B&F Day: Another One in the Books

So, if you haven't heard, I'm completing my second semester as Student Senate Treasurer. It's one of my favorite club positions to hold on campus because it's a great way for me to interact with clubs and see all the great things they are doing.

One of my responsibilities is to hold Budget and Finance Day, a grand old day where every club on campus that would like money for the next semester presents in front of the committee. The committee has the right to approve or deny aspects of the budget. It's a long day (we start at 8 AM) but it's worth it.

So on snowless December 1st, I woke up and drove to Bruegger's to get bagels for the committee. My committee started showing up around 7:50 AM and we started the budget presentations shortly after 8 AM. We went until lunch and then took a break for Panchero's. Then we went back to budgets.

L to R: Hailley, Alexis, Peter, and Ashley

Overall, it was a great day. It was nice because I had run the day before so I knew what to expect. I'm glad it went well but I'm also glad it's done.

Post B&F, I came back to my apartment, did a little homework, and then had a few friends over to unwind after a full day. It was nice to have people over, recapping the day, or just talking about finals, Winter Break plans, and our lives in general. Perfect example of my kohawk family.

Chocolate gold coins were being thrown at us because we're GOLDEN! :)

A slow start, but a good day

Happy Tuesday!

Thanksgiving Break is within reach, but much will need to be done before I can head back to Wisconsin for a nice little break.

Today was a little bit of a slow start. I've had to stay up pretty late the past couple of nights working on outlines and plans for two research papers (Honors and 18th century literature) and so sleep has not been a consistant thing. Because of this, mornings have been a little slow to get going.

When I woke up, a little later than expected, I knew I better get going. I had lunch with my fellow junior clarinetist, Elise, at Zio Johno's, which is right across First Avenue. It was delicious and so nice to catch up with Elise! Just like me, she has been extremely busy with her music education major classes and other musical activities.

After lunch, I received an email to set up my first potential interview for New York this spring. It's at a literary magazine called A Public Space and I'm quite excited. I've been working hard at applying to a variety of companies on top of homework, work, and club involvement. Nice to see one starting to move forward!

Then it was homework time until my weekly Budget and Finance committee meeting. We are currently gearing up for Budget and Finance Day (December 1st). I'm excited but also will be glad once it's over (that means I gain A LOT of time back in my life). But in all seriousness, I love being the Student Senate Treasurer. It allows me to work with so many great clubs and help them do amazing things. I also like to think I help to empower clubs by making the whole receiving money part less stressful!

It wouldn't be a day without a little coffee and so I hit up Starbucks with two fellow English majors, Millie and Ashley. We have a short explication on the novel we are working with for our final paper due tomorrow, so we drank coffee, gave each other conferences, and finished our papers.

Now, I'm back in the library, hard at work at blogging and other various homework. Shouldn't be too late of a night; my body clearly needs some rest!

CoeFest 2012!

Last year, Student Senate sponsored CoeFest for the very first time. It was a great success (as you can read about in my blog post from last year). This year, Senate organized the same event: an all day music concert outside on the PUB patio. We had it two Saturdays ago and it was a big success! Seven bands were brought in and students could enjoy the variety of music all day. Senate teamed up with the cafeteria to provide lunch (walking tacos) and dinner (pulled pork and vegetarian options) so students could picnic outside while the different bands played. We tried to hire bands from around the area, such as Diplomats of Solid Sound (they played when I went and saw Obama) or OSG, a funk band from Iowa City. Our closing band was Ryanhood. Although not local, Coe has brought them to campus before and they have developed a good fan base here. They were fantastic. The other neat thing about CoeFest was that it allowed Senate to pair up with E-Club. They handled all the recycling and composting that day and promoted their various programs. 

Awesome E-Club members (and my friends) Alexis and Peter

On somewhat of a tangent, E-Club is a fantastic club on campus. They are doing great things and have lots of members who are extremely passionate about the environment. I would call them dreamers and that is in a positive tone. By thinking big, they are able to be movers and shakers and motivate other students on campus about being activists for the environment.   

Whitney and I getting ready for some great music!

