March Executive Updates

Written by Communications on . Posted in My AMS, News.

Elections 

It was an unusual election season, to say the least! No team satisfied the requirements to be placed on the ballot this year, unfortunately. With this in mind, a past precedent utilized in 2018 was enacted. Assembly received their notice immediately with our next actions. A special assembly was called to appoint a new slate to the AMS executive positions by Assembly voting members. Despite a four-hour assembly (thank you all very much for attending), we were unable to appoint the team present. Following the same precedent from 2018, we then called a special assembly for last week (February 29th). This assembly was the first time for individual candidates. After nearly 6 hours of question periods and debates, a new team was elected to the AMS. Welcome, team OAR! 

Student Life Centre 

 The Key Cafe was installed over the reading break and will be launched in the coming weeks. This system utilized in rentals and car dealerships, is a key vending machine available in the Queen’s Centre. This will allow everyone to access keys regardless of the SLC (Student Life Centre) operating hours, thus adding accessibility to the service. In February, we had our black history month market in the Queen’s Centre, where we could celebrate clubs on campus. Look out for our March market! During these markets, tables are discounted for student groups, usually with a theme, on a first come, first served basis. Student life is returning with the warmer weather, so remember to book quickly with the Student Life Centre for all your programming needs.  

Marketing Office 

The Director of Marketing has worked so hard this past month that they have now marketed three elections for AMS executives and a rector election. They were an integral portion of the debate and special assembly teams. Huge shout out to the Director of Marketing and all the brand ambassadors’ long hours. They have continually put forward a herculean effort this month. Through their work alongside the Secretariat, we saw a record-breaking election turnout. We saw the highest election voter turnout at nearly 20% this winter, which we have not seen these numbers since pre-covid, and it is an incredible achievement. Through incentives, a few hundred donuts and bringing back in-person voting, voter turnout is on the rise. Even last year, with three teams in the elections, we did not see these numbers, and the marketing Director was able to achieve this with no executive team on the ballot. Huge congratulations! 

 Communications Office 

The Director of Communications has been supporting the marketing director in these endeavors. They have been working diligently to promote elections through other challenges. In addition, they supported the sound equipment and set up for our rector debate, special assembly and will be for our second special assembly as well. Without them we would not have been able to set up Grant’s quaint but antique sound equipment. They have also been managing the relationship with news sources through this process. There have been many press releases on our website through this process as well, and the director of communications has updated them thoroughly to keep the student population up to date on such important and pressing topics. 

 Secretariat 

Our Secretariat has been going through many election periods. We saw a rector election, winter referendum, special assembly and now a second special assembly. The entire elections team has worked tirelessly on this with I think a record-breaking number of elections this year. This has been a massive undertaking by them, and their team and I would like to take a moment to congratulate them. They have had to remain fluid and flexible, booking rooms and tables and liaising with potential candidates for our many elections this year. This year, we also brought back in-person voting. This is something coming into this role, and I was so excited to bring it back and see the return. Alysha and I have been chatting about this since May and it required massive effort and involvement from our senior management team. This was a team AMS win and Queen’s Undergraduate win. Engagement is at an all-time high within society with efforts such as these. 

Human Resources 

Our human resources team has adjusted their hiring timeline due to the delay in incoming executives. If you have applied, do not fret; you will hear from HR or Team OAR soon! Applicants have been kept in the loop on this process, and every effort has been made to stay as on track as possible moving forward on this topic. They were prepared the next day after assembly to hit the ground running with the incoming executive team and to quickly make up the lost ground. By 10 am the next day, the incoming had contracts, parole and emails with hiring meetings on the book to review the plan. This is not ideal timeline-wise, but we have made the necessary arrangements to get back on track. We have notified the candidates about the delay in the executive appointment to keep them in the loop on this matter. Go team OAR as they embark on this! 

IT  

Our brand-new firewalls have been insulted and are now named Hera and Zeus. We have recently analyzed the AMS’ digital ecosystem to customize within our Microsoft 365 receipt to understand which objectives are not met by our current platforms. In a huge crossover, our new hiring platform on Dayforce has launched and brought us into the modern age as we leave AMS applications behind. This batch of senior management will be the final batch on AMS Apply, and everyone else, for the most part, will go through Dayforce. In addition, we have brought in entirely new phone systems. They will go live over the next few weeks, and this is run through our teams’ accounts. This will help our student staff remain accessible to our constituents moving forward. Huge developments here! 

  Thank you all for taking the time to read my report! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to message me at .  

  Sincerely,  

Kate McCuaig 

President of the Alma Mater Society 

 

General Services:   

All services are operational! All services under the VPOPS portfolio will be closed with exception of Common Ground, and StuCons! Furthermore, we are planning for our end-of-year closures for student services, which will be as follows.  

  • STQ will stop accepting commissions Friday, April 5th 
  • CGR, TRO, PCC to close to public Friday, April 19th  
  • QSC to close to public Friday, April 19th 
  • FBK/Peach to close to public Monday, April 23rd 
  • WHS, PSC to close to public Thursday, April 25th  
  • JNL to close as per last print cycle
      

Common Ground:    

  • Planning for the Brew in the JDUC! 
  • Marketing for ChowNow! Our online ordering app! You can order using the order tab on our website or by downloading the ChowNow app! 
  • Please keep an eye out for upcoming collaborations and promotions! Some include bringing back mac and cheese, and golden ticket week! 
  • Reminder that CoGro offers catering for events! 
  • Check out our Spring Menu! 

