Directors: What have we been up to this year?
There are 3 Directors that fall under the AMS Vice President of Operations – here is a brief summary of one or two projects they have been working on this year!
If you are interested in any of these projects, we are now hiring for the 2017-2018 school year! All job descriptions are available at www.myams.org/apply . Applications are due Today, Thursday February 9th at 4pm!
Hospitality & Safety Services – Director of Hospitality & Safety Services, Brandon Kim
Brew Gate Opening: As per campaign promise, the gate at the Brew is now open to allow for 24-hour study space for students all year round! This required re-working the gate to secure the Brew while ensuring you could access the seating. This is very exciting and allows for more seating in high volume periods such as exams.
Media Services – Director of Media Services, Max Garcia
Studio Q: One of Studio Q’s greatest achievements this year is in regards to the amount of sports games from Queen’s Athletics that we’ve been able to livestream. We went into the year expecting to livestream around 10 games during the school year. In the Fall Term alone, Studio Q livestreamed 15 athletics games ranging from Hockey to Basketball, Rugby, and Volleyball broadcasts. This is a huge accomplishment because it has allowed people to work with professional livestream equipment that isused by big broadcasting companies. Furthermore, it has also allowed students to edit and compile game highlights and has given us the opportunity to broadcast games on the TVs from the Student Life Centre.
Walkhome : This year Walkhome has been working hard on the implementation of a Walkhome Mobile App (both iOS and Android). Development and testing of the app has been the main effort this year, and the baseline has now been established to release the app to the student population at large in the upcoming school year. The mobile app will give students another way to request walks, while also having the option to call in if they desire to do that. One of the cool things with the app is that it has a ‘my location’ component, so if you don’t where you are you can click that and the Walkhome team will know where they can pick you up!
The Journal: This year The Queen’s Journal has worked on 4 different Special-Projects (QJ Longforms). These projects have given an opportunity to The Journal’s staff of engaging and writing about long topics that require more than 1 entry of information within them. Ranging from “The Hip Files” to “A Wave of Indie Sweeps Over Campus” to the coverage of the 2017 Student Government elections, these year’s longforms have kept students informed about things going on around campus and the rest of the community.
Retail Services – Director of Retail Services, Leo Burns Scully
Online Printing at the P&CC : As promised in the platform of the current AMS executive team, the P&CC began investigations in the summer into online printing. A great deal of time was spent researching and evaluating a number of pieces of technology that could work in store, as well as the potential market for online printing at Queen’s.
After much work, a piece of software has been selected that will allow students and staff to submit documents to a printer at the P&CC. This document can then be accessed at the P&CC through a student or staff ID card, and would be charged through the card. We believe that this software will be a good introduction to online printing at the P&CC, and will significantly speed up processing times in store (as there would no longer be a need to pay in store). At the time of writing, the software is being installed on one of our printers in order to begin a trial phase in the next few weeks.
Tricolour Bus Routes: This summer, the Tricolour Outlet management went through the process of renegotiating the terms of the Tricolour Express bus contract, with our suppliers at Coach Canada. This is a process done every 3 years, but, in light of recent market surveys, we were in a position to make better educated decisions as to what routes we should supply and when. The major change is an increased number of buses going to Oakville/Mississauga. This was based on the feedback we have received, and on the sales of our buses over the past few years. In 2016-2017, there will be an additional 2 weekends where buses will run to Mississauga/Oakville, in order for us to assess whether or not this should be a higher priority route in future years. We will use this year as a trial to determine whether or not this is a long-term route we can sustainably offer.