frosh kits and frosh kits and shooter bars

Greetings!

So many exciting updates for this blog post! Most importantly, the Frosh Week Website is finally live! It has been a long process first of all locating the site, then working on updating the theme etc and getting the online store working ... but it's working now so that's very exciting! And a functional Frosh Week website means one important thing - FROSH KITS! Frosh Kits are now available to order at http://frosh.theu.ca ... if you are an incoming first year student make sure you order your kit soon! These kits are your survival pack for the week and include all the necessities including tickets to all events!

Also this week came the announcement of the headline DJ for GLOW - Grandtheft from Team Canada DJs. Wylder and I saw him perform his new video show when we were at COCA in Montreal and he'll be bringing his show out here for Frosh Week, it's going to be an unreal time! Glow is the next generation of the annual tent party which has been rated #1 by Frosh for events during Frosh Week. With that history and this amazing DJ lined up it is for sure going to be the biggest party of the year!

Early today Wylder and I met with Kris (The Inn bar manager) to solidify a few more dates for the year and talk about themes, etc. The year is looking like it is going to be amazing, lots of variety, the staple clubINN Friday nights, lots of society involvement, etc. There have also been some great changes to the bar for the upcoming year including a new sound system which Pat talked about in an earlier post, and also the renovations to the shooter bar! The old DJ booth has been moved to the other corner and altered a bit to make a new shooter bar. This clears up some space where the booth used to be to open a new door to the girl's washroom which will clear up congestion in the entrance of The Inn! Lots of great changes happening, I just can't wait for it to be September. 

That's all I have for now, the next few weeks are going to be jam packed trying to finish up everything for Frosh Week. This summer has flown by ridiculously fast, I can't believe that it's only 7 weeks until FIRST WING NIGHT BACK!

Have a happy Wingsday!

Kaleigh

An update from your friendly neighbourhood Activities Guy

Guess Who's Back?

G'day G'day

Just a little update on what it is I have been Do'n lately

COCA
Last Week was my first week back in the office since before COCA. Since my last video post I've visited Montreal for the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities National Conference to watch various Show Case's of artists from around the world. There were a multitude of great musicians and DJ's that I hope to bring to StFX and The Golden X Inn. The highlight of the weekend was probably a Video Show put on by Skratch Bastid that I intend to share with all of you by bringing it here at some point this year. Along side great music were a variety of moving speakers, comedians, promotional companies, bright minds and sunshine!

OTHER STUFF
Societies
I have already begun working with number of societies on some great events to hold at The Inn this year. When packing for X be sure to bring your bathing suit and some groovy shades for the SIFE Society's Beach night! If Country is more your thing stop by The Inn for a bull ride and some good tunes with DJ OuZo and the Equestrian Society.

Frosh Week
The schedule for this week is all finished and confirmed just waiting on the Big Concert Act to be released later this month. I am excited to announce that DJ Grand Theft from Team Canada DJ's will be headlining GLOW, an event to replace Rain this year.

ByLaws
We will see some of the out door events in different locations this September due to some new By-Law restrictions that are in place this year. I am attending the Town Council Meeting tonight to present my proposed locations for frosh week events. Wish me luck!

I will follow up this post with a good old fashioned Vlog shortly.

Stay Tuned for more updates from the Activities end of the Union Arena.

Over n Out.

Wylder OuZo Hatte
VP Activities & Events

It is already July!

Afternoon All,

As I sit here writing this, I am blown away about how quickly the past two months have gone. So much has happened and yet, there is still so much to do before the great day of Septmenber 2, 2012! With the Frosh Week theme announced (http://www.facebook.com/MyGeneration2012), we are working to make this the best week yet!

Since my last post, I have attended a Board of Governors meeting with Conor Kyte. Conor is one of our elected Board members. Olwyn Foley, the other elected Board member was unable to join us for this meeting. It was a good meeting and we were able to share our voice in a number of discussions.