  

Foodbank:   

  • Fryway x AMS Foodbank Fundraiser! Enjoy free fries, Tuesday March 19th (2pm-5pm). We will also be accepting monetary and non-perishable donations. 
  • Peach market survey is out! Please check our socials for the link.
      

Walkhome:  

  • We want to hear from you! Keep an eye out for surveys about your experience at Walkhome.  
  • Planning for our next big outreach event! More info about Walkathon coming soon!
      

StudioQ: 

  • Open for commissions! We are open for consultations, logo & branding, photo, video services, live-streaming services and more!  
  • Know a graduate? Want photos? Book a time-slot in our linktree in instagram 
  • Busy working on yearbook taking photos, please submit your yearbook photos to us! You can do this by filling out this google form! https://forms.gle/YkTNzizXVUFe53xUA 

  

StuCons: 

The Printing and Copying Centre:

  • Working hard on transition and the transition to Media Centre! 

  

The Peer Support Centre: 

Tricolour Outlet:

  • Winter TREX schedule is here! Tricolour Express is a student-run bus service that provides affordable trips for students! 
  • Excited and had a great time selling for St.Pats!  
  • 20% off Friday’s (excluding TREX)
      

The Queen’s Journal:

 

AMC:

  • COMING SOON!  

 

The Queen’s Pub:

  • COMING SOON! 

Happy to elaborate or take any questions! Please feel free to send me a message at .   

Michelle Hudson (she/her/hers)  
Vice-President (Operations) | AMS 

 

The three of us have been immensely privileged to have learned and grown alongside you all, and I hope that you’re each able to pass on as much knowledge as possible to set up your teams successfully. I personally want to congratulate Owen, Ayan and Ruth on being appointed the AMS Executive 2024-2025!

St. Patrick’s Day would have just passed us by as I read this report, and I am immensely proud of all the efforts that came from the Commissions and the broader AMS team (please see their reports, social media and the AMS website). FryWay would have been able to give $4,000 worth of free food (800 vouchers worth) to students, in addition to their normal menu, over the entire weekend. The harm reduction booth was also intended to be set up on the corner of Earl and Aberdeen beginning at 9:00 am Saturday morning, equipped with Gatorade and many sexual health and community resources. NightCaps were also available as a brand new SVPR and harm reduction initiative, which we hope continues for years to come. Commissioner Mollot-Hill and I have been in-and-out of City Hall all semester, coordinating harm reduction efforts on their end. From this, Conny Glenn has been working with Tourism Kingston and the BIA to distribute information about promoted St. Patrick’s Day activities in the downtown core. Businesses want to celebrate with students, and we are thrilled that they’ve taken us up on it. The page can be found here.

Additionally, Commissioner Mollot-Hill and I have worked with our City Councilors, Licensing and Enforcement and the Kingston Police, by extension, to ensure their enforcement strategies are safe and promoting a much less adversarial relationship with students. With the help of our MarComm office’s and the SIC, we have worked to clarify the strategies of the Police Liaison Teams that will be on-campus and in the community, prioritizing student safety and positive, informed messages. More information found on the Know Your Rights campaign and on AMS social media. This was nicely complimented by the Q&A session hosted by QLA on March 13th.

Last thing on the City: We got a BIG win for food security on campus, which was contained within this motion that passed unanimously at City Council on February 20th. City of Kingston – City Council Agenda – Meeting 07-2024 – February 20, 2024 Addendum $180,000 worth of parking ticket revenue from the Parking Reserve Fund of the 2024 operating budget is being allocated to institution and local food banks!

Commissioner Ronan and I have nearly met with every faculty now to review the Faculty Orientation Involvement Agreement, line-by-line. I was able to present the same document at ORT training and was thrilled with how it was received. Soon to be brought to Assembly will be the 2025 ORT Budget, after consultation with all relevant parties. Finally, on the Orientation-front, I will be presenting to all Deans of the Faculties re: the orientation billing process to assist faculties at an internal level. Faculty Society Presidents and Orientation Heads are continuing to be key components of this conversation.

UCRU Lobby Week was a great success and I look forward to the more expansive role the AMS can play in federal advocacy. UCRU’s advocacy priorities for this year included Internal Students, Student Financial Aid, Housing and Mental Health. UCRU representatives were able to meet with various MPs, senior policy analysts and other folks within federal government departments.

OUSA’s Spring General Assembly was a success and saw the approval of three policy papers: International Students and International Education, Addressing Religious and Racial Discrimination and Gender-Based and Sexual Violence Prevention and Response. I am infinitely proud of the AMS delegation and the worthwhile contributions that they were able to make to each one of these papers, bettering them for the students that they serve. OUSA has been having a tremendous impact in the post-seconday education sector recently-tuition has been frozen for an additional 3 years and there is a new Bill from Minister Dunlop introducing institutional policy framework to address fee transparency, mental health and racism.

I continue to work with the DSA to review the in-depth implementation plan and success metrics of the new Queen’s University Policy on Sexual Violence.

Last thing from me will be about the PLETHORA of Awards seeking nominations on the AMS Website. OUSA’s Excellence in Teaching Award will be presented to Dr. Francesca Fiore at the Partners in Higher Education Dinner in Toronto.

For the rest of March/April, I will attempt to work with the SVPR Interfaculty Coalition and SVPRS to formalize recommendations and plans for senior student leadership to be trained at an AMS and Faculty level.

If you need me, I’ll likely be in my office finishing up various internal policies that I’m either re-writing or editing. Woohoo!

Cheers to transition! I cannot wait to see all the restructurings of the Commission side unfold!

Sincerely,

Vic

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