Fed For Thought

Student Federation Episode IV: A New Hope

2010-09-04T18:47:00.005-04:00

It is a period of civil war. Rebel fed bodies, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Vice President Communications. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Vice President's ultimate weapon, the CFS BULK ORDER, an armored machine of controversy and corruption with enough power to destroy an entire student government. Pursued by the Vice President's sinister agents, several federated bodies race home to their rebel offices, custodians of their own secret plans that can save their people and restore freedom to the Federation...

101 Week is upon us. Let's hope its cleansing fires can fix the drama of the summer. Drama so fierce even AppleDave doesn't want to make lulz of it.

sheets 2.0

2010-04-27T16:20:00.002-04:00

Wondering who will represent you on your federated body association?

Elected to one and wondering who you'll see at LeaderAction?

Miss the days of I Liek SFUO Elections and need a little nostalgia?

Just plain curious?

WELL! Have an

SFUO Round Tables List for 2010-2011!

BAM!

Notes/disclaimers copypasta'd from last year:

There might be some holes or misinformation on there still - I've confirmed very little, and am just throwing this up now so it's actually out before Leaderaction where everyone will just meet each other anyway. BAM!

Plus, those of you who are not involved (if there even are any who read this blog), you can now see who to hold accountable for things happening on campus, since I am not aware of anywhere else you can find a list like this.

BAM!

Note - if I missed your executive, it isn't because I don't like you guys. I love everyone who has passion enough to get involved on campus in some way. Student leaders are admirable, whatever they's leadin'. It's just that you're a sub-association (member associations of SAFA, clubs of CETSC, groups under the ESS, etc) or you're not heavily affiliated with the SFUO (droit civil), so you didn't make sense to go on this list, or I just couldn't find any infos about you (nutrition, other).

relay in the face

2010-02-10T00:34:00.004-05:00

Executive candidates noted missing from the pie in the face fundraiser for Relay for Life:
- Sidney Loko

BOA candidates who actually participated (because the list is smaller):
- Logan Ouellette
- Martin Schoots-McAlpine
- Brandon Bay
- Peter Flynn
- Iain Brannigan
- Amanda Marochko
- Amanda Iarusso
- Sameena Topan
- Andrei Huranchyk

Noticed at the event, but did not participate:
- Danika Brisson
- Bassam Javed

Assuming we want actually get to vote tomorrow, cast your votes for the above poor sport candidates so that they can suck all the fun and life out of the SFUO.

Oh wait. That would be awful. Don't do that.

I suppose I've endorsed candidates for three BOA races then. Take what you will.

how you should vote

2010-02-09T08:51:00.003-05:00

The SFUO makes a habit of telling you how to vote. It's AppleDave's turn.

Today you will vote for:

Steeves
Chaput
Horton
Tishler
Hasinoff
Galette

UPASS YES
GREEN YES
EDS NO

Candidate Videos

2010-02-03T17:11:00.003-05:00

Thanks to an anonymous comment on my previous post (good thing I enabled those!), we now know that candidate videos are being posted at least to YouTube. Perhaps to the Elections Website soon? We'll see.

YouTube

uPass - final thoughts

2010-02-03T00:45:00.003-05:00

I'm voting in favour, but do not expect a majority of students to. Here's why:

Students who are "forced" to buy the pass "might as well use it," and will experience the nice parts of the city they would not have otherwise.
For that reason, I don't feel they're subsidizing the transportation of other students, but are having a door to the city opened. Ottawa is more than just Bank St to Range Rd to the Market to Lees Ave, folks.
It'll make intercampus events more accessible to the general population of students, so we can encourage students to go to events at Carleton/Algonquin/La Cité and they actually will
It's carbon neutral - changing the primary mode of transportation of as many drivers as cyclists
The fee increase is negligable - it's only the price of textbooks.
It's a *universal* pass, so you can even bus to Navan or Richmond if you want some hot sauce or... whatever Richmond has to offer
Ridership on the bus will increase, which means the routes will be improved instead of stripped away like is likely happening for the summer
and selfishly, I will save money as I am a student who buses to school.