The other cool thing that happened this week was that my dad, brother, and sister came to vist. My brother actually plays on another IIAC soccer team and they were playing Coe! My dad and sister decided to make a trip of it and come see the both of us. So in between listening to bands, I headed over to Clark Field to watch some soccer. Once the game was over, my dad, sister, and I went back to CoeFest. I introduced them to a bunch of friends and we all listened to Ryanhood. An excellent Saturday.

Organization Conference

On Saturday, Student Senate hosted our first Organization Conference. We wanted to gather as many campus leaders as we could to spend part of a day learning about how to be an effective leader as well as passing on important information as a new semester begins. The Senate Executive Board, below, was fired up for a fun day!

L to R: Hayden (Communications), myself (Treasurer), Anna (President), Max (Vice President), and Christina (Recording Secretary)

We had a brief lunch before heading over to Cherry Auditorium (in Peterson) for our keynote speaker, Justin Jones-Fosu. He talked about how we, as leaders, need to be an ACTion H.E.R.O. He stressed the importance of making a mark in an organization yet making sure the legacy and impact of the organization lives on after you are no longer leading it. Justin was also just a fun speaker, often doing crazy things (like singing and dancing) to make the audience laugh.

After the speech, Hayden, Max, and I each had a 20 minute presentation for club leaders. Hayden discussed successful PR techniques, Max showed off our new club pages on Moodle (our online class database/resource center), and I talked about the tasks, like writing checks or filling out supplementary allocations, treasurers should know how to do during the semester. The conference ended with another presentation from Justin, where he discussed how we each have our own social styles. My style is "amiable." Basically, I usually have emotional and personal reactions to experiences and will watch out for everyone in the group. There are four social styles (amiable, analytical, driver, and expressive). We discussed the pros and cons of each and how we can work with all social styles in our organizations. It was a fun way to end the conference.

This was the first time Student Senate had ever hosted an event like this. We did a lot of things right but of course, there is always room for improvement. It was nice to get the executive board together in creating a conference. We hope the organizations that did come got a lot from it; I know the five of us sure did!

First Senate Meeting

Last Wednesday, senators convened for the first Student Senate meeting of the fall 2012 semester. Elections had happened the week before and it was nice to see some new faces in the Lynch room. Anna and Max have some big plans for the upcoming semester and I am excited to get some treasurer items rolling.

The first item of business was to elect a chairperson, the person who runs our meetings. Once we did that, the executive board introduced themselves and explained our roles. Hopefully this week my Budget and Finance Committee will be able to meet and get started on allocating some money!

The next big item on Senate's agenda is our Organization Conference on Saturday. All the campus leaders will be meeting to discuss ways to improve their clubs and keep interest going throughout the semester. We are bringing in a motivational speaker and providing lunch. It should be fun.

Glad Senate is back and I'm ready for another great semester of working with clubs and helping them do the things they want to do!

Update! Update! Filling you in.

Well it's official, official, I've completed one week of classes being a JUNIOR. It was definitely a bit surreal the first few days since I have been on campus all summer. But I think I'm back in the groove, trying to get a good feel for how my weeks will pan out. Since I'm in major organizing mode, let me recap the last two weeks for you.


But first, a few photos. The past two weeks my freshman year memories have come up a lot. It's weird to think that two years ago, I was just a first-year, unsure of what was going to happen. Well, a lot of amazing things happened. So I found a picture of Heidi and I at dragon boats (right) that makes me smile a little bigger at the picture of the two of us taken at dragon boats last Saturday (below).

