Good Times Diner
Good Times Diner is applying to have a $0.50 donation added to student opt-out fees. Good Times Diner is an entirely student run soup kitchen which serves the Kingston community. Every Thursday we provide a hot meal to low income individuals from around Kingston and on a typical week Good Times Diner has approximately 30 guests. For 2010, Good Times Diner is aiming at expanding our services to help connect our guests with other relevant resources within the community. Being added to the student opt-out fees will allow us to purchase nutritious ingredient to prepare weekly meals as well as help to supply the necessary cooking utensils.
We’re always looking for new people to get involved; if you are interested in volunteering please feel free to contact us at queensgoodtimesdiner@gmail.com
Kingston Youth Shelter
The Kingston Youth Shelter strives to make a difference in the lives of homeless youth by offering them a safe and supportive emergency shelter that encourages their growth and provides them with access to community resources.
Whether it is a meal or a place to stay, we offer help in a safe environment that is free from drugs, alcohol and violence. We also provide young people with one-to-one counseling, crisis intervention and life skills training.
Our goal is to provide homeless youth between the ages of 16 and 24 with the opportunity to build the confidence and stability necessary to make positive lifestyle changes, move into and maintain housing and address their issues surrounding homelessness.
Each year, The Kingston Youth Shelter provides volunteer opportunities and practicum placements for Queen’s University students in such programs as Law, Nursing, Women’s Studies and many more. We appreciate all the support we receive from Queen’s University and through this are able to provide these opportunities.
Konekt
Konekt is a free magazine, printed four times per year, that gives Queen’s students the opportunity to share ideas by publishing a wide variety of original, creative work. Students are invited to submit essays, articles, blogs, short stories, fine art, photography – anything original they want to share. Since our launch in September, we have received an overwhelming number of submissions from students excited at the chance to be published. In January we expanded to 92 pages and were still not able to fit everything in. A small opt-outable fee will allow us to publish more student work and continue to distribute Konekt for free. Thank you for your support.
Queen’s DECA
DECA Queen’s is a chapter in an international association of inspired students working to become the leaders of tomorrow by competing in professional development conferences and case competitions.
The association focuses on helping students develop key skills essential to any career; in particular, we emphasize analytical concepts, quick thinking, presentation skills, and problem-solving skills on a continual basis. It is not just a one-time competition or conference, but rather a year-long commitment involving training sessions and workshops in addition to competitions.
DECA Queen’s hosts its own Invitational Conference each November – one of the organization’s most highly anticipated events – in which hundreds of students from various faculties and from Ontario universities meet at Queen’s University for three days. Students also are provided with the opportunity to compete in the DECA U Provincial Conference in Toronto, as well as the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) which is held in the United States.
DECA U is one of the fastest-growing undergraduate organizations in Canada; it was founded in 2006 with 400 members spread across 10 universities and has since grown to over 1000 members in 16 universities in Canada. DECA can also be found in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Germany with a total of over 13,000 post-secondary student members worldwide.
Funds raised by the opt-out fees will mostly go towards organizing and hosting career-development events across campus throughout the year.
Queen’s Legal Aid
Please Vote Yes to increasing the mandatory fee for Queen’s Legal Aid from $4.50 to $5.00.
The fee has not been increased in over 15 years. According to Canada’s Consumer Price Index a $4.50 fee in 1994 would be worth over $6 today. That means the fee can only buy 75% of what it used to. We run a legal clinic in MacDonald Hall with two lawyers and 80 law students.
In 2009 alone, we provided 527 Queen’s students with legal services. We represented students in criminal courts, landlord tenant board hearings, and small claims court. We provided services in driving offences, AMS disputes, and more. We also provided students with self-help kits, and notarized or commissioned their documents.
In addition to that, we provided 599 referrals to community organizations so that students would not be left out in the cold wondering what to do next.
That is more than one thousand Queen’s students benefiting in one way or another from Queen’s Legal Aid’s quality legal services without additional legal fees.
We want to be able to keep up the same great service we provide to Queen’s students. We’re asking you to increase the fee by fifty cents so we can keep up with the times.
We provide services that would cost you hundreds of dollars if you had to hire a private lawyer all for only $4.50 per year. Even at $5.00 it’s still a great deal.
Vote YES to QLA, the Cheapest Legal Fees you will EVER see!!
Queen’s Legal Aid, Room 406, MacDonald Hall
Queen’s Social Investment Initiative
The Queen’s Social Investment Initiative is an AMS club that plans to use a 70 cent opt-outable student fee to create a student managed fund to be invested in socially responsible projects.
Today, the club is focused on investing in organizations that provide financial services for the poor in the developing world, specifically micro credit institutions. Micro credit institutions offer small loans to entrepreneurs that provide a crucial gateway for individuals and communities to advance from subsistence and achieve economic independence. They serve individuals who would otherwise have no access to financial services.
