood complaints. That’s where the Street Captains kick in. For a program that is very hard to get volunteers, Scott Graham did a fantastic job preparing and coordinating the program, during a time where only a minimal amount of support could come from myself or the rest of the external affairs committee.
The HBA’s United Way sub-eating contest was for speed, not quantity, quality or accuracy. I haven’t seen the TV Western coverage, but I’ve been informed that although I had a stellar sub-eating performance, it’s not the most flattering or appetizing footage around. Sullivan may claim to be the "athlete on board", but there are some arenas where he can’t touch me.
I don’t know why, but it seems that the vice-presidents have neglected to mention that Ron and I kicked some serious butt and cleaned up at Poker night.
If I had to use one word to describe my experience with the Smith panel it would be Anticlimactic. Walsh presented the USC paper to Smith one-on-one, while I presented to the entire panel on behalf of Western (Fanshawe was there also). Now I feel that I have to share this ridiculous story so it becomes part of an official record. Davenport did his presentation on powerpoint and he had one of those fancy infrared gizmos to advance the slides. It was pretty much the UWO paper - "Give us more money, Yea! Western, etc. etc." and everything went smoothly. Davenport then hands his pointer to Dr. Rundle, the president of Fanshawe. He pushes the button, and the wrong slide comes up - it was a slide from the middle of the presentation. He stutters, presses more buttons, and comments that the presentation is backwards. He keeps pushing the button until he gets to the end of the presentation and then -wham- the Microsoft Windows 3.1 screen comes up with powerpoint & ugly toolbars, etc. He plays with it some more, and he’s not getting anywhere. So I bite my lip, jump up and start operating the computer myself. I start the presentation, and press the [end] key (thinking the presentation is backwards) but the [end] key (for some reason) kicks it back to Windows again. I toggled numlock to ensure it was off, tried it again, and it still didn’t work. I’m not sure if something was wrong with the keyboard, if it was me, or if it was Dr. Rundle playing with the clicker. I concluded that the entire presentation wasn’t there, and Dr. Rundle said that he had brought the original disk with him. He gave me his disk, I slapped it in, and ran the presentation off the floppy. Dave saves the day, but what a HUGE embarrassment to Western (the press and the brass saw the whole spectacle). Besides that little techno show, I got to speak for a whole 3 minutes, and made a very compassionate plea for more support and reform to student aid in Ontario. Very anticlimactic.
Thanks to Jerry, Brian, Craig & everyone who helped this go well. I’ve never seen so many young ambitious slick political keeners in my entire life. I had fun with my leadership session, and my intro. speech.
It’s finally out there. Thanks to all the Members of Council who have invested so much time in it. Now all we have to do is follow through ...
It takes a lot of time and energy to put together an election, even the fall one. Jamie, Ron, Tim, Cecile, Denni and Kelly deserve a special thanks for their work this fall. Very late nights, grueling policies, and a recount from hell. Way to go everyone, and long live the funky squad!
The student services committee is kicking into high gear. Jim, Gerry and Melissa have been instrumental in helping with the correspondence and doing the legwork necessary to prepare for the meetings. Expect some big things from the committee this year, including an interim report to the Board of Governors ready for January.
Although I spent a good portion of time in October on this topic, I will deal with the issue more thoroughly in November.
Well you’d think I’d get faster at writing these reports, but I try to make them worthwhile, and that takes a little time.
October is my favourite month of the year. There are a variety of reasons, and one of those reasons is the weather. I absolutely love the "I’m wearing my jacket because it’s brisk out, but it’s not cold enough for me to do my jacket up" feeling. I know I dwelled on this issue in my web address at the start of October, but I have another perspective on the topic: I barely got to see October weather! I didn’t get out much, and I actually did more than 48 hours straight without leaving the UCC. I’m not whining or looking for sympathy, because I love what I’m doing, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I only get one year to do this, and I want to give it all I’ve got. I’m just giving you the typical old-man (yes, I’m now twenty four) advice to get out and enjoy the outdoors, stop to smell the flowers, etc. etc. At the very least, try to think of the glass as being half full, and savor each and every sip.
| SCUP Jr. Alumni Fat Guy Breakfast CASA Programme l’ordinateur Visit from Windsor SCITS Alumni Board Meeting Lunch with Dr. Baer Unity Group Volunteer Session Student Survey | Judy from FW King/Queen Contest Mayor Haskett Lunch with Wally Athlete of the Month Ismaili Prayer Room Lunch with Gerrit Thesis Protégés Badminton Squash Racquetball Oktoberfest |