• ORIENTATION WEEK. Wednesday through Sunday. I was in charge of maintaining the Twitter page and selecting winning tweets tweeted by our first-years. The big events were most definitely the hypnotist, registering for classes, dragon boat racing, Pieces of the Puzzle (a series of short skits portraying potential scenes an incoming first-year might face on a variety of different issues), and the Presidential Brunch. Check out the sweet bracket I was in charge of (right).
• WRITING CENTER. We had our first staff meeting on Sunday night, mainly to fill out our schedules, and then our regularly scheduled meeting on Monday night. It was great to be back and to catch up with all the Writing Center Centaurs (as Dr. Bob fondly calls us). This weekend we will have our annual Labor Day retreat and I also found out that I will be going to San Diego this October for a national writing center conference! Exciting.
• ADMISSION. It is most definitely a new experience to not work eight hours. But I still get in my early morning Admission fun working Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays. 
• CLASSES. Awesome. Seriously. Pretty writing intensive but hey, I'm a writer. I am taking a Journalism Social Media class, Shakespeare: Tragedies and Histories, 18th century English Literature, and Honors: Culture and Revolution on the 1960s. I think each semester I pick great classes and can't wait to dive into the material and really get going. 
• SOCIAL LIFE. What social life? Hahaha, just kidding. Things are going to really get busy in the next couple of weeks but I think I'm ready. I've already begun to mentally brace myself. Having a meal plan with the cafeteria is really nice; lets me see people and not feel like a total, independent adult living in an apartment. But I love my apartment. Having my own room and kitchen is GLORIOUS. 
• CLUBS. Will start up soon. Had our first Coe Review meeting Monday and Senate petitions are circulating. I've been trying to convince people to at least try, I want a solid Budget and Finance Committee this fall. 

Well, I see it's 12:45 and I better head to class. Time to discuss Richard III. He is one devious guy! Now that school has begun, I will be posting more. Get ready because I have so much going on, I have to talk about it all! 

Apologies and Stories!

I am so sorry that I haven't posted in such a long time; I have been so swamped that I haven't even been able to think about posting.  Here's a recap of my week:

• What I spent most of my week preparing for was Budget and Finance Day.  As Student Senate Treasurer, this is my biggest day of the semester.  I led my committee in allocating funds for all the clubs on campus for the upcoming semester.  Budgets were due to me by Wednesday night and then I spent quite some time in the Senate office (in Upper Gage) compiling all the data into one master spreadsheet.  Once all the data was in, I had to make a schedule for the day and then email it out to all the clubs.  Let's just say Wednesday night was a long night.
• But...all that hard work paid off yesterday at the actual event.  It started bright and early at 8 AM.  The committee did excellent, I can't even being to explain how proud I am of them.  We were so on top of things, we ran ahead of schedule (which is UNHEARD for past B&F Days) and then finished early.  Score!  It was an incredibly rewarding day but at the same time, I'm so glad it's over.
• On Tuesday night, I attended a fellow clarinetist's recital.  He's a senior and most senior music majors do a recital.  I enjoyed it because I had heard most of his pieces when he first started them so sitting in the audience on Tuesday night, I could hear the progress he had made. 
• Wednesday was Student Symposium Day.  It's a day where classes are cancelled and current students present research or thesis work they have done.  There was also a speaker, Constance McCashin, at the end of the day, which Senate helped to fund, who discussed anxiety and depression in college students.  A ton of students, faculty, and staff made it out for McCashin and she talked about a lot of good topics. 
• I'm currently in the midst of researching for my large paper in Literary Analysis.  The point of the paper is to prep up for seminar papers we will have to write in the upcoming semesters.  We could chose any topic and I chose the sonnet sequence, Delia, by Samuel Daniel.  If you haven't figured out, I LOVE SONNETS.  Delia has one of my favorite sonnets in it, which I'll post later when I am really working on the paper.  I can most definitely spend a whole post talking about my paper and research.  
• As managing editor of The Coe Review and co-editor of The Pearl, I also spent this week making sure that our proofs were edited and returned to the publishing company so the issues can be here at Coe by April 27th, the day of our publication release.  All three of our literary publications (so add in Colere, the only one I don't work on) are being made.  I can't wait for the release! 
• Last night I attended the orchestra concert.  I had many friends playing in it and it was a fantastic concert!  It was a nice way to end my busy week!  

Currently, I'm in the library, attempting to get caught up on all the homework I kind of neglected as B&F Day approached.  I'm glad the day went well but I'm also glad to get back to my schoolwork.  The semester is winding down!  Only two weeks left!

NACA Recap

XY Unlimited. Probably my favorite group I chatted with!