I have also been working with Michael Overmars, who works with the Antigonish Food Security Collation, in regards to food on campus. We hope we will be able to host a number of local food events this coming year in conjunction with Sodexo.

Exciting news for the X-Ring recipients of 2013: the planning for the ceremony has begun!! Your Senior Class President, Matt LeMoine, Vice-President, Kathleen Johnston, and I met earlier this month and began to discuss the plans for the after party and a number of other events. Julieanne Mattie, the Students’ Union Account Coordinator and X-Ring guru, was also able to join us and added a bunch of helpful hints to aid in our planning. X-Ring recipients you will want to get to know these three well!!

Our Off-Campus Community Relations Board is off and running.  The mandate for this board as represented in our Student Union By-Laws is as follows:

1. The mandate of Community Relations Committee is to enhance communications and relationships between the University, the Students’ Union and the Town of Antigonish.

2. The Committee shall undertake activities or projects to address issues of concern in, but not limited to, community development relations, housing, environmental  sustainability, economic activities, recreation, health and safety and volunteer outreach.

This year we are hoping to address issues surrounding house, the municipal election, and town relations. We are planning an event to launch to Board and introduce students to the town in September. Stay tuned for more news!

Pat and I have a meeting with Hon. Maurice Smith, MLA for Antigonish, on Friday. We will be discussing the Government’s plans for St. FX, Tuition, and the social and economic impacts of post-secondary education to St. FX students. A blog post will follow with an update from that meeting.

It really has been a busy time, but we are still finding some time to have some fun. Rachel and I went to Canvendish this past weekend. It was so much fun! (There were just a few people there).

Many of us are heading home for some vacation soon. As always, feel free to contact me anytime with questions, concerns, comments, or anything else you would like to chat about!

This is where I will be for my vacation!

Enjoy the long days of summer,

Nick

Hey Folks,

Here with some updates out of the Student Relations Office and 'nish life in general. Lately I have been finalizing the Training Week schedule for house presidents and other student leaders. As I have mentioned before, this week includes sessions on event planning, risk management, team building, selecting and working with house council, leadership development, and diversity training. The week is coming together well and I am looking forward to the return of house presidents, vice presidents, and off-campus leaders!

All frosh letters have been confirmed, which will be e-mailed this year. The way we see it is that they will still receive the warm welcome from their house leaders but we will also be saving about 1200 letters, envelopes, and the travel associated with getting them to their respective destinations. This decision is in line with our Core Value of Sustainable, Innovative Practices.

On the topic of sustainable practices I had a great meeting with the Director of Ancillary Services recently to discuss a new recycling initiative to be put into place for September. The plan for this initiative is to reward individual residences who choose to consciously collect and properly sort their refundables. This will be facilitated by the Enviro Reps on each house council and more updates will follow in September. During this meeting, another concern was brought to my attention and that is the use of black garbage bags in Apartment Style. We will put out reminders throughout the year but if you are living there next year remember - clear bags only!

The new residences by Mac are coming along.. and by coming along I mean we almost have a hole in the ground! The biggest renovation news on campus though is the new Mini Moes patio (sorry I didn't Instagram the pics.. I'm new to this). There is a little patio by the front door and one that spans the length of the building across from the library. 

That's all for now, talk soon! 

-- Jessie 

east coast is the best

           Well despite a 7 hour delayed flight, Wylder and I have made it to and back from Montreal all in one piece. We left last Friday to head to the COCA National Conference. COCA stands for the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities and it "represents more than 65 member post-secondary institutions across Canada". 