However, the "Yes" campaign should not have included "save money" as a platform point. They're just going to agitate the already skeptical Sandy Hill annd Residence students and lose a large portion of the vote. For that, and the lack of an opt-out, it's going to get shot down, unfortunately.

My ONLY complaint will arise if the "no opt-out" policy includes students on out-of-town work terms or student exchange. While it's assumed that that will be the case, we'll see what happens if and when it's implemented.

By the by, I hate the argument that this is contradictory for our campaign to lower tuition fees. It's not. We're working to make education more accessible, not cut funding to student services on campus. If we can one day talk the governments into paying for our tuition AND funding the SFUO and the uPass, that'd be thrilling, but let's do one thing at a time people.

Deeeeeeebatez

2010-02-02T15:28:00.002-05:00

I'm excited for tomorrow. Here's something I'd love to see though: BOA debates. Where are they?

Things I'd ask Bay:
- Why no posters? Are you not trying, jackass? I haven't seen a class presentation yet, but that might be my course schedule. I'll give him a few more days for that.
- How are you gonna do all that in one year and one board seat? It sounds more like an exec platform than a BOA one.

Things I'd ask Javed:
- Do you understand what the BOA *is*? It seems like you're running for VP Academic of the ESS with a platform like that. Good ideas, wrong place to put them in action.
- ...what else have you done on campus? I've neither heard of you nor been able to find a list of past involvements on your website or posters.

I'd also just love to see them fight to the death. Then I'd go watch the debates for BOA: SS get even more ragey. Alas, the Elections Office offers me none of that.

that's a paddlin'

2010-02-02T15:26:00.003-05:00

The Disciplinary Committee hasn't yet been called to action, but this blogger expects to see surely Amalia Savva and perhaps also Amy Hammett given the big boot awfully soon for their breaking of the constitution. Maybe there'll be some end-of-year impeachments too. I love dramas.

I just hope whatever's going down happens before votes are cast, otherwise we may be holding a by election next month...

side lulz

2010-02-02T14:14:00.000-05:00

Seamus Wolfe was arrested shortly before 13h00 today. He was released and charged with criminal swearing. Word on the street is that it was Marc Kelly related. Maybe he's not running for Prez, but he's certainly not gone either.

<3 Marc. I wish you would return my calls.

Update! La Rotonde has more on the story.

uFail? you tell me.

2010-01-29T10:44:00.010-05:00

Now that the city has passed the uPass, as you all know, it's up to the students in referendum to decide.

Here are my pre-campaign thoughts.

The Good:

The whole city becomes much more accessible to all students
Students who live farther from campus save money
It discourages driving from a cost point of view (but NOT from a time one), which could reduce congestion in parking lots, and you know, environmental such

The Potential Bad:

If there is no "uPass upgrade" option, students who need an express or rural X pass, those who need the bus the most, are in the worst situation
It remains to be seen, but buses in the Laurier-Lees corridor might get awful congested

The Confirmed Bad:

There's no opt-out, which screws students who are not in bussable Ottawa (Gatineau in the morning, extremely rural, student exchange, etc)
The summer semester pass is not included (though this is good for those that don't want ANY bus pass)
It discourages bicycling as a primary means of transportation
It will heavily reduce ridership on the shuttle bus

The Translated:

252 bus tickets (126 regular rides, 84 express rides)
41 cab rides from the market to residence
10 cab rides from uOttawa to Algonquin College
316L or 2000-3000km of gas
~800km of driving, or 16 trips across the city using AAA estimates that include averages for gas, insurance, maintenance, purchase price, and depreciation
A new on sale Norco Rio Vista
2-3 pairs of running shoes
3-6 textbooks
6 regular lectures
25 pitchers of beer at La Maison

That looks good when compared to other transport options. Not so much against the beer and books. I'm probably voting in favour, but am still unsure. Thoughts? Comments?

leaf em aloan

2010-01-26T15:05:00.006-05:00

Wai evribuddy gotta pickin on quittarz?