So bright and early on Thursday morning, myself, 10 other students, and SAC's advisor Kelsi took off for St. Paul, Minnesota.  Our destination was NACA, the National Association of Campus Activities.  A bunch of other schools in the Midwest met at the River Center in St. Paul for three days of fun.  I attended educational sessions, listened to performers at showcases, or roamed the "marketplace," talking to groups and nabbing some free stuff.  SAC booked most of their events for the upcoming year at NACA.

The conference was fantastic!  I saw and heard so many great acts and I'm really excited for the groups we are bringing in this fall.  I was so lucky to have this opportunity to attend this conference.  I was asked to go because I am the Student Senate Treasurer and part of our student activity fee helps to pay for these performers.  I've spent the last couple of days telling everyone back on campus how much fun I had and what great people we are bringing in.

Preston Pugmire, a Coe favorite.

Student Senate Promotion!

On Tuesday we had our elections for Student Body President and Vice President.  The race was close but Anna and Max won.  Both are my age and I've had both of them in classes and have worked with them in the Writing Center and Admissions, respectively.  They had asked me to be the treasurer if they won and I accepted. 

On Wednesday night I was officially sworn into office.  I took over for my friend, Whitney, who spent last semester showing me the ropes of being the treasurer.  It's going to be a lot of hard work, but in all honesty, I can't wait.  I love Senate and by being treasurer, I will be able to help the clubs out on campus even more. 

This weekend I'll spend some time getting situated and organize things so I'm ready to start next week.  Be on the lookout for various updates as I navigate my way through supplementary allocations and budgets.  It's going to be a wild ride! 

Presidential Debates 2012

I apologize for being a little behind on my blogging; my classes have taken off as well as my clubs and I've had to stay up late a few nights this week to get my homework done.  It's been a little intense.  But I love it, trust me. 

Anyways, the race for the next Student Body President has begun.  We had the debates on Tuesday and the elections are next Tuesdays.  This year we have three parties running.  Jen and Sidney, Anna and Max, and Chelsea and Jordan.  The debates were fairly well attended and I think it gave students a chance to see what the candidates are hoping to do if they are elected. 

I'll keep you up to date on what happens on Tuesday!  Senate will be getting a change of pace which will be exciting.  I'm excited to see what happens this semester.

Live Update from Budget and Finance!

Well hey there readers!

This post is coming from the Stuart Hall computer lab.  We are on a quick five minute break.  Starting bright and early at 8 AM, we began reviewing budgets.  After lunch, we moved to trips.  It's been a long day and I'm happy it's almost over.  As usual, not everyone got the money they wanted but that's how things work.  Lots of good discussion has occurred and all in all, it's been a successful day.

Planning on catching up on homework tonight.  Wish me luck!

CoeFest Sucess!

My Saturday was pretty busy: from Campus Visit Day then to CoeFest!  Senate's music festival was a success.  The bands were great and the pig roast was something different and had the campus smelling good all day long.

I helped out for four hours, mainly manning the table.  I got waters for band members, sold our CoeFest t-shirts (I've included our sweet design by Treasurer Whitney Hu below), and chatted with friends while listening to awesome music.  Favorite band?  Probably OSG, the nine piece funk band.  You had some drums, piano, saxophone, trombone, and voices.  It was fantastic.

Another neat thing?  I think other Coe students enjoyed it too.  I saw a ton of CoeFest t-shirts being worn on Sunday so I take that as a good sign.  Hopefully this will become a longstanding tradition!

CoeFest!

Student Senate is sponsoring an event this weekend which we hope will become a tradition in the coming years.  We've called it CoeFest and it's very similar to Summerfest (in Milwaukee, WI) except it's Coe style.  On Saturday, there will be five bands on the PUB patio playing for Coe students.  In between their sets, a Coe student will be doing a mini-show.  The bands are:

• The Poison Control Center
• OSG Music
• Saturday Night Ride
• The Burrows 4
• Derek James

Senate made t-shirts and we're doing a raffle.  I hope a lot of people come because I think there's going to be nice weather and an all around good time. 

