Hey all, Sarb here, and I am honestly still recovering from the hype and euphoria I have had from Semi-Formal, which happened on Friday November 4th. It has recently dawned on me that I am almost done my term, and that is kind of sad now when I think about it.
This is an article in which I want to talk about some of my successes and failures as an executive, as well as some big upcoming things.
First, I want to talk about all my failures. I have not been able to create a proper ongoing interfaculty collaboration tradition. While I have made good connections with everyone from each faculty during my time, I do not think I was able to establish a setup that allowed us to hold termly co-operations with each other. Secondly, I did not advertise many of my events as much as I should have as an exec, and that could have been a reason why some of my events under me did poorly during my time. I may have submitted some of my IW articles late (still earlier than half the staff members – Ed.), and I may have not been a good member of the IW board of directors. Lastly, I think that I was definitely not the most professional of a person when it comes to handling conflict resolutions. There are many evidences of my lack of professionalism as executive, and I sincerely apologize for everything that has happened. There are many more failures that I am sure exist, but I am genuinely not aware of. So please do let me know what they are, because I really love to hear back from people.
However, I want to say that I feel that my term has been successful in some aspects. First off, I feel that my team and I helped inspire many people to want to be involved in EngSoc. I have had the chance to interact with a lot of directors and commissioners who were utilizing their experience to be a first step to EngSoc, and many people have told me that they have enjoyed their time as being a director or commissioner. Secondly, I have been amazed to see some dying events like Ski Trip and Genius Bowl flourish under my term as exec. I have also supervised a really successful First Year Development Portfolio for EngSoc this term. Lastly, I am super proud to have known the numerous directors and baby directors that have worked under me, and have developed some skills to want to take things to the next level.
I could never imagine EngPlay being run in Hagey Hall under me, and being a full-blown musical (ticket sales starting soon); I could never imagine Genius bowl having 20 teams sign up last winter (and this term’s may be bigger, happening on November 10); I could never imagine First Year Mentoring having 95 mentors and 300 mentees; I could never imagine Professor Larry Smith being a keynote speaker for the First Year Engineering Leadership Conference; I could never imagine that Postsecret was going to be a termly thing rather than a week-long initiative; and I could never imagine seeing new people coming to EngSoc people and saying “EngSoc is actually very fun”. Best of all, I know that all the things I have mentioned are just small accomplishments, and whoever will replace me will have the chance to make everything I mentioned, and more, become bigger than what they are right now.
Eventually, I want to say that I did nothing much as an exec except to help people try out new things with EngSoc. I am, however, really ecstatic to see that people who have worked with me closely have been inspired to either run for an EngSoc executive position in the upcoming EngSoc elections, or has used their experience to start other ventures on campus or their personal lives.
Hence, I want to thank all my directors, commissioners and everyone else I have met to make me feel that I was a decent-enough of an exec this past 16 months, but most importantly, have helped make EngSoc be a much more inclusive, open and creative society.
As always, I am approachable and love to talk to any of you (even if you don’t like to talk to me) so feel free to reach out to me via email (vpinternal.a@engsoc.uwaterloo.ca) or stop by the Orifice (CPH 1327) on Mondays 2.30pm-4.30pm as well as any other times you are free and I will help you to the best of my abilities.
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