Actually though, please don’t send me unsolicited messages about why I suck, that would be kinda mean – I’m just going to take this opportunity to roast myself.
It’s been sort of a tradition on A-Society to write the second last Prez article about some of the failures encountered. I think that talking about this is pretty important because transparency is key in an organization like EngSoc. With the introduction of goals presentations and the red/yellow/green status attached to them, my team has been pretty successful in this area. However, some of the goals that we campaign with don’t always get talked about (usually because of feasibility), and not everyone pays attention to the council updates.
Let’s start with my campaign points. One of my larger goals was to expand the professional development portfolio and have a better organized group to handle the demand of online resume critiques, all workshops, and even some new things like LinkedIn advice. I tried to lift this one off the ground in Winter 2017, but I was unable to provide the right amount of support to this group and it ultimately didn’t grow into anything larger. Online resume critiques actually fell off the radar on B-Society for a while, which sucks because it’s a phenomenal resource. I think that this area of the Society still needs some work, but we’ve had some really great directors and visionaries go out of their way to help us in this time of need, and I’m really appreciative of those people.
Another one of my platform points was focused on communication (like introducing a bi-termly newsletter that would summarize everything that EngSoc has to offer). This is a tricky one. Communication is something that all societies struggle with – reaching students in a meaningful way is difficult. I didn’t personally focus in this area because after understanding more of the intricacies of how EngSoc communicates, it didn’t make sense to share information in a different (and potentially less effective) way. I do feel that I could have supported the VP Comms more in this area and had this as a greater focus following the Communications Survey.
Now onto the mistakes. One of my biggest fears in this position has been making the wrong call. There are very few easy decisions in general as President. I’ve made the wrong call more than once and I’m deeply sorry for those affected by those decisions – please know that I will always have regrets about people that I have hurt (no matter how unintentionally) in this role. For the sake of those affected by some decisions, I’d prefer to not bring the issues to light again. To those reading this article and understanding what I’m talking about – this is for you.
If anyone has any questions about this article or some of my failed initiatives, please come ask me questions! You can find me in the EngSoc office from 1:30 – 3:00 pm on Mondays and 11:00 am – 12:30 pm on Fridays. See you next issue for some things that I’m proud of and a general good time because the Prez transfer countdown has officially begun!
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