The conference was essentially a combination between Education Sessions tailored to each of our positions and Showcases. Over the four day conference we each attended six education sessions. I attended Marketing 101, Marketing 102, Mobile Marketing, New Media Movement and Video Marketing. I found each of these sessions extremely informative, I even found my heart beating a little bit faster after each session. I learned a lot and have so many new ideas for the year that I can't wait to put into action. The best thing about these conferences is the opportunity to interact with and speak with other organizations across Canada. For example, I spent some time speaking with a representative from Sheridan College who ran an amazing Movember campaign last year. I will be collaborating with him to bring some of those initiatives to the X campus for the year. It is great to hear the ideas of other schools, and bounce ideas off of each other. We even attended a session called "Steal this Idea" where people talked about successful campaigns at their school that we can essential "steal". This information sharing or "stealing" is what makes these conferences most worthwhile! (above is a picture of Jessie Cruikshank from her Keynote Speech during a brunch)

                       

The second major portion of the COCA Conference is the showcases. Each night there was a different showcase, from bands to singer-songwriters, to comedians, to mentalists. SO many exciting and extremely talented acts! The idea behind these showcases are for artists to show us their stuff in hopes that we will book them for our campus. I was blown away by the talent and there were some really amazing acts that we are hoping to bring to X this year. Below are some pictures from a few of the showcases!

The Elwins

Midnight Romeo

Skratch Bastid Video Show

We will be attending the COCA Regional Conference in the fall with the East Coast COCA Members, it is planned to coincide with Nova Scotia Music Week which will be great for showcases. It was really beneficial to meet with other East Coast COCA members as these connections are helpful for reducing costs through block booking throughout the year. I am so excited about everything we learned and saw in Montreal, and can't wait to continue this work throughout the year!

In other news from the Comm office, this week is another busy one for me. We're having some difficulties with the printing of the Frosh Week Mail-Out so hopefully that will all be solved and ready to go by the end of this week. As well I am working closely with Han our Web Developer to launch to the Frosh Week website (fingers crossed!) by Monday. Other projects on the go include finishing up the artwork for the Frosh Kits, and finishing up the Ad Package for the school year. Next on the docket is everyone's favourite wall calendar! 

That's all for now, hope everyone had a great long weekend!

Kaleigh

VP Comm

(shout out to Jessie on her BIRTHDAY!)

Greetings Xaverians,

First off, Congratulations to the LA Kings on their Stanley Cup victory!!! Now that the best season of all has come to an end, it's time to begin the countdown to the LONDON OLYMPICS!!! The games are the only reason my roomies and I are still paying for our cable right now. I hope everyone is also counting down to My Generation - Frosh Week 2012. The Student Orientation Committee has been hard at work planning events for throughout the week, to keep all the first years active, excited, and cheering.

Frosh Week is not the only thing on my radar right now! I have begun work on the Co-Curricular Record, something last year's executive were very passionate about. I plan to continue the progress, and in the coming weeks will look to put together a working group to discuss the logistics of the record at X. The CCR is essentially an official University document outlining your extra curricular involvement during your time at X. I will keep you all posted on the CCR status, and would love to hear your thoughts!!!

Another endeavour I have begun work on is 24 HOUR STUDY SPACE!!! This is something that Nick and I campaigned on, and I am very committed to implementing for students. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter. Please email me su_vp@stfx.ca, tweet at RachMitch30 or TheUOfficial!!! One of the options I'm exploring is repurposing Gilmora Gym as a study space.

Last week I went to Fredricton for a conference on Inclusion in the Education Sector. It was run by the Atlantic Human Rights Centre, and was a wonderfully orchestrated conference, unfortunately for me it was not as tailored to post secondary schools as I had hoped. I still learned lots, and heard some incredibly inspiring stories from individuals.

Ok friends that's just a wee update on a few things I have been working on. I hope course registration is going well for all returning students. I'm still waiting on an override, as per usual for me. Well we are now more than half way through June, my One Direction obsession continues, but has taken a backseat to my new interest in exploring X yearbooks in the spirit of Frosh Week My Generation theme.

The Great Antigonish Beachcrawl continues, as my roomies and I embark on a different beach adventure every weekend. Hope the weather cooperates... To all the X students out there, keep on registering in courses, enjoy the summer days, and get excited to welcome the newest class of XAVERIANS!!!!


Stay tuned for more updates from my office! Thanks for reading my blog and feel free to contact me with any comments, ideas, or thoughts.

Rachel Mitchell