The Writing Center is Hopping!

So I came into the Writing Center tonight at 10 PM to work my usual shift and I was quite surprised to find the Writing Center hopping.  There were more people in here than usual on a Wednesday night.  It seems like school is most definitely in full swing.  So many conversations going on as I entered the WC and like usual, I end up in a couple of them.  Of course, when I arrived I had a conference and now I'm taking care of business (which consists of sending emails, reviewing my planner, and blogging).  Once I've taken care of business, I'll work on the papers I have due next week before going to bed.  As usual, my day has been jammed pack.  What to know what I did?  Read below! :)

Started my day with Part I of Admission's Photo Shoot.  Our photographer is a man named Billy and he's fantastic -- friendly and makes being in front of the camera comfortable.  I spent around an hour and half being in photos before going to my Psychology class.

From Psychology it was off to Admissions.  Two hours later, I went to Barcelona and then Cultural Studies.  Went back to my room to do some homework.  Before Senate fun, I headed to Dows to learn how to be a house manager.  Basically, starting with the next show (Twelfth Night) I could be the go-between with the Stage Manager and the audience as they are heading into the house before the show.  I think being a house manager would be fun and I'm excited to have the opportunity to.

At our first Budget and Finance Meeting, we were able to pick out our normal meeting time: Tuesdays at 3:30 PM.  Then I had a Senate PR meeting to get ready for CoeFest.  Which, for those of you who don't know, CoeFest is a Summerfest-like festival Senate is hosting on October 8th.  Senate is bringing in multiple bands for an afternoon of music complete with a pig-roast and volleyball.  Should be fun.  Once those two meetings were over, it was time for the actual Senate meeting.

From Senate to band for the usual two hour rehearsal.  It flew by and then I ended up at the Writing Center, typing this blog post.  I'm actually drinking coffee (with lots of creamer and smidge of hot chocolate mix) so we'll see how that goes.  Maybe I'll go the dark side and enjoy drinking coffee!  Watch out!

And that's my day.  Pretty awesome, right?  I think so.

Senator Reelected!

Good news!  Yesterday was the campus wide voting for Senate seats for the 2011-2012 school year.  Each year you have to be reelected if you'd like to continue to participate in Senate.  This year I ran for a spot in Murray (if you remember, last year when I joined I came in as an At Large Senator).  An email hit everyone's inboxes last night and I'm one of the four Murray Senators!  Our first meeting is tomorrow and I can't wait to see what Justin and Kelly (the President and VP) have in store for this upcoming school year.

Side note: There has been a lot of exciting things happening on campus so look for some more posts soon.

Budget and Finance Day 2011

Bright and early on Saturday morning I made my way over to Stuart for Budget and Finance Day 2011.  It's an all day affair for every organization on campus.  Pretty much what goes down is Senate doles out money to support the organizations next semester.  The money comes from the Student Activity every Coe student pays yearly.  The Budget and Finance Committee is made up of Senate members like myself: during the semester we approve or deny supplementary allocations (fondly known as sup alls) for clubs who would like more money to do things during the semester.  On Saturday, the treasurers came in, asked for a certain amount of money, explained the justification, and did some trimming because we are running on a tight budget.  It was a long day and by the end, the committee members' fuses were short and wordy treasurers were asked to cut to the chase. But it's all worth it in the end: students are gaining an understanding of budgets and the Senate members are learning about negotiation and how to balance a budget. What I like about it is that I can see where the money is going, I have some say on how the money will be split, and I know what to expect from the organizations in the coming semester.  It's all done now, and we won't have another one until next semester...boy oh boy I can't wait.

First Senate Meeting!

So as promised, here's a little recap over my first Student Senate meeting last night.  There's about 30 senators and we are all seated in a square in the ever so popular Lynch Room (behind the caf and below Upper Gage and it's used a lot by Coe students).  Anyways, this was exactly what I was looking for.  There was that same Student Council feel I was missing last semester.  I think there's a great group of people on Senate and we have the ability to do a lot of great things.  The meeting ran in a Robert's Rules style with motions, voting, and a motion to adjourn the meeting.  The President, Vice President, Treasurer, and other various committees gave reports and I can't wait to be a part of one in the near future.  We discussed a variety of things such as TVs to be installed in the PUB, faster internet, and the homework we were assigned for next week's meeting.

