Candy-Grams

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to thank everyone who helped out with candy-grams. They were a great success, and we made around 100$, which will be added to however much we made from pancakes!

Hurray!

Thank you!

Tentative WASA Calendar

WASA Calendar

Long Term Planning with FedS

Come out and tell the Federation of Students what you want to see in the Long Term Plan for UW.

Architecture will have its own focus group on Monday January 25 at 7:00pm in the lecture theatre. There will be pizza to snack on, and your feedback will be greatly appreciated!

"The Federation of Students needs your help. Participate in focus groups to shape the future of your student government. We are particularly interested in the experience of satellite campus students and how we can better serve you. It is integral your feedback is gathered for the long-range plan. Let us know what you think! Participants will be entered into a draw for $500 worth of textbooks.
- Help us clearly define the purpose of FEDs
- Identify major problems and opportunities
- Ensure the most effective use is made of the organization's resources by focusing on key priorities"

See you there!

Minutes from the Jan 18

Hey guys,

Here are the minutes from the last meeting, hopefully we will be updating this regularly so if you need to catch up on what is going on you can just check here.

Events:

I know it is kind of intimidating to run your own event, especially when you are first on WASA, but it is really easier than it looks. What you need to do is make sure that you figure out all costs involved (ex. call a bus company and ask how much it costs to rent one) then bring up the event idea at the next WASA meeting and see if we like it. Then we can advertise, and run the event. If you have any questions though, any WASA members with experience would be more than willing to help.

General: Introduce yourself to the relevant faculty members, and let them know of upcoming deadlines

WEEF: Follow up on last term’s WEEF money, if it was spent on the items requested, and if they are at the school yet. Find out from faculty if there is anything needed. Last semester $3000 was acquired for a 3D printer, but still need more funding for it.

House: Changes to the student lounge; does the furniture need to be re-arranged? Is there need of new furniture? Are any other changes possible to make the space better? Iggy and Miguel volunteered to help with this project.

Computing: Follow up with Matt if V-Ray, Grasshopper and Monkey were set up on the school computers.

Budget

Breakdown of costs we want to spend, need to submit a proposal to FEDS. Consider events that recquire funding and how much they will cost for next week’s meeting.

Faculty Selection Committee

The School of Architecture is hiring three new faculty; two for design, and one for digital. There needs to be two WASA reps, and two students from each class on the committee. It is a strong time commitment, possibly resulting in 6-8 hours to review each applicant, the shortlist is estimated to be 8-11 applicants. The process involves previewing the applicants, attending presentations, a Q&A session with the applicant, and potentially lunch or dinner with the applicant. All of these sessions will be scheduled outside of class time. The representatives will also be responsible to relay feedback from their classmates to the committee. Anyone chosen should have some knowledge of both design and computing to fully engage in the process. 1B and 3A class representatives should contact their classes in the next week to establish a base for choosing nominations for the committee. The two WASA reps will be chosen at next weeks meeting.

Calendar

Class representatives should compile a calendar of deadlines and lectures by next week. This will help in planning dates for WASA events.

School Image

SWAG suggested that our school image needs to be looked at critically, the object of this being to get our name out abroad and improve our image. Ideas for improving the website: Introducing a blog style front page with posts from certain selected members of each class, show more projects of students online, update information about technological and fabrication processes at the school. Publication was another suggestion to boost our image, including showing work we do at the school by expanding the student exhibition booklet, possibly getting it published, and showcasing faculty research (which would also be posted on the website).

SLEF

SLEF is not dispersing money this year.

FEDS

No one has applied to be the architecture representative for FEDS yet, if anyone is interested in the position they can speak to Anna Katsios, the current rep.

Interest in the Snowboard Coalition: There is a $25 membership fee which includes a free t-shirt. The club can come to our campus to sign people up if there is enough interest. The members get discounts on ski trips and $15 day passes. If a rep could be chosen at our school, it would help to get things moving along.

Students Services Advisory Committee (SSAC): There is an architecture representative on the committee. The committee controls where money and resources go for different student services; they need input, and are setting up a focus group of satellite campuses, anyone who wants to contribute can access sign up forms online.

Athletic Services: There have been problems with athletic services and budgets. They have not given the fitness coordinator at our school any funding, so any fitness events are being funded by SWAG and WASA. This can change if we keep track of interest and the number of people at these events in order to prove to the athletics department there are enough people participating to give us funding.

General Suggestions: Understanding the research of faculty members is important in the application process.

Evaluation Process: Good evaluations can get professors extra money for research. They are trying to start online teaching evaluations because many are highly guarded in faculties, so students have no opportunity to compare faculty. Engineering evaluations are a problem because they do not reflect architecture/design courses. Change needed for adjunct hire/re-hire process? Evaluations of adjuncts need to better reflect if they get rehired or not.

City Relationships: Suggestion that someone should join an around town association which could broaden the image of architecture in Cambridge, also promotes the school among the city council, commitment is usually about one meeting a month. If anyone is interested David Williams may be contacted to help get things going.

Welcome to WASA

Hi everyone,

This is the University of Waterloo Architecture Associations new blog (WASA) for Winter 2010. We are just going to put updates hopefully after every meeting so we can keep everyone up to date, and if you have to find information aka phone numbers, dates, files or emails you can come check here.

For now check this out!

not bad! - Matt Belzile/Credits from Eddie Grams on Vimeo.