Fancie and Julie dropped from the race, and everyone is yelling angry things about a slate.

But, there was arguably not enough evidence to call them a slate last year, so although they are friends and don't hide the fact that they'd like to see each other elected, that's the case for most of the nominations. Does that mean prospective VP University Affairs Osama Berrada and prospective BOA Director for Engineering Bassam Javed are a slate? Not really.

Oh, sure, they probably are a slate. I'm just saying they don't run as one. Uninvolved students don't know about their bonds, or those of the other side.

More importantly though, why must we rip on them? Is it the CFS? We're stuck with that for at least another three years, so it doesn't much matter if our exec is pro- or anti-CFS. Is it the hippy? So someone has different opinions and priorities than you. Let it go. Is it the uselessness? That has everything to do with the people and nothing to do with their agenda.

Let "The Base" alone. By branding them as a politically driven slate, you're only feeding the fire.

mah voetz

2010-01-22T17:04:00.010-05:00

Here are the candids.

Update: you can see the official list of candidates on the SFUO elections website now, since I apparently forgot to post this for several days.

Welcome to the 2010 edition of AppleDave votes! Before I hear anything anyone has to say about why they should be elected, here's what my gut tells me to vote:

Chieftain: Tyler Steeves. He's so dedicated. This'll be his third time with his name on the bill - he's had years of debates and camp-painting and board membership to really get to know the ins and outs of being president. Let's let him put his expertise (see what I did there?) to work for us.

OR, Marc Kelly. Maybe his candidacy was rejected, but I might give him a write-in vote. His campaign last year and general activities on campus shows us he is apolitical, full of integrity, and a wise and mature leader. His election would bring about a new golden era of the SFUO.

Soashul: Alex Shampoo. Nobody else is running. I wouldn't want to compete with Snowdin, God of Winter, either.

UAffairs: Billy-Bob THorton. I loved his tenants rights campaign and the student bus stuff victory. The dude gets stuff done. Let's keep him around.

SAffairs: Agbodjogbe is definitely getting my vote is not in the race anymore, so I abstain (for now).

Monet: Moneen Hasinoff. She's the only one who really wants it, and therefore the only one who'll have the passion to do it right. SJK and Loko would both rather be UAffairs but can't compete with Teddy. Fancie is branded as being a slate backup, but true or not, he has never given me the impression that he's up to the task of exec work, especially not an important role like Finance has withdrawn from the race and therefore not eligible for voatz.

Communicajun: Triscuit Denummer. He's a dickface and barely speaks Henglish. Vote for him.

BOA: Bay. He has experience in student politics, and wasn't a useless tit on the board like I may or may not have suggested a year ago, so I'll let him stay. Plus, who the devil is this Bassam Javed?

Senate: Undecided, but not Lendrum. I'll wait and hear what the others have to say, but for the sake of feminism I'll say Andrea Bordeau until I hear more.

Who you should vote for BOA: Keep Flynn and Prazeres around and get Brisson out since she's been there three years already. Otherwise I'm not partikalar about how you vote.

When campaigning starts, maybe I'll change my mind. I'm tempted to jump over to the Mark Kelly camp for good. I love him.

line of time

2010-01-18T13:12:00.006-05:00

Tonight

5pm: nomination period closes
6pm: exec candidates meeting
7pm: board candidates meeting

Next Monday

List of candidates published

31 Jan

Campaigning begins

9 Feb - 11 Feb

Polling Days
Results the evening of the 11th

I'll leak the names of as many candidates as I can before next week, but these are the dates to watch for.

Blaggin' 'bout votin'

2010-01-17T14:33:00.004-05:00

Changed my mind. Absent or not, I need to blog the BOA at least once, as KJ360 updates me that the board just passed the list of polling stations, to be:

Tabaret lobby
Desmarais lobby
Simard or Arts
SFUO office
UCU Tim Horton's
UCU Cafeteria
Montpetit 2nd floor
Fauteux lobby
Marion basement
CBY basement
Sports Complex lobby
SITE first floor entrance
RGN somewhere

In spite of encouragement from several members, we're missing residence entirely. Who needs first years to vote, right? They haven't been here long enough to know what's what. They get no say in their future, speaking in terms of student politics.

