NAAUC Talk April 2016

NAAUC TALK | APRIL 2016

Looking Back to Look Forward

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Three months away is a long time. Plenty of time to work the jobs, catch up with friends, travel the world and make the most of your family time. But when it’s finally time, you’ve got your suitcases and your car packed and before you know it, you’re back at your home away from home!

There’s the new freshers to meet, and as you share your stories from the past three months, all of the memories and the excitement of O-Week fuze together and suddenly you’re looking at a year with a thousand and one possibilities. So… what’s first?

This edition we’re taking you back to our own O-Weeks as we share the success stories of residential communities all across the country welcoming their new groups of first years to the collegiate community. Walk with us through the NAAUC on the Roads as our team travelled from Adelaide to Tasmania, up to Townsville and back down to Canberra, sharing experiences to train this year’s student leaders. Our three month hiatus from university has been busily spent working together and individually to cement the plans for this year’s conference based on the vision of our incredible Connie D’s and the feedback we received last year, and we can’t wait to share it with you!

Here’s to another exceptional year of memories. We’re keen for 2016. Are you?

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National Association of Australian University Colleges Inc.

Contents.

Looking Back to Look Forward 01 Sydney Shenanigans 03 NAAUC On The Road Update 07 Travelling Treasurer 08 Key Dates & Pricing List 09 Conference Update 10 NAAUC Alumni: College Connections in Real Life Alastair Tomkins

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NAAUC Alumni: An O-Week Reflection Sophie Davis, Cromwell College UQ

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O-Week in Australia 16

NAAUC EXEC 2016

SHENANIGANS

SYDNEY

JANUARY One double bed, two singles, a pull out couch and a bunch of blankets suited the Exec just fine. We were in Sydney for 72 hours, amidst the pouring rain, and with games of Uno, cooking spaghetti bolognese together and snuggling up to watch the Little Mermaid was the perfect opportunity for naaucy naaucy fun times before two solid days of preparation.

their preliminary ideas, and longterm strategic planning. With the scheduled bathroom breaks, meal times and rest times well used, by the end of the weekend we had a comprehensive idea of how we were going to bring the conference that Kathy and Drew had dreamed up to life, and the Excel timetable to prove it.

And they were solid days. The agenda Onj had put together allocated time for academic discussions, event planning, meeting our incredible Working Party to hear

Led by our incredible Connie Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, we went through conference week minute by minute until the whole team was satisfied. Excitement was the common factor as passion merged

ABOVE: SIGHTSEEING IN SYDNEY HARBOUR LEFT: OUR WORKING PARTY & CONFERENCE DIRECTORS

our many crazy and very different ideas together under one banner. Then Sylvie wiped the whiteboard clean, wrote up last yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s list of academic sessions, and together we cut, added and merged ideas to bring Sylvieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s academic vision to life with a unique and wholeheartedly pertinent program designed to benefit our delegates to the best of our ability.

The weekend went far too quickly, but it was the perfect amount of time to come together and explore Macquarie University and our awesome host colleges: Dunmore Lang and Robert Menzies.

We can tell you with absolute enthusiasm that the trio have an abundance to offer us for the conference: beautiful buildings, wonderful accommodation, and a Maccas and ice rink right across the road.

Working Party members Joshua Carter & Luke Favero attending a traditional smoking ceremony to commemorate the opening of the new “Warrawal” room at Dunmore Lang College.

APRIL With the entire national team in one place, we finally had the opportunity to take stock of what we have all been individually working on and share our excitement about what we are creating together.

It was fantastic watching our Working Party members from residences across NSW bonding with our representatives from Queensland, our Exec members working with our awesome State Reps and the whole team bonding together to produce what we are confident will be another incredible conference.

With only two months to go until P-Week, we are working full steam ahead. Every member on the team has a specific task list all under the banner of our overarching aim of empowering our delegates to return to their residences with pride and new ideas for the future. With Kathy and Drew at the helm on all things conference, and Sylvie working hard to ensure our academic program is better than ever, we can’t wait to see you in July and share what we know will be an incredible week with you.

Dunmore Lang | H o s t C o lleg e 201 6 |

NAAUC On The Road It’s been a busy start to our Academic calendar for 2016! We kicked things off by sending members of our leadership team and alumni across the country to help out with training for incoming student leaders. Officially known as NAAUC on the Road (NOTR), these sessions gave us a great opportunity to start opening up the discussion about important issues to residences so that we can continue that conversation throughout the year.

