The past few weeks have been very busy.  The work on the windows in the office is finally complete after much noise which was unbearable at times.  But you probably don’t care; you’re wondering what I’ve been doing for you lately.

The Executive Council has been busy preparing for students returning in September.  Many events have been planned and approved and I’m excited to see your faces at the beginning of the year.

Much of my time has been spent answering questions around the new U-Pass.  There are many questions around the program, but the volume of calls is not what I’d anticipated it would be.

I’ll be meeting with the Minister of Advanced Education next week where we will be discussing Post Secondary Education and ideas to make it better.

On a more personal level, I’m ecstatic to see the firing of Eskimos General Manager Danny Maciocia.  That was long overdue.

That’s all for now, enjoy the last few weeks of summer.

Tim

Hello again,

The past week saw the NAITSA Executive Council travel to the beautiful and scenic Red Deer for the Alberta Students’ Executive Council Goal Setting Conference.  ASEC is the provincial advocacy group for over 120,000 students from 12 post-secondary institutions. I happen to be the Vice Chair of ASEC, so I was quite busy the entire week.

The objective of the conference is to get input from the membership (12 students’ associations and unions) regarding our goals for the year well as policies which need to be created.  Both of these were accomplished and much will be done this year to help students on the provincial level.  Some professional development was also done, including a speech from the mayor of Red Deer, Morris Flewwelling, regarding lobbying on a municipal level.  Jason Roth, NAITSA’s Director of Advocacy, gave a speech on lobbying provincially and Michael Donlevy from Red Deer College spoke about effective fundraising.

I also met with Mayor Mandel this morning to discuss the City Center Airport and LRT to NAIT.  Both provide important opportunities for future NAIT students.

Until next time.

Tim

Here’s the pic of my office under construction.

Hello folks,

It’s been an interesting start to the year here at NAITSA.  I’ve been out of the office at conferences and retreats almost as much as I’ve been in the office.  To make things more interesting, the office is undergoing window replacement, so things are in shambles.  I’ll include a picture of what things look like when I figure out how to add pictures.

Myself, the Vice Presidents and the NAITSA staff have been working feverishly to get ready for the upcoming year.  A big part of my summer so far has been the negotiations of the NAIT/NAITSA agreements.  This is a long process; however, I am confident we will come to an agreement that works for both NAIT and NAITSA.

Another big part of my summer so far has been my involvement with the Alberta Students’ Executive Council (ASEC), our provincial lobby organization.  I was elected the Vice Chair of the organization and we’ve been busy brainstorming lobby priorities and campaigns for the year ahead.  Keep your eyes and ears open for something we’re calling “Volunteering to be Debt Free.”  I’m incredibly excited, as this could be something huge for students and communities.

I’ll be in the office for a couple more days, then off to the last conference of the summer in Red Deer, where the ASEC Board will finalize our lobby priorities for the year.

Feel free to send me an email, drop in to the office or give me a call if you have any questions or concerns.

Oh, and Germany lost out of the World Cup.  A sad day indeed.