A lot of the words from board members seemed to sum up as "the list is great if we have e-voting." But as KJ360 reports, e-voting isn't a sure thing. I for one hope it's not happening, though I'll leave it to the e-voting activists (who seem awfully quiet this year) to complain about. I would point out, however, that you can't evote if you don't know about the voting, and polling stations are just as good for promo as they are for doing the voting.

Phish concert

2010-01-17T13:15:00.002-05:00

I love Phish. And the internet.

Check it. There's more here and here, too.

I wonder if there'll be any fancy lawsuits? Who would want to phish uO students anyway?

Wondering why I'm playing with URLs and not blogging the BOA this week? It's at RGN. Fuck. That.

theyz lissennen

2010-01-16T07:48:00.007-05:00

I think someone in the elections office heard our cries.

Walking through CBY and SITE yesterday, I only saw new posters styled like the website. Fame and glamour were nowhere to be found.

I'd raise the score of this batch by 5 points to a 7.5/10.

I also saw would-be BOA candidate Brandon Bay collecting nominations on his Tablet and making claims of a paperless candidacy. Green or lazy?

I have confirmation that Ted Horton is running for re-election as VPUA, not for President. Tyler Steeves is unsurprisingly making a bid for that role again though.

newspaper goo goo, marketing gaga

2010-01-13T17:06:00.011-05:00

The Fulcrum beat me to the punch, but I will blog my thoughts anyway.

The Lady Gaga themed posters all over campus are obnoxious and/or disgusting. I'll let you decide which.

Firstly, SFUO fame is not fame. Hey non-involved students, stop me when you hear a name you recognize. Mélanie Lefebvre. Jocelyne Turner. Adrienne De La Rosa. Brigitte Noel. Danika Brisson. Michele Lamarche. No? Most of you have only heard of Michele, if any? Even Danika is already a stretch? Hmm. Usually fame lasts a little while. You'd think the names of VPs Student Affairs over the past seven years would ring some bells.

Secondly, fame or power or money (LULZ) or resume padding are NOT good, valid reasons to run for a position in student government. Student leaders should be there because they want to defend the rights and interests of students, not for personal gain. If an elected student politician forgets that it is the students that put him there to serve the students, then the politician will be taught that it is the students who can remove her.

Thirdly, the posters are not even well-designed. They're ugly and blend in with all the other posters on the wall. I barely noticed them enough to get offended and blog.

I'm not sure who is responsible for this, but I hope that whoever designed the elections website does the next batch of posters.

That's all I got. Read the editorial I mentioned for moar bitchinz on this topic.

-AppleDave

omglulz

2010-01-06T09:20:00.003-05:00

Nomination forms are now available in the Fed office, so sayeth their webgods. What does this mean? Finally, it's the most wonderful time of the year.

Stay tuned. Oh, and watch your back, De Bellefeuille.

old lamps for new

2009-10-24T17:23:00.004-04:00

Former VP Social Matt Joseph was denied a return to the BOA by the students in Common Law. Former VP Social candidate Alex Chaput was welcomed with eight sets of open arms to the job he almost earned last winter. Former Presidential candidate Tyler Steeves continues to win seats everywhere but the SFUO Exec, and he just might get the big job next year if he keeps up the reputation building he's got going on. It seems like the Socialist Party of Campus might not survive another election.

But you already know that. Other bloggers feed you news or gossip. Fed For Thought feeds you lulz and exaggerations. However, you may not know that at yesterday's meeting, two members of the CSSA Executive have tendered their resignations. In two weeks time it will be official, bringing them to five vacant positions. If you're a computer scientist looking to get involved, this looks like a good time.

