Archive:Exec report - Public Relations 2006 - 2007

Public Relations Officer: Bram v. Str.

Room bookings

After signing some forms you become a booking representative, and you should be able to make room bookings on campus with classroom services. Room bookings in the SUB can be made by contacting the AMS. Usually both the PR executive and the climbing wall coordinator can make room bookings. Room bookings need to be made for large slideshows or slideshows in the start of the season (when you expect more than 30-40 people, a max. of 50 people have been fit into the VOC clubroom), glacier school and longhike pre-trip meeting, avalanche school, etc. etc. For rooms on campus (not in the SUB), contact classroom services. The explanation on their website is fairly self-explanatory. Make sure to send an e-mail more than 2-3 work days prior to the event to: [email protected]. They ask you to provide the following information in the e-mail:

   Name
   AMS club name
   Telephone number
   Date of event
   Name of event
   Description of event (in detail)
   Start time
   End time
   Room capacity required
   Building and/or room preference
   Specific room features required (e.g. moveable seating, projector, projector-screen, audio)
   Whether you will charge a fee to attend
   Whether you will have off-campus attendees 

An overview of the rooms at UBC and their capacity can be found at UBC's buildings and classrooms page.

Common rooms booked by the VOC are: Buchanan A102 (or any room on first floor), a similar room would be Biology 2000.

Excellent maps and route descriptions to the various buildings can be found at Wayfinding at UBC, this example shows the location of Buchanan.

Slideshows

In 2006-2007 I organized 18 slideshows, an additional two slideshows were held at the Winter Social AGM in December and the VOC Banquet.

How to find people who want to give a slideshow: This is fairly easy, just ask around who has been on an interesting trip recently and read the message board. After you've identified these people, ask or e-mail them to give a presentation. Some harassment and repetitive e-mails might be necessary for some individuals. Fairly often, someone from outside the VOC will contact (e-mail) the VOC, and offer to give a slideshow. This is usually worthwhile, although, make sure that the topic appeals to enough people.

Promoting the slideshows:

1. Make sure that the slideshow is mentioned in the VOCene the week prior to the event, ask the VOCene editor to add a link to the VOC Wiki slideshow page (especially if you've added pictures).
2. Post the slideshow on the VOC Wiki Slideshows page. Apart from title, presenter, and a short blurb, it's great to insert some pictures.
3. Post the slideshow, topic, presenter, etc. on the VOC message board a couple of days before the event.
4. Last but not least, spread the word!

Attendance: Varied widely from just a handful of people to 50 and more.

Equipment: The VOC owns the equipment mentioned below. It is usually locked in the gear room. As only the quartermasters have access to the gear room, make sure one of them takes the projector out of the room before the slideshow.

1. A digital projector with cord to connect to a PC laptop
2. Small speakers to connect to laptop
3. Double male audio cord to connect laptop/i-pod to UBC's audio system (check room before event to make sure this works)
4. An old-fashioned 35mm slide projector
5. Slide carousel(s)

Rooms: The VOC clubroom is fairly convenient for slideshows up to 30-40 people. If you expect more people to show up (esp. at the start of the season), book a room in the SUB, Buchanan or elsewhere. Some UBC classrooms have a build-in projector and audio-system. As both of these are of much better quality than our own equipment, it is worthwhile to ask for a room with a such a projector (make sure it's not locked-up) and/or audio-equipment. You will still need the same cord to connect the laptop to the projector (usually a plug in the wall), a similar thing holds for the audio-equipment.

Time: Wednesday at 7pm seems to work fine for most people. Be consistent, and stick to the same weekday and time throughout the year. Experience shows that fewer people tend to show up if you organize the slideshow at a different time and/or weekday.