The residences we attended and their presenters were: ANU Residences – Kathy Lee Cromwell College, UQ – Sylvie Giguere, Lachlan Power and Suzy Russell Flinders Living – Lachlan Power and Jess Denner Grace College, UQ – Sylvie Giguere, Michael Naess and Tamasin McArthur JCU Halls – Michael Naess and Jess Denner Mannix College, Monash – Alice Draffin, Evie Loveband and Alice Langley Saints Catholic College, JCU – Michael Naess and Jess Denner St Mark’s College, JCU – Michael Naess and Jess Denner UTAS Combined – Fiona Heathcote and Declan Butorac Thank you to everyone involved with this year’s NOTR so far – it’s been a blast!

We’re now preparing for our biggest academic event of the year – our National Conference this July! Taking feedback from last year, we’ve incorporated more opportunities for discussion into the program and we’re really excited to see where this takes the conversation at Conference.

As we look forward to the rest of year, keep in mind that NOTR program is still very much available. If any issues arise within your residential community or your leadership team, or if you feel that some aspect of NAAUC’s academic program could benefit you and your student body, send me an enquiry at vp@naauc. edu.au and we can work together to tailor a solution unique to your residential community’s specific needs.

Hope you’re all starting to get as excited about Conference as we are!

Sylvie Giguere | Vice President

Travelling Treasurer Hello Everyone, Your Treasurer checking in, hoping college and university has started off on a good note. Since changeover, I’ve been working on a couple of financial behind-the-scenes projects. Mainly focused on ensuring the long term viability, success and improvement of NAAUC. I won’t bore you with the nitty gritty excel formulations nor the balance sheet evaluations. Instead I’ve got a few fun figures, photos and a breakdown of our prices.

NAAUC prices are gradually working towards an affordable, student based, industry standard (which we charge lower than, and will continue to reasonable do so, to ensure students can afford it). The past has seen a deadly duo of stagnant NAAUC prices combined with increasing costs. This has impacted our reserves, and if not managed will be detrimental to the future of NAAUC. So we’re ensuring that we can continue to give you excellent, engaging conferences year on year, without the association being at risk.

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6: countries I have done NAAUC work in so far (check them out in the photos) 44%: saved by getting the 3-year membership 4: months away from conference! $200: saved by signing up for conference fees in April 35: WP & exec working right this moment to give you an awesome conference 31: invoices paid to date 3: people who’ll know the ball venue, until Friday of conference

I look forward to seeing you at conference!

Afra Cader Treasurer

NAAUC KEY DATES & PRICING LIST 2016 NAAUC Membership

$295 $360 early bird 29th Feb-15th May

standard 16th May-19th July

$750 3-year special 29th Feb-15th May

2016 NAAUC Conference Student

Delegate Registration Member Residence

Non-Member Residence

Cut Off Date

Registration Opens

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01/04/2016

Early Bird

$1150

$1300

11/05/2016

Standard Fee

$1250

$1400

25/06/2016

Late Fee

$1350

$1500

10/07/2016

Cancellation Fee

$125

$150

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Change of Delegate

$50

$70

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Conference Update As Conference Directors we’re extremely excited to have been given the opportunity to organise the 2016 National NAAUC Conference! Over the last few months we’ve been working with our team to lay the foundations of what is set to be a ripper conference.

A big focus for us this year is to ensure that Conference remains fresh and relevant to the contemporary residential experience. In doing so, we’ve been looking to rework some of our favourite events as well as introduce some awesome new ones that will highlight both our host colleges and the city of Sydney.

This year’s Conference is hosted by Dunmore Lang College and Robert Menzies’ College at Macquarie University.

Our Working Party comes from all along the east coast of New South Wales and the ACT and comprises of a wide range of residential leaders including residential advisors and executive committee members. Our broad team and their range of experiences, we have gained fresh perspectives, new ideas and broadened our thinking toward Conference. In January we all congregated at Macquarie University where we met face-to-face with the team. From the work that we’ve seen from them so far, we’re extremely looking forward to seeing some of the awesome social events and academic sessions that they’ll produce.

Over the summer we have working on securing our guest speakers. We are excited to announce that Robyn Moore - motivational speaker and the voice of Blinky Bill - as well as ultra-marathon

runner Samantha Gash will speaking at Conference. Both have used their unique life stories to inspire and educate thousands across Australia and we are thrilled that they will be able to bring those stories to our delegates in July.