Lulz: Their executive *still* consists of six members, which is half again the number of filled positions it had two years ago. Under Christopher Millward's presidency, there were merely four executive members. Also, word on the street is that all the drama down south is over a girl. Silly awkward nerd boys. You shouldn't let the vaginal sex interfere with business.

One last thing: I received an email from someone(s) calling himself/herself/themselves "Hikin," indicating that "big things are coming", and you should all "watch the horse." What horse? The Gee-Gee? The zodiac year of the horse, coming in 2014? The Rideau Carleton Raceway? The uO Equestrian Club? Some other horse entirely? Do we even have an Equestrian Club? So many questions, so few answers. I'm at least as curious as you are.

almost there

2009-09-29T14:38:00.002-04:00

Less than one and one half hours til the nomination period for VP Social closes. How exciting...

Elections

2009-09-20T16:59:00.004-04:00

I see why Scott Bedard uses Arpie Gee as a proxy. They're both long-winded and aggressive. He thinks the board should throw out the CEO and such since elected officials acting in these positions is undemocratic. Should he get his way and the process restart, we will not have an SFUO VP Social for the fall semester.

Update: the motion passed. Also, in an unusual turn of events, Ted Horton, notorious for abstaining last year, was the only member of the SFUO executive to vote on the motion.

Fun fact

2009-09-20T14:31:00.001-04:00

Standing for the anthem "facilitates knee-jerk, blind nationalism."

<3 SFUO Exec

Jay-G dramas

2009-09-20T14:19:00.005-04:00

Seamus admitted a few minutes ago in his exec update at the BOA meeting that there were interesting allegations brought forward about former VP Social John-Sofie Billy, that there was a full day of professional mediation, and that the Disciplinary Committee was called about it.

Unfortunately there were no details given out, and he asked board members to wait until the in-camera session to ask any questions.

That's a lot of drama for someone who resigned to raise a child - perhaps I was mistaken about his reasons for departure. Why was the Disciplinary Committee called? that's a pretty rare happening. I bet he ate a guy.

Jean Sofia Guillaume: A Resignation, or, Post-101 Week News

2009-09-16T18:51:00.008-04:00

Many a word has been spoken about J. Sofia and his departure from the SFUO. Not wanting you to wonder about the gossip any further more, I readily bring to you all of the truthfacts.

Once upon a time, in early June, Sofia and David Auguste, former HSS VP Social Franco, were making sweet, sweet love while doing handstands. Sof later discovered he was pregnant with Davey's lovechild. He made an Executive decision to keep the child, and leave the SFUO so he could focus on being a good father (mother?) to the darling baby. To avoid the embarassment Ted Horton will surely face when he soon starts to show his baby belly, JSG ran long before coming to term. Dave Dave followed behind so they could get married and start a family, becoming the third VP Social this year not to complete a full term.

The first was, of course, WSSA VP Social Bethany Schock, who left the post very early in the summer due to a bad case of gingivitis. I don't really blame her; you can't run a smooth 101 Week with bad breath and swollen gums.

Thanks to all of our lovely VP Social friends, there are few student governments at uO currently not in the throes of bye-bye election. Wanting to be like all the cool kids, Catriona Czyrnyj broke free of the shackles of 101 Week and got her filthy drank on with her Chapeaus-noirs, or Survivors for the laywoman, and 101ers. Superpowered ESS President Zac Brunet summarily impeached her for it. To top it all off, CSSA VP Social Carson Wilcox was never elected, merely appointed for the summer by the executive, and has been forced to step down and run in the by-election to make things more legal. If not elected, he'll bring our total to 5 departed socials. Boo-yah.

While we're down in south campus, there's a referendum happening right now to change the current Engineering Students' Society / Computer Science Student Association structure to be CBY vs SITE. When asked to comment, a fencesitting Computer Engineer replied, "We have a students' society?"

At the last city council meeting, Moose and Rocks didn't stand up for the national anthem, Ken Joly reported. I don't have a joke here - only a plea from former US President George W. Bush for Canadians to man up and declare them terrorists.

That's all the news for now. Irregularly scheduled updates will continue as always.

skandaluz!!

