Archive:Exec report - Vice President 2013 - 2014

Ethos

VP 2013-2014: Cora Skaien

After helping the previous Vice President (Veronika Schmidt) with the Winter Social and Annual Banquet in the 2012-2013 year while being public relations, I was pleased to take over the responsibility myself in the 2013-2014 year. Long hike was a lot of effort despite it looking rather straight forward on paper, so be prepared!

Longhike

Venue - Sunwolf Outdoor Centre
Disclaimer: Most of this is copied from previous years with relevant edits.

• So far a great location. We booked the whole centre from Friday to Sunday (end of September/beginning or October) for the 5th year now (it is already booked and paid for longhike 2014 as far as I know). They seem to be okay with our presence as long as we clean up after ourselves thoroughly. They also let us play loud music until late as long as the speakers pointed towards the forest and train tracks and not towards the neighbors). Very nice and cool people. The train tracks scare someone every year as a train passes in the middle of the night, and it is quite hilarious.
• The outdoor centre also has three big BBQs for making the burgers. If you start making burgers at least 30 min before people come back from climbing and wrap them up in aluminum foil to keep them warm, it kind of works. Post work hikes for people to help flip burgers, but do not cook them all (and maybe order less than we did this last year), because they do not get eaten right away. This last year, however, they were all eaten by morning...
• There is also a very nice hot tub, which will be gross after the event. Someone (eg the VP) will have to clean it up.
• You will need insurance for the venue, so make sure that a requested amount is on the contract when you get it created for the next year ($2.5 million generally). Get this insurance for the current year at least 2-3 weeks before the event (it takes time to be approved). You will need to prepare the contract for the next year's booking afterward.

MEC Grassroot Grant / Door prizes

• This grant was changed this last year, and it is now has a set due date and they look at applications in September and October. As a result, we did not get prizes in time. We also decided that prizes were not appreciated as it stopped the music to give them away and feel that door prizes should not be continued in the future. This scholarship may, however, be useful to apply to for our climbing competition because we can get a large amount of quickdraws, belay devices, chalk bags, carabiners..

Longhike instructors

• Instructors were not charged to attend Longhike again this year, although it was discussed to charge them $10 at some point and perhaps this should be done. Also, restrictions on the number of instructors and qualifications should be met as we do not want less competent people teaching.

Longhike Beer

• Beer was ordered from Storm Brewing. 6 kegs and the pumping equipment. Ice had to be bought separately (around 6 bags).

Longhike DJ

• We had Jeff, a new DJ, who was really good. He has some of his own equipment, but needs to rent gear. We have an agreement to pay $150 per event plus the cost of gear rental.

Longhike Party Tent

Three years ago, we had the party tents, tent flooring, some tables and chairs from BC Tent Rental, they came Friday evening set everything up and picked it up on Sunday again, very easy. Last year, we had Awesome-Craig-Tent Rental, which was way cheaper, but involved a lot of work. Craig managed the whole tent situation brilliantly, he transported everything and set-up everything (together with other VOCers) and he also transported the beer and brought disco lights. This year, we once again used BC tent Rental and they were amazing about setting everything up for us. We even broke their tables and we never heard about that... in the future, we should maybe provide our own table-ing table.

Longhike Food

• We ordered food and pop from the AMS food services, and they lost our order. Therefore, we went to as many Costcos and other places as possible on Friday to buy as much food as possible. Exact numbers are hard to estimate, but we had too many burgers and too many buns. The amounts from two years ago can be found in one of the exec documents, so take those estimates and subtract one box worth of burgers perhaps. We bought mayonaise and some tin foil extra. It is also advisable to bring bowls and big plates for the veggies and patties, as well as knives and cutting boards to prepare the lettuce, tomatoes, etc.

Longhike Liquor License

• Start early! You need to get someone with Serving it Right (SIR) who is willing to hold the license, or do the course yourself online. The person with the SIR needs to be sober. Then you need to acquire a Special Occasions License (SOL) from a liquor store, fill it out and get it signed by the SQUAMISH RCMP. Then you need to go to a liquor store and have them sign it, and you will need to pay $25 + additional expected profit and HST on the alcohol to be sold. This document must be presented at the location where alcohol is served and it is suppose to be served by people only who have SIR as well. Each leg of this journey can take 7-10 business days, so start early! More details can be found in the exec documents.

Longhike Other

• Wrist bands for under aged and over ages people to distinguish

Candy necklaces: a much loved thing but need to order them online early, and make sure get ones that are not too tight on adult necks. Cars: you will need enough cars to potentially transport alcohol, DJ and equipment, food, etc. This is likely 3-5 vehicles of only club stuff, so be prepared.

Winter Social

• held in the Pit on a Tuesday night. Note that this prevented members under 19 to attend, which may be a form of discrimination and should be avoided. We had a movie playing in the club room at the same time for under aged members and for voting, but no under aged members attended.
  • Free of charge! They reserved a section for us and we did not close down the Pit to others.
  • Was a potluck again, fantastic!

Annual Banquet

• held at Koerner's Ballroom on campus, cost ~$200. The Anza Club no longer likes us. Since we are mostly grad students, we had a grad student rate for the room. Room came with speakers, projector, screen, tables and chairs that were all set up for us upon arrival. had to clear out by 1:00 AM, which was not a problem.
• No slideshow presenter as it was decided the year before that people lost interest and wanted to socialize. We showed the videos before the event was in full swing, and a few shorter ones at the end of the GM.
• During GM, we had elections, constitutional changes, budget reading and voting, photo contest winners and awards.
• I (Cora) was the MC
• Potluck as well: delicious!
• VOC provided drinks: liquor license process on campus has extra steps- you need to get additional forms signed by "classroom services" BEFORE bringing it to the Fire Department and THEN the RCMP, before it is approved to be brought to the liquor store. This takes a few additional days and a head ache. If the event has too many people requested, we also need to make an emergency evacuation plan.