Exec reports - President

Introduction

The President :

• Must have been on the VOC Exec of a previous year.
• Ensures the overall running of the Club.
• Knows the responsibilities of other Exec's, and tactfully makes sure that things get done.
• Coordinates Exec meetings
• A good position to learn about delegating responsibility. Good public speaking skills will be developed.

How to run the VOC

Congratulations, you are now the guiding light for the VOC. And if you're taking the time to read this (especially in advance) chances are that you're about to do at least an OK job, probably a really good job.

It's been said that there is a limited amount that the president can do, toward either the enhancement or destruction of the club. While it is certainly true that there is a limited amount of damage the president might be able to do (ie. the club will survive), it seems that there is really no upper bound. Keep pouring gas on the fire, and it will really get going.

In general

One thing to remember, particularly when somebody gets their panties all tied up in a knot about a job "not done well", is that we're all volunteers - even you. There are certain responsibilities, but at the end of the day everybody is only doing this because they want to. It's important that people feel good about what they've been able to do, or next time maybe nobody will do anything. There are a lot of critics around, but not a lot of artists. Maybe that critic would like the opportunity to show everybody how it's done by doing it themselves, we can certainly provide the opportunity.

Another good guiding principle is that people in general want to do a good job, but they just don't know how. People are flakes, unfortunately, and everybody needs a reminder/guidance. Usually they are perfectly capable of figuring it out for themselves, but they just need somebody to help them remember to think about it far enough in advance, and to make them feel like it really is "their" project.

Your job is to try and keep everybody on track, so that they can be at their best.

Also, be sure and take all opportunities to foster ties with our alumni. They end up helping us in ways that we can never imagine at the time.

Ethos

The club will look to somebody for guidance on the ethos of the club. Ideally you'll come up with something, or help people to come up with their own something. It might be worth checking out some past president's ideas, for example this one. Old journals are a great place to get a feel for the club ethos.

Mission Critical

These things have the potential to cause major heartache, so be sure to pay attention to them.

AMS Clubsdays

It is very important for our membership numbers, and getting enough "fresh blood" that we have a good spot in the AMS clubsdays. A year without a good spot at clubsdays is a year without 1st years in the club, which means not enough people eligible for exec the next year. The AMS will naturally try to revert to a policy of "random is fair", whereby they randomize all the clubs and their locations in a misguided attempt to be as fair as possible. Somebody needs to bring the new AMS executive to their senses - it's not that they're crazy or anything, but it's their first time too. The person to bring them to their senses is you, the VOC president.

You will need to run into the new SAC-VC on a couple occasions, and make sure they understand the implications of how they plan clubsdays. Don't be rude or offensive - they are likely trying their best, but just haven't really thought about it. This needs to happen in the spring/summer, because once they've made a decision it's going to be too late for them to change positions gracefully. Some good points to keep in mind might be, for example:

• Clubsdays is a chance for the AMS to showcase their best clubs.
• Putting great clubs in prominent locations is a fitting reward for being a great club.
• Showcasing great clubs also serves incoming students better - they are more likely to join these clubs and have a good time at UBC. These clubs are successful for a reason, probably because people have fun in them.
• Putting great clubs way off in the back makes it difficult to run them effectively, causing wild fluctuations in membership numbers, a lack of fresh blood for executives, and difficulty running large-scale events.
• The AMS's mandate is to serve students and clubs, enhancing student life, not trying to be "fair" to every random new club that starts up.

This is about as close to politicking as the VOC presidency gets. If you're really good at it the AMS will think it was their idea in the first place - this is the situation you are aiming for... Jedi mind tricks. "Gee, I wonder how one might distribute clubs at the clubsday booths in order to best serve both students and clubs"...

It is likely possible to "team up" with other very popular clubs like AquaSoc, Ski and Board, etc. as this distribution serves them well too.

Huts Tenure Expiry

All of our huts have Nominal Rent Tenures with the government, except Sphinx which is in BC Parks. These things expire typically expire every 10 years. No tenure = no (legal) hut. It is the responsibility of the Huts Coordinator to ensure that renewal applications are submitted prior to expiry and your job as President to make sure they do it. The file numbers/granted dates are:

Hut	File	Licence	Type	Term	Start Date	End Date
Brew Hut	2400607	242022	License of Occupation (Community Facility)	30-year term	June 8th, 2012	June 8th, 2042
Brian Waddington Hut	2410051	Renewal in Progress
		241077	License of Occupation (Community Facility)	10-year term	May 9th, 2009	May 9th, 2019
Julian Harrison Hut	2401192	243397	License of Occupation (Community Facility)	10-year term	May 15th, 2017	May 15th, 2027
		240245	License of Occupation (Community Facility)	10-year term	May 15th, 2007	May 15th, 2017
		238705	unknown	3-year term	January 19th, 2004	May 15th, 2007
		235440	unknown	10-year term	January 19th, 1994	January 19th, 2004
Roland Burton Hut		BC Parks Memorandum of Understanding in Progress

The government sometimes mails us something as these dates approach, but they may not and if they do they will almost certainly mail it to the AMS, not the VOC (as these agreements are really with the AMS. After all, the VOC doesn't actually exist as a society; only the AMS "exists"). Be proactive, and make sure you get the tenure renewed. These agreements hold us to abide by our Management Plan which we submit with each renewal application. The application for Phelix is available with Sheldon, the AMS archivist. Who knows where the other applications are, but they are likely similar - we promise to build a shelter for non-motorized recreation, they let us. If you do run across them, try to get them digitized and stored in the VOC OneDrive.

