Before handing the reins over to Team DAE, two outgoing AMS vice-presidents look back on a year of new services, student initiatives, and behind-the-scenes challenges.
Vice-President (Operations) Elena Nurzynski and Vice-President (University Affairs) Alyssa Perisa recapped the proudest and most challenging moments of their terms for The Journal. Former President Jana Amer, who has since resigned from her role, didn’t respond to The Journal’s request for comment.
Both Nurzynski and Perisa described the move into the JDUC as an important accomplishment for the team, alongside successfully obtaining free student summer access to the ARC.
The vice-presidents also shared that the year brought some challenges they hadn’t fully anticipated, pointing to staff turnover, the JDUC move shifting priorities, and navigating the de-slated team structure.
“The AMS may have [fallen] short this year in navigating that de-slated team aspect. I think it’s something that the AMS is still trying to navigate, and we’ll see with the next team how they’re able to build strong team cohesion,” Perisa said.
Vice-President (Operations)
As Nurzynski reflects on her term, she emphasized what an “incredible privilege” it was to serve as the vice-president (operations).
At the beginning of the year, Nurzynski set out several goals for her term, including maintaining an open line of communication with service head managers, keeping in touch with the JDUC steering committee, and bringing more student attention to smaller AMS services.
While she admitted “other priorities” ended up superseding her plans to continue regular meetings with the JDUC steering committee, Nurzynski claimed to have stayed true to her other two promises.
“Having consistent one-on-one weekly meetings with each service head manager allowed me to successfully keep an open line of communication with each individual portfolio,” Nurzynski said. “I also ran [a group meeting of all service head managers] on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.”
As a service under Nurzynski’s portfolio, The Journal hasn’t had any one-on-ones with her throughout the winter semester.
In terms of promoting smaller AMS services, Nurzynski explained that she worked closely with both the Media Centre and Food Bank throughout the year, helping the Media Centre to develop club packages and lower prices, and conducting an operational audit with the Food Bank to help them enhance service flow and create standard operating procedures, among other things.
Looking at the AMS as a whole, Nurzynski’s most proud of the AMS for accomplishing increased marketing engagement on Instagram, ensuring summer access to the ARC for students, improving the internal purchasing policy for AMS services, and opening two new services: The Queen’s Pub and The Brew.
With these achievements, alongside the Society’s other work, Nurzynski believes the AMS successfully fulfilled its mandate to serve and represent students and looks forward to seeing how Team DAE continues to shape the Society and advance its goals.
“[A lesson I would give to the incoming executive team is to] approach the year with an open mind, be very clear with your expectations of one another, and hold each other accountable to these expectations,” Nurzynski said.
Vice-President (University Affairs)
Looking back at her term as vice-president (university affairs), Perisa expressed pride in how she was able to support the student body.
When Perisa first started her term, three of her major goals included transforming transition manuals into interactive online modules, building relationships with her six commissioners, and creating internal social media calendars for AMS accounts.
She expressed pride in her progress towards the first two goals, sharing that the IT team is currently in the later stages of streamlining and developing transition modules, and that she was able to develop supportive relationships with each of the commissioners.
“Overall, I was able to develop really strong relationships, not only with the commissioners, but also with other members of the AMS team,” Perisa said. “This was one of my pillars, and it allowed us to have some collaboration, which was really good.”
Perisa had previously stated in an interview with The Journal that she hoped to create an internal social media calendar for AMS accounts. She said that the goal shifted over the course of her term after realizing it did not fall fully within the vice-president (university affairs) portfolio.
While she attempted to coordinate that work within her own team, Perisa said staff turnover affected marketing efforts throughout the year. She added that the AMS marketing office maintained its own calendar and that her team focused its promotional efforts during high-activity periods, including the University District Safety Initiative, as her priorities evolved in the office.
Outside of just her role, Perisa is proud of the AMS this year for ensuring a smooth and successful transition into the JDUC, and implementing harm reduction efforts for St. Patrick’s Day, such as informational blog posts, Instagram posts, and a harm reduction booth with free snacks and drinks, which, according to Perisa, helped reduce fines doled out. The University did see a significant reduction in fines on St. Patrick’s Day, from $45,000 last year to $2,000 this year.
Perisa admits, however, that the AMS fell short this year in navigating having a de-slated team, and called for more support—including permanent staff support—to ensure teams understand how to best work and plan together in the coming years. She also pointed to some permanent staff turnover as causing some challenges for the AMS over the course of her term.
As team DAE begins their term, Perisa hopes that they continue advancing on-ground student engagement, expanding alumni interaction, and building relationships with downtown Kingston businesses.
Tags
AMS executive, AMS year in review, Team JEA
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