AMS announces new council

At the Queen’s Pub on Sunday night, the outgoing AMS council serenaded the newly hired AMS
commissioners and directors with a barely melodic version of the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling.” “We spent five hours today deliberating and putting the team together,” AMS President-elect Kingsley Chak told the Journal. “We had about 24 applicants. It was a very tough decision,” he said, adding that he thinks they hired a very well-balanced team.

“I think this team is willing to work with each other.” Julia Mitchell, AMS vice-president (university affairs), said during the hiring process one of the main things they were looking for was passion.

“In advocating for students, you really need to believe in [the issues] with conviction,” she said, adding
that the successful applicants’ passion was apparent through the interviews.

“All of [the new council members] have a very clear vision for where they believe their commission should go.” John Manning, incoming AMS vice-president (operations), said the hiring committee—composed of the executive, AMS General Manager Claude Sherren and Information
Officer Greg McKellar—looked at how individuals would deal in certain situations.

“We were looking for people with strong communication skills, who were able to understand
different perspectives and very clearly communicate their own opinion,” Manning said.

The directors’ portfolios have been restructured. Now, the food and safety director will overlook TAPS, the Common Ground and student constables; the student services director is responsible for Studio Q, the P&CC , AMS Food Bank, the Journal and Walkhome; the retail and media director looks after the Tricolour Market/ Greenroom, Destinations/Queen’s Entertainment Agency, Yearbook and Convocation Services and CFRC . Manning said the portfolio changes will hopefully help the directors function more as a unit. “The nature of the media services requires a different level of involvement from the directors,” Manning said. “The idea was to disperse the media services between two directors in order to make the role of each services director as equal as possible, to make sure what each director is doing on a day-to-day basis as equal as possible.”

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Alexi White, ArtSci ’08, has been involved with the Academic Affairs Commission throughout his university career. In his first year, he worked as an intern, last year he worked as chair for teaching awards and this year he is a deputy commissioner. White said among his biggest challenges next year will be provincial and federal elections, for which his commission is responsible for the “Get out and vote” campaigns. Another big hurdle, White said, will be the ratification of the continued relationship the AMS has with the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, which he said always sparks great debate.

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Caroline DuWors, ArtSci ’09, is the new campus activities commissioner (CAC ). This year she worked as a CAC deputy commissioner, in charge of Queen’s Model United Nations and Queen’s Model Parliament. DuWors said her major focus next year will be improving continuing events.

“[I want to focus on] making sure the projects we already have going are of really high quality,”
she said. One of her planned initiatives is to increase training for committee chairs, including budget draining to increase greater accountability. “So we can pinpoint where spending needs improvement,”
she said. More Positive Space training is also on her list.

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New Commissioner of Internal Affairs Caitlin Adair, ArtSci ’09, said when she read “no experience
necessary” on the application forms, she took it at face value. She then proceeded to do her homework. She spent Reading Week in Kingston researching for the job and reading the AMS policy manual.

Adair said she wanted to be a part of the comission because the AMS couldn’t run without it, and she likes the administrative aspect of it. Adair said next year she’ll be focusing on teamwork within
her commission and being more informative to the student body, especially through the AMS website.

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Kaitlyn Young, ArtSci ’09, is the new municipal affairs commissioner and has also been involved with the AMS since her first year. In her first year she was intern to then-VP (university affairs) Shiva Mayer and this year was a deputy commissioner in the Campus Activities Commission.

Young comes to the job with previous experience in community relations: she was Mayor of the
Junior City Council for Duncan, B.C. in 2005. Young said a large part of her job will be focusing on Homecoming next year. “If we accept that [an unsanctioned street party on Aberdeen Street] is going to happen again, then how can we make it safe?” she asked.

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Incoming Social Issues Commissioner Jeff Brown, ArtSci ’08, wants to broaden the appeal of
his commission and make it more visible in the public eye. “I want to make it louder and take the issues to the students,” he said. As a member of the Women’s Issues Committee (WIC )—a committee within the Social Issues Commission—Brown has worked with other committee members towards changing the committee’s name to the Gender and Women’s Issues Committee to increase the committee’s appeal to include a more diverse gender portfolio.The committee will decide by the end
of the week whether to change the name, which AMS Asseembly would have to approve. Overall,
he said, he wants the SIC to allow people to express questions and find the most inclusive way to address an issue.

“I’m really focusing on awareness and maintaining strong communication channels between other commissioners, services and Queen’s,” he said.

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Laura Mouck, ArtSci ’08, is the incoming food and safety director. Mouck was a student constable in her first year and a TAPS human resources manager this year. “I really wanted to apply for these services just because I have experience with them,” she said. Mouck’s main priority next year is reducing food waiting time. “I wouldn’t mind increasing staff behind the servery,” she said, adding that increasing the selection of pre-made food is another tactic she’ll look into.

She also wants to increase advertising with the goal of increasing Alfie’s usage through student bookings. Mouck said targeting the student body outside of the AMS and letting them know the venues
available to them will be a big part of that strategy.

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Alvin Tedjo, ArtSci ’06, will be the new media and retail director. Tedjo ran for AMS president this year and lost to team CMM. “During the campaign we found a lot of common ground in terms of what we wanted to do with services,” he said. Tedjo said next year he’ll focus on Destinations’ growth potential:
not only will the service be selling tickets to events but with the incorporation of the QEA, Destinations will now be running events as well. Although CFRC will be more self-sufficient, Tedjo said, a major hurdle the service will need to overcome is funding.

Tedjo said he also wants to address Yearbook and Convocation Services’ biggest problem—getting students to pick up their yearbooks, which the AMS must pay to recycle every year.

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Jordi Friese, ArtSci ’08, is the new AMS student services director. Friese said her proposal for the director’s position originally focused more on food and safety, but she had ideas for Walkhome
as well. “One of the biggest challenges will be to relate [to] and understand how all the services work,” she said. “I see that as a very big challenge but one that I am determined to overcome.”

Friese comes to the position with three years of experience working at TAPS, this year as a purchasing manager. Next year, Friese said she’ll look into upgrading Walkhome’s walkytalkies to phones, supporting Studio Q and the Journal and increasing professors’ use of the P&CC for courseware.
“I want to focus on management communication because that is where a lot of things can get lost.”