Overall, a HUGE success and can't wait until next Wednesday!

At Large Senate Seat Election

GOOD NEWS.

Today we voted for the two open Senate seats and guess what...I got elected!  You're now reading the blog of a Student Senate member.  Beautiful.  My first meeting is tomorrow I believe so I'll fill you in after the meeting!

So psyched I can't explain it.

The Votes Are In!

So just wanted to give everyone an update on the elections.  The voting occurred yesterday and the winner was.....(insert drum roll here)  Justin and Kelly!  Congrats and I can't wait to see what the Senate will do in the upcoming months!

Oh and good news on me possibly being a member (since I was so inspired by the debates) : I talked to my buddy Whitney and she said that at large elections are coming up and I could run for one of the spots.  I was psyched and will be keeping my eyes peeled for the seats to be open!

Presidential Debates: Narcelles & Heisel vs. Nylin & Strohm

At Coe, our Student Senate (http://www.coe.edu/campuslife/studentsenate) is pretty active.  They oversee the school's clubs, budget, and also help to fire up kohawk spirit.  Senate members are elected based on where they live; each dorm has a certain amount of representatives.  They have weekly meetings and make a lot of decisions for the Coe student body.  Apparently each January, a new Student Body President and Vice President are elected.  Coe is very democratic with this system, the candidates form their own party pretty much, complete with a platform.  This isn't like high school student government where the person who receives the second highest number of votes becomes the vice president - there are two pairs of president and vice president running for the positions.  Tonight at the PUB a debate was held, monitored by the Cosmos (the student run newspaper); it was a packed house.  The candidates got a chance to tell us about their platforms and their goals they would like to accomplish if they won the position.  There were questions for both sets of candidates, specific platform questions, and then an open discussion for students to ask their own questions.  Here are some interesting highlights from each of the candidates and I've also attached their platform handout.


Krishen Narcelles and Tyler Heisel "Coe College: It Just Keeps Getting Better!"

• More options in the PUB and vending machines along with healthier choices
• Renovating the International Student Lounge 
• Find a way to have the variety of clubs on campus more known.  It is kind of overwhelming as freshman to see all these clubs and some clubs do go unnoticed.    
• Reduce club emails : as Coe students we got a lot of emails, some that we don't even need to see.  A daily email with club highlights so it's only one instead of thirty or so. 

Justin Nylin and Kelly Strohm "Justin and Kelly, Striving for Excellence Within the Community"

• Reduce club emails (see last point in Narcelles and Heisel)
• Increase school spirit by making places such as Upper Gage and the PUB a more prominent hang out spot
• Laundry View (http://www.laundryview.com/lvs.php) This is a way to see if the laundry machines are open or not and has the ability to shoot you a text when you're laundry is done if you've forgotten about it
• Redo Senate homepage with more options for students to express their concerns 
• Creating weekly office hours where students can drop by to chat  

Overall, I was really impressed by the debates.  Both groups of candidates really did their research and were solid on their platforms; they had done outside research and had talked to many different administrators to see if what they were dreaming of was really a reality.  All four were well spoken and had good presence (by the way, I LOVE public speaking and love watching others speak so I can pick up tips and also find out what speaking habits to avoid).  They all seemed really dedicated to helping the student body and Coe in general.  This debate showed me how much I miss the Student Council I was involved with back in Mt. Horeb and how I will be looking for an opportunity to join Senate.  Voting will take place this upcoming Monday and I feel like I have a better idea of who the candidates are and who I'll be voting for.

So for the second day in a row, in the PUB, I've gotten excited about learning, my writing, and making a difference.  I'm very glad I went to the debates and can't wait to see how the election turns out.  

Here are their platforms: they are small because I've uploaded them as images so if you just click on them you should be able to view them larger.  The top two photos are the Narcelles and Heisel Platform and the bottom photo is the platform of Nylin and Strohm.