The first major investment the club hopes to make will be in Fonkoze, the largest microfinance institution in Haiti. This investment will be Facilitated by Micro Place, an American non profit that connects micro finance institutions in the developing world with western capital markets. Investing in Fonkoze will help them provide crucial startup capital to Haitian entrepreneurs rebuilding their communities and economies long after the bulk of foreign aid has dried up. The members of QSII encourage all Queen’s students to visit microplace.com and consider making an investment, large or small.
Socially responsible investing is an exciting prospect in both the financial services industry and philanthropic communities. It’s estimated that approximately 2.71 trillion dollars are currently under socially responsible financial management. It is our hope to help expose Queen’s students to this exciting field.
By making investments rather than donations the Queen’s Social Investment Initiative will become self-funding, recycling funds from earlier investments into new, socially responsible, investment vehicles. The club needs support from student fees to get started but over time it won’t need to rely on student fees or other donations to remain operational and continue making an impact. We hope to create an organization that is both economically and socially sustainable.
For information: 8am29@queensu.ca
Queen’s Sports Industry Conference
The Queen’s Sports Industry Conference (QSIC) is one of the largest and fastest-growing sports industry functions in Canada. The conference attracts students from a wide array of faculties across the Queen’s campus as well as students from other top universities throughout Canada. The weekend creates an interactive environment for delegates to acquire and develop a unique business perspective of the sports industry by learning from leading industry professionals. Furthermore, it comprises of interactive workshops, case competitions and endless opportunities to socialize and network with many leaders in the sports industry in a professional, but comfortable atmosphere.
To provide delegates with the greatest level of opportunity and awareness, QSIC needs support from the AMS Society to help us reach our goal of becoming the top sports-industry conference in North America. We would like to renew our opt-out fee in the AMS Winter Referendum to be able to provide the best quality conference to our delegates. This money goes towards creating memorable events that occur throughout the conference, as well as other valuable opportunities that delegates receive and learn about over the weekend. QSIC strives to provide delegates valuable information on potential recruitment, networking and job information for several top sports companies.
This year, we have confirmed Paul Beeston (President and CEO, Toronto Blue Jays) and Richard Pound (Partner, Stikeman Elliot and former VP of the IOC) to speak at QSIC 2010. The conference also includes night events put on by Team Canada DJ’s, an event at the Kingston Frontenacs game, and a challenging case competition partnered with the NHL and Bell. Many of these features of the conference would not have been able to be accomplished if it was not for the continuing support of the AMS Society within our conference.
Queen’s Students For Literacy
Frontier College’s Queen’s Students for Literacy provide three free literacy-based programs to the community – Read for Fun, Literacy Outreach and Prison Literacy Initiative. Read for Fun and Literacy Outreach work with at-risk children in the Kingston area – tutors are paired up with a reading buddy that they work with for an hour a week for the duration of the school year. The aim of both of these programs is to instill a love for literacy in kids and learning and to move them away from viewing reading as just another tedious homework-type activity. Read for Fun is run through elementary schools and libraries and Literacy Outreach is run through a local women’s shelter. Many of the children in this program have learning disabilities or other special needs. Their tutors often become not only their teachers but positive role models, making reading and writing fun!
Our prison literacy program provides literacy tutelage to inmates in four local, federal penitentiaries. Tutors are matched up with an inmate who they work with for two hours a week for the duration of the school year in an attempt to improve literacy skills and prepare them for eventual release. Access to literacy has been shown to play the largest role in reducing recidivism rates in Canada; with a greater skill set to draw from inmates are far less likely to re-offend upon release.
QSL works directly with more than 200 people in the Kingston community each year. Help us reach more people in the community and give the gift of literacy to those who need it!
Queen’s Students Interested in Medical Sciences
Queen’s Students Interested in Medical Sciences (QSIMS) is queen’s oldest pre-medical society which was established in 2000. QSIMS’ mandate is to provide a place where students may go to gain and share knowledge and skills in order to facilitate their entry into a medical school or a profession in the field of the medical sciences. Also, we serve as a resource where students may have their questions regarding entry to a school of medicine, or a profession in the field of the medical sciences answered through seminars/lectures and/or through interaction with guest speakers. As well, we wish to increase volunteer activities and opportunities for Queen’s students through the creation of drives and volunteer/fundraising programs and in so doing aid the university and many other causes such as charities and local shelters. It is important to remember that QSIMS is a volunteer organization run by students for the students. We welcome all students from all disciplines.
QSIMS serves the Queen’s community by running events which help students learn and experience different aspects of the medical sciences. We run a medical school admissions seminar which gathers various experts to speak about all of the areas of a successful medical school application. Our club also provides mock medical school interviews and mock MCAT exams. This year, we are working with Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre to initiate a scholarship for a Native Canadian student in sciences. Our club is looking to expand to include guest speakers from not only Queen’s University, but other International institutions.
Our opt-outable fee of $0.50 would be used for renting rooms and auditoriums that we need for our events, purchasing items for our charitable initiatives and finally to bring great speakers to the Queen’s campus.