2009-07-22T14:03:00.000-04:00

If I waited til tomorrow, I could say I hadn't blogged in a month. I'm taking that away from me. I'm such a dream-killer.

Why the lack of updates you ask? The summer isn't nearly as exciting as the elections were. Probably because how little else goes on besides constant planning. Still, there's enough n00z for an update once every just-under-a-month.

Now. I blog. I write. Computers to donate words for those students scholarly reading weblogger ado in the internet. Keep Seamus in review. Type til the executif has no visible shortfall about ... it.

That was some blog poetry for pi approximation day. Now to get serial.

As you have heard from the other bloggers I am sure, our new Marketing Assistant is a CFS cultist from Sudbury, our Federation speaks English as flawlessly as they speak French, and the last BOA wasn't terribly blog-worthy except for a mild outbreak of heterosexism, which is sexually transmitted, by the way. That, and the horrible case of privatization I caught from a wild night with Larry. I'm still trying to wash that off.

What you may not have heard is the latest scandals behind the scenes.

My favourite? Ted Horton is pregnant, and doesn't know who the mother is.

He isn't the first male politician to carry a child, nor the first to have a terrible movie made about it, but he might be the first to require a maternity test. I'll have to do a little more research.

Confused? Understandably. Men don't usually carry children. But according to ancestry.com, Ted's great great great great grandfather had a child out of wedlock with a seahorse. Apparently the bastard somehow ended up human enough in appearance to attract a woman, and Ted inherited his childbearing hips from this lineage.

Until the deal to partner with the administration is finalized, Mr. Horton is the SFUO's bike sharing program. Even yours truly has to give a blood sample because I might be the other parent. Results aren't expected until mid-September, which if he decides to keep the child, will be into his second trimester.

The other major scandal of late is that Roxanne might be embezzling. At the very least she's redirecting almost half of what should be levied to the federated bodies elsewhere. The money allocated for federated bodies this year is 44% lower* than it was last year, which she attributes to a 5% decrease in the estimated number of incoming students. That doesn't even pretend to make sense. She also claims that the numbers from last year were wrong. But she was VP Finance last year too. So she either made a massive error and gave tens of thousands of dollars too many to the Fed bodies last year and perhaps should have been impeached for it, or she's making a massive error right now and, depending where it turns out that money is disappearing to, should be impeached for it. Hmm... you're making quite a mess for yourself, Roxy. We're all waiting to hear what this business is all about.

*The "44% lower" figure comes from the budget approved by the BOA, but the fed body VPs Finance are getting a lot of variance about what their numbers and levy will be. Every time she's asked she has new news for them, and usually it's that they have less money than she'd promised previously.

In other news, a BOA director is trying to take over The Fulcrum. Good thing we have all these bloggers now to keep the student politicians in line while the mainstream media has its puppet strings attached. Better thing that we bloggers have bloggers to keep us in line. But who will blog the bloggers' bloggers? Or blog those bloggers' bloggers' bloggers?

I won't say any more about the Fulcrum business though. I'll leave that to Ken Joly to better know this evil director.

I'd like to take a quick (and rare) moment of actual seriousness though to toss my sympathies out to the Fed exec and staff as many of them are close to Sunday night's tragedy. My bloggy heart goes out to you.

- AppleDave

the media's media

2009-06-23T16:35:00.005-04:00

http://blogginbloggerz.blogspot.com/

Now we're being blogged too.

Absurd? Absolutely. So much bias against already inherently biased media (yes, including Fed For Thought) that there's little real, valuable material left? You bet your hat. Worth reading anyway? It seems like it will be.

I <3 the internets.

don't be hating

2009-06-16T10:40:00.004-04:00

<--- LOVE this.

Im tellen on yuuu

2009-06-11T15:40:00.001-04:00

Our little BlogoSFUO is really a-twitter with news this week! This Dave certainly didn't expect to be writing so much over the summer, but such is life. When there be things to be told, I be tellin' them to you.