The Clubroom

In 2015 we gained our new clubroom in 'The Nest'. It's much bigger and spacious then our last rooms so it's good to appreciate the space. Ensure you and the exec take good care of it. One of the main points is that we can't make structural changes to the room without the AMS signing off on it first.

Also remember that we negotiated for this space (see 7.2 and 9.1) from the planning stages of the building, don't give up any of the space or let other clubs encroach. The VOC is a large club with very certain demands and liabilities, sadly we cannot share this space.

Random stuff you'll need to know

There's a whole lot of mundane, everyday, things that somebody has to know in order to run the club. And, as president, you're the one people are going to ask. Many of these things are passwords/combinations, so they can't be written here - but you should tattoo them to your hand, or similar (maybe program them into your smartphone or something).

• The clubroom door code. You should probably change it when the new year starts as well.
• The "execs only drawer" lock combination.
• The combination for the lock box up at Brew, Phelix, and Harrison
• Our full AMS bank account number
• The admin password for the clubroom computer
• Our MEC organization number
• Our interchange email server password
• OneDrive and GoogleDrive Account Info and Passwords

How to modify our email lists

Interchange mail (@interchange.ubc.ca)

Note that the FMCBC also uses the UBC interchange server, so these instructions apply to them too (but it's a different account).

First you need to find the login screen. UBC moves it around sometimes, but it can generally be found by googling ubc interchange email manage account. It's not the 1st hit, but it's close to the top. Right now the webpage is here.

Our username is voc (gasp!), but the password isn't written here (obviously). From there you just need to poke around and figure it out. We have separate email lists for voc-exec, voc-members, and voc-alumni. The exec email list must be updated manually, but the voc-members and voc-alumni seem to update themselves via magic (this is the work of Chris Michalak who set up our website to send emails directly to the interchange server to modify the mailing lists as required).

VOC website mail (@ubc-voc.com)

The website, including these email addresses, is managed by Chris Michalak, and sometimes less complicated stuff gets done by Scott Webster.

Schedule

Here is a calendar-based to-do list for VOC Presidents, originally put up by Sandra Nicol, and modified ever since. It's pretty exhaustive, especially for September. Lots of stuff goes on in this club so it is a good idea to keep ahead of it.

Be aware that if the year goes well it is because of a group effort by the whole executive, but that if the year sucks it is all your fault for not motivating the executive.

March/April AGM

• Get elected.
• Meet the new executive. Take the time.
• Shortly thereafter set a date for the Old Exec/New Exec potluck.
• Jump through the AMS hoops, as they appear

April Old Exec/New Exec Potluck

Make sure it's clear who (over the summer) is going to:

• Organizing the summer BBQs on the first Wednesday of the month (bringing the BBQ, sending announcements out, etc).
• Organize Mountaineering Camp for Labour Day long weekend.
• Organize Lead Ladder
• Organize Longhike
• Organize Glacier School (typ. Trips Coordinator)
• Be ready for Clubsdays (generally Membership Chair takes care of the logistics, see also "Mission Critical" section for role of president)
• Be in charge of booking rooms for the club (SUB and Classroom services)
• Checking the club's mail
• Communicate with the FMCBC on the VOC's behalf
• Run Gear Hours
• Run the treasury
• Organize Manual Wood Hauling to Brew (How many VOCers does it take to replace a Helicopter? 2016 TR 2016 2017 2018) (typ. Huts or Trails Coordinator)
• Organize Helicopter Wood Hauling to Phelix. (typ. Huts or Trails Coordinator)
• Run any major renovation/maintenance projects

Also:

• Find out who is around, in general, and what dates people leave/return from Vancouver

Early Summer

• CAA will likely approach the club to book a room for their November avalanche training workshop (public event)
• Make sure a location is chosen and booked for Longhike. The weekend before Thanksgiving would be the sweet spot if possible. Make sure that it happens after clubsdays.
• Remind the journal editor they need to have the adsheet out for the next journal already.

Late Summer

• Make sure mountaineering camp really does happen
• Get in touch with the executive and harass them about their schedules, to set up a weekly meeting time.
• Remind the Membership Chair that they will need to be ready for Clubs Days by late September
• Remind the Trips Coordinator that they need to be mostly organized for Glacier School.
• Aim to set-up additional office hours for the clubroom.