Queen’s University Investment Club
Founded in 2003, the Queen’s University Investment Club (“QUIC”) is a group of students dedicated to improving recruiting opportunities and broadening the education at Queen’s. As part of its mandate to provide real-world finance training to Queen’s students, QUIC manages a portfolio of stocks and meets once per week to discuss the performance of sector holdings, recent developments and transactions in each sector and to perform stock pitches.
In addition to managing the portfolio, the members of QUIC actively endeavour to help Queen’s graduates find jobs in the finance industry. We conduct interview preparation workshops and organize guest speaker sessions to fulfill this objective. Furthermore, all of our meetings are an open forum for learning about finance.
While the club’s portfolio has historically been a mock-portfolio, QUIC is endeavouring to transition to a real-money portfolio through an opt-outable fee program. These fees will allow QUIC to offer an improved learning opportunity, and also expand its offering of workshops and guest speaker sessions.
Queen’s Women’s Centre
The Women’s Centre at Queen’s functions first and foremost as a safe space for women and their allies, on campus and beyond to the Kingston community. Founded in 1975, the Women’s Centre strives to be a point of connection between various different feminist and gender inclusive initiatives within Kingston. This year alone, the Women’s Centre financially supported initiatives such as the WEC’s Feministing speakers and EQuIP’s event featuring Julia Serano. We support the campus and the Kingston community through our resource library, by way of volunteer involvement and advocacy, and by opening up our space. Our relationships with other feminist groups on campus allows for a better understanding of gender issues. Members of the Women’s Centre intend to make full use of its resources in order to foster greater community, health and wellbeing. We work closely with Kingston Interval House by providing the Women in Transition Fund, which allows the Centre to incur some of the moving costs of women from the shelter moving into their own homes. The Women’s Centre is also one of the planning partners for the December 6th Memorial Committee and International Women’s Week Committee.
It is our belief that safe space is a priority, not a luxury, and our mission is to bring this concept to life outside the centre walls. The work of the Women’s Centre as well as our resource library is made possible by volunteers and the funding received from an opt-outable fee. We are asking for your support to continue the Women’s Centre’s $1.25 opt-outable fee. We hope to maintain our initiatives and continue to support various groups on campus and the community.
Stand
Stand is a youth-based anti-genocide organization dedicated to advocacy and activism. We make it easy for concerned citizens to act against genocide by providing tools such as 1-800-Genocid(e) and the Stand Digest (released monthly by Stand Canada). Stand is an entirely student-led organization present in high schools and universities across the country. Our goal is to keep Canadians informed about the issues in areas such as Darfur and the Congo, in hopes that the conflicts will get the attention they deserve. Stand hopes to eventually find a way to permanently eliminate genocide. Take a stand against genocide and vote to continue Stand’s $0.90 opt-outable fee!
Ultraviolet Magazine
Ultraviolet Magazine (UV) is an arts magazine in its 14th year of publication at Queen’s. UV publishes the prose, poetry, art and photography of students. Each year, UV produces one print magazine and has recently brought back its CD component, featuring Queen’s bands, compositions and spoken word poetry. Ultraviolet has offered a creative outlet for students who have gone on to achieve access in the art and literary world. Contributors include renowned author Michael Crummey and the Juno nominated band Bedouin Soundclash. An opt-out student fee is UV’s principle source of funding. Do you agree to the continuation of Ultraviolet Magazine’s fee of $0.75 (subject to individual opt-out) for the next three years? This fee was originally established in April, 1997 and last went to referendum in February, 2007. This fee will ensure that Ultraviolet Magazine will continue to offer a creative outlet for writers, artists and composers and allow for the distribution of free magazines. Please show your support for Ultraviolet Magazine!
Vogue Charity Fashion Show
The Vogue Charity Fashion Show is a student run AMS ratified club that has prepared an annual fashion show in support of a chosen local charity for the past 12 years. The charitable foundation Vogue supports changes each year, but it is always an organization whose work benefits the Kingston community. Over the past five years, Vogue has raised over $109,000 dollars for non-profit organizations like the Kingston Youth Shelter and the Kingston General Hospital with over $32,000 of that total amount raised last year for Queen’s Camp Outlook alone. This year about 150 dancers, models, independent student designers, and crewmembers will showcase their talents at Kingston’s Grand Theatre in March to help support two Kingston elementary schools in their efforts to improve their literacy programs. Our main objective each year is to raise as much as we can and donate the profits to charity, but with the nature of our initiatives we usually have to use some of the money we raise to fund our operating costs. These costs include venue rental fees for the show, printing costs, technical equipment rentals, and promotional material among other unforeseen costs. The establishment of a $0.50 fee subject to individual opt-out would allow us to pay for some of those operating costs while simultaneously donating even more money to local charitable organizations. With your help, Vogue can continue to promote the arts and fashion at Queen’s while benefiting the Kingston community in a much bigger way than ever before.
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