Tabaret recently signed us up for ClearView Connects™, a tattle-tale service that can send all the infos of all the bad stuffs that happen on campus to the big tough administrators who will deal with the bullies for us. The idea is that employees can anonymously tell the administrators all about

"any incidents of theft, misappropriation of funds, falsification of documents, vandalism, unethical behaviour, etc."

that is occurring behind the scenes by other employees, simply by going to the ClearView website. Wait a tic... whose website? Not ours! ClearView's website!

Here are the troubles with that my friends, assembled for you in an unordered list<ul>:

ClearView Connects™ gets all this potentially confidential info that they really shouldn't have, PIPEDA compliant or not
As some profs have pointed out, anonymous whistleblowing is contrary to the Canadian legal system
We're not running this on an internal server, so verification doesn't exist
- This means that every complaint needs to be investigated, even if it's posted with no factual basis, just malice
- ClearView doesn't (and shouldn't) have a list of employee IDs for people to post with. That'd kill the anonymity, right?
- That also means anyone, any employee or any student or any member of the community or any Tamil Tiger or any A&W Root Bear can file a complaint about a staff member
- The University will pay for ClearView to receive this complaint to forward it to them, and then waste their time and money investigating this farce that may have originated anywhere from Rio de Janeiro to Nairobi to Kathmandu
- The University of Ottawa is located in none of Rio, Nairobi, or Kathmandu
Adding any sort of login ID to this service to keep it within the University removes the anonymity, which removes the point of paying the $20000/year for it at all.
The Administration LOVES this idea!

This fun is already in place. If you're a troublemaker, go to ClearView Connects™, type in University of Ottawa as your company, and lodge a complaint of unethical behaviour about, say, acting VP Governance Nathalie Des Rosiers. Her because she's the one pimping the system to the media. I was unable to find who brought it to the BOG in the first place.

While I don't encourage the abuse of a channel to keep things clean and friendly at our wonderful school, they're just asking for it to happen with this system, and if you're going to do it you may as well make your point and do it right.

Oh, for the curious, they talked about it at this BOG meeting in 2007.

Commercial break

2009-06-11T11:43:00.004-04:00

We'll be right back after a quick word from our sponsors:

Sometimes I come across a picture and find it very arousing. Unsettlingly so, even. Hopefully you and I share the same taste in reproduction.

This.

-SponsorDave

runnenn away

2009-06-10T10:55:00.003-04:00

All of the cool executives are doing it. Runnenn away, that is.

Leaderaction/Arts Retreat is good for inter-executive bondage, and for general learnins, but not for making any plans nor any progress. Student governments need to make a plan for the year, to figure out where the individuals and the unit as a whole are going and how they will get there. Without a plan, you won't really get anywhere. Some execs don't plan. Others try and do it in an exec meeting. But that's not a friendly situation inviting discussion and a desire to keep listening as your meeting drags into the late afternoon. There's a reason people complain about attending snake meetings.

Whether you go to the cottage or home of one of your executives, spend an afternoon in a city park, or pitch a tent in the woods of Navan, I'd like to ask all you execs to get out of your offices, get to know each other, relax, and then make a real plan. Do it for your students, yo. Or at the very least, do it for the good press you'll get from the bloggers. Kudos to the ESS and to the CSSA who had such planning sessions last weekend.

Executive planning retreats. It starts here.

big snaek

2009-06-02T18:29:00.000-04:00

I made it to the asp python cobra boa on Sunday. Sorry about that confusion - I've about had it with these mother fucking snakes in these mother fucking names.

Anyway, as you might expect, shenanigans were abound. Though not nearly as many as you may have grown to expect from the BOA. My personal favourite would have to be the motion to order pizza - debated for 8 minutes, then voted down - with a roll call. Which made Seamus call Peter Flynn a communist. I didn't realize we still had cold war bigotry going on.

Nearly as good was Arpie Gee, who - imagine his audacity - brought a bottle of water to the BOA. And he's not even on the board, just proxying. Needless to say, Seamus wanted to eat him. Keep your eyes open next full moon - it still might actually happen.