September

• Don't expect to get any actual work done in September.
• Choose a meeting time, start exec meetings right away
• Lots of rooms need to be booked this month.
• Hopefully you have at least 1 trip per week set-up by now. Great time for workhikes.
• As the Trips Coordinator will be busy organizing Glacier School you may have to shoulder some scheduling responsibility.
• The PR person should have the first slideshow ready to go by the Wednesday during Club Days so that it can be advertised to potential members.
• Promote the club on social media / slides where possible. People are looking to join clubs in September.

Glacier School: You need to make sure that Glacier School is advertised in the VOCene well ahead of time, that suitable instructors are found, that a suitable location is chosen, that the Dry School room is booked, and that the Dry School package is made up. The Trips Coordinator is in charge of all of these things, but you can help them delegate and give them support at meetings.

Club Days: Club Days is the most important thing that happens in September. Make sure that the giant poster is located, that volunteers are found, that ample forms and membership cards are available. These things are the Membership Chairs' job, but you can help them delegate and give them support at meetings.

Longhike preparation: Longhike should have been booked by the previous year's VP, otherwise make sure this gets done. In September Longhike needs to be advertised and tickets need to be ready in time for Club Days. Make sure that instructors are found and given their packages, that the liquor licence is arranged and that the AMS insurance is purchased (start the liquor process right at the start of term), that the music is arranged, that dry school is booked, that prizes are purchased, t-shirt and songbook sale organized, and that all of the other details are taken care of. This is the Vice President's job but you can help them delegate and give them support at meetings.

Fall

• Most of the work for Longhike has already been done by the time the event actually takes place in October, so just continue to support the VP, especially regarding clean-up workhikes.
• Keep the trips, slideshows, workhikes coming
• Make sure the avalanche workshops get advertised
• Make sure the Jared Stanley Memorial lecture (which the VOC adopted) gets organized. Make sure to contact Jared's parents.
• Hold a winter social near the end of the term. Good wrap-up of the semester.
• The search for Journal Advertisers should have started, and the exec should all be raising awareness about the Journal at slideshows, in their trip reports on the message board, etc. Get the club's consciousness of the journal raised.

December

• Find an organizer for the Photo Competition. Harass the execs to send you their schedules so that you can choose a meeting time for term 2.
• Annual New Years Celebration at Phelix should happen
• You need to make sure trips for January are organized in December. The early January trips to schedule and get organizers for are: Winter Longhike, Tele School, Avy School, and Intro to Backcountry Skiing.

January

• Help the organizers for Winter Longhike, Tele School, Avy School, and Intro to Backcountry organize dry schools/pre-trip meetings.
• Winter Longhike and Tele School need quite a few instructors, so help the organizers find appropriate people.
• Jared Stanley Memorial lecture usually happens this month.
• Get a date picked for the Banquet. Once the Banquet date is picked then the Journal Editor can back calculate with the printers to figure out when all of the deadlines are. The journal must be done by the banquet.
• The Photo Competition organizer needs to know when the Journal deadlines are in order to set the photo competition deadlines.
• Find an organizer for Red Rocks and Sphinx Camp at reading break.
• The Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival is coming up in February and the club should be aware of it.

February

• Help the Journal Editor drum up advertisers, articles, photos, etc. and verify they are doing their job.
• Go through AMS policy at this time and make sure everything is set-up for the next president to do smoothly.

March

• The Banquet is coming up soon. It will take up much of your time for the rest of your term as President. While it is the VP's job to book the venue, get the AMS to sign the venue contract, find the speaker, organize the liquor license, organize the liquor, figure out the music, coordinate the food, set the schedule, coordinate the awards, etc, you will have to help them delegate. The Banquet is really too big for one person.
• If you are having the elections at the Banquet then you and the rest of the exec need to start recruiting new executives. You also need to discuss who on the current executive is interested in returning as President, Treasurer, and other positions. Advertise, advertise, advertise. The budget needs to be passed at the AGM, so the Treasurer will be bringing drafts to the meetings for a couple of weeks beforehand.
• The trips coordinator should make sure that Son of Rock is organized by someone for April, Easter trips are organized
• The Climbing Wall Coordinator should get the competition figured out.
• The AMS will likely schedule their exec orientations before the banquet. It would be hard (impossible?) to have the banquet earlier, because we'd never get the journal done on time. This causes trouble. Generally we have gotten away with sending our candidates for pres/treas to the orientations before the election. Be proactive with the SAC-VC about this for best results.

April

• Attend the Banquet and hand the Presidency over.
• Attend the New Exec/Old Exec Potluck, and help with the transition.
• Enjoy your freedom.

Past Exec Reports

Exec report - President 2015 - 2016
Exec report - President 2014 - 2015
Exec report - President 2013 - 2014
Exec report - President 2012 - 2013
Exec report - President 2010 - 2011
Exec report - President 2009 - 2010
Exec report - President 2008 - 2009
Exec report - President 2007 - 2008
Exec report - President 2006 - 2007