Speaking of eating, during his executive update, Ted Horton informed us that he is eating well and sleeping regularly. That's certainly a load off my mind. Another relief came in these updates: VP Comm Julie Seguin and her team have finally figured out how to use the online calendar. Now we might actually see a mild amount of usefulness to the SFUO website. Maybe. There's also talk of a sweet new SFUO website on its way - I will believes it when I sees it.

Not so relieving was Seamus's idea of a good roundtable. He said in his update that the first PRT went well - there were six presidents who showed up, the meeting lasted all of a half hour, and nothing was accomplished. Seamus just told everyone what they should think about before the next meeting. Maybe that went "smoothly," but I certainly wouldn't say "well." Unless they held the meeting while chilling in an aquifer. Then you could say it went well.

Chartwells is getting rid of all styrofoam on campus. They're planning to store to-go food in sheepskin bags instead. Lots of extra animal deaths, unless they intend to start serving lots of lamb chops. But on the upside, you can grab dinner at the caf, wash the container, and eliminate the need to buy condoms. Safe for the environment and for your sexual health. Thanks, Chartwells!

Arpie had lots to say this meeting, as usual. Before quoting Aristotle to nominate Scott Bedard for an appointment to the Policy and By-law Committee, he offended the room with angry talks of SFUO accountability and a need for better translation. How dare he. Sure, they're good, necessary things, but you don't need to bring them up at the board, douche bag! Or, less sarcastically, you could at least be a little more respectful when you do.

Nearly all of the meeting beyond exec updates was committee appointments and motions being tabled until next time. If sitting on committees was a contest, which it obviously is, the winners would be:
Most committees appointments held by a Director: Roxanne Dubois / Seamus Wolfe (5)
Most committees appointments held by a non-exec Director: Brandon Bay (4)
Most appointments to regularly meeting committees: Khadijah Kanji (3)
Most times nominated for a committee: Richard "me again" Mah (9)
Most failed attempts to get onto a committee: Dick Mah (7)
Number of Directors who sit on no committee: 7
Most cleavage: Amy Kishek (surprised?)
Sad, bored, and a sucker for punishment: Dick Mah, who actually explained that to the Board in one of his many self-nominations
Best blog: Fed For Thought

By the way, if you're looking for boring actual details of the event, check out the linked blogs to the right (and get out of mine! what do you think I am, a journalist?!).

carnival vs carnaval

2009-05-29T10:59:00.000-04:00

'car.ni.val (n.) a traveling show; having sideshows and rides and games of skill etc.

Car.na.'val (prop. n.) a festival season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February and March. Carnival typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, masque, and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations, which mark an overturning of daily life.

These things are NOT the same.

Word on the street was that Jean Guillaume, our new VP Social, was inept. While he has yet to prove he's got ept, I'm certainly giving the man the benefit of the doubt. Why? Because the street's word is based on misinformation.

Mr. Guillaume wants to plan 101 Week with a theme of Carnaval, or to use a term that might be more familiar to us North Americans, Mardi Gras. Lots of colours and masks and partying and debauchery. Those of us around the Fed who heard and did not understand spread lies on the man, saying he wanted to have a carnival-styled week.

While the rumour mill is correct that the carnival day that the Fed has tried for a few 101 Weeks has failed, and making the whole week into that style would be disastrous, turning it into a street party with masks and dancing and fireworks is not something we've tried before, and certainly worth a shot. I, for one, admire Jean's creativity and hope it plays out the way he dreams.

In other news, Roxanne Dubois is thinking of opening a new SFUO business down at the tracks, and Ted Horton is starting a campaign to liberate Quebec from those oppressive, genocidal Canadians.

nu yeer, nu blag

2009-05-29T10:50:00.001-04:00

Hello again, Fedsters!

My time with SFUOlulz was wonderful, but times are a-changin', so here I am building a new team and a new blog.

We'll continue to cover the ups and downs of the Fed's goings-on the only way we know how - satirically.

Check in after Sunday's BOA - we should have some thoughts on it.