We’ve been fortunate to have booked the renowned New South Wales Parliament House for Parliamentary Debating as well as an exciting ball venue. Our 2016 social events are being aimed at assisting delegates in creating inclusive events for their communities. We’re bringing a renewed focus on cultural events as well as events that promote physical health and wellbeing. We’re hoping that delegates will come from these events inspired to initiate positive change within their residences.

This year our aim is to foster a national conversation between delegates. We’re hoping for delegates to bring and share their personal stories, exchanging ideas from across Australia. As delegates one of the most profound parts of conference was hearing from other delegates and using their experiences as inspiration to make the residential experience the best that it could be. Our hope is that the 2016 NAAUC Conference attendees will also use their conversations as a motivation to enhance the experience of their residents upon their return home.

We’re steadily working away at delivering an action-packed 2016 Conference and we’re looking forward to updating you in the months ahead.

Katherine Lee and Andrew Nguyen Conference Directors

Robert Menzies | Host Col l ege 20 1 6 |

NAAUC Alumni Network College Connections in Real Life Alastair Tomkins I loved living on campus in my college days (Baxter College at UNSW). I put my hand up for just about everything on offer (bands, revues, house committee, musical, sports) and I made a great range of friends who have been loyal, loving and supportive to me in the 25 years since uni finished. We have all grown up together and most of us have children now…and our own children are mixing as 2nd generation collegiate connections. My college friends from UNSW and also 4 NAAUC Conferences have been there to provide a spare bed when I was touring (low budgets back in the day), buy a dinner or a bottle of vino when we were studying/travelling overseas, give me honest feedback, provide connections to industry leaders, come along to see me on stage and generally share the experience of a full and interesting life. Almost all of my collegiate contacts have a core of close friends whose friendships were forged in the pressure cooker environment of living on campus.

My life post uni has revolved primarily around the Arts industries firstly as a performer/ creative and secondly in a managerial and teaching role. I have played a lot of gigs in Australia and overseas, had success on stage and also film/TV, recorded music, written shows, and generally been able to support myself and my family in what is a very difficult industry for longevity. My current project is a musical comedy based on a well-known film franchise.

The show is called “Songs for Sarah Connor - a love story TERMINATED!” and I am playing at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in early April. This would be a fun night out for any of the Melbourne colleges (I remember at our Melbourne NAAUC conference we saw one of the first ever gigs of the “Scared Weird Little Guys” and spoke to them at length after the show).

NAAUC Exec 91-92 : (L-R back) Kirsten Livermore, myself, (L-R front) Rachel Robertson, Alasdair Jeffery, John Perry

Alastair Tomkins cont.

Clockwise from Right: Graduating UNSW with my good Baxter College mate Shane Ready for the UNSW Theatre Society (NUTS) Ball in the early 90’s with my friend Mary (who was President of Women’s College Sydney Uni) Baxter Ball time in the early 90’s with my wingman Mark - in my role as amenities director that year I had college boxer shorts professionally made (sold about 150 of them to our community) and the left over fabric was used to make college formal shirts. Yes, these were big in the 90’s as were dodgy bow ties!

Photos supplied

NAAUC Alumni Network An O-Week Reflection: Cromwell College Sophie “Hazard” Davis (President) Dancing, holding hands, kilometres of skipping and wrestling aren’t quite what you’d expect from an ordinary orientation week. However, the University of Queensland’s Cromwell College has never settled for anything less than extraordinary, which is a fine word to describe Cromwell’s O-Week program. Late February saw 99 bright faced and nervous freshers join the ultimate quest to become a fully-fledged Cromwellian. Seven days, 168 hours, 49 activities, one sombrero and one t-shirt for the entire week resulted in memories that will last a life-time. Cromwell’s O-Week is specifically designed to be challenging, both mentally and physically with our overarching goal to successfully integrate freshers into the Cromwell family. It is important to note that everything in the week is voluntary and the leadership team encourage freshers to ‘challenge by choice’. However, this said, we had close to a 100% participation rate for all activities which speaks margins for the 2016 fresher cohort. The intensive week was made up of a diverse range of activities including; Wet N Wild, a night full of bush dancing, meals at other UQ Colleges, a bus rally around Brisbane, time management and exam preparation seminars, sexual and mental health talks, sock wrestling, plus so many more. This year we had students travel from all corners of Australia as well as international students from New Zealand and the UK to join the Crommie crew. Although exhausting for both freshers and leaders, the week was a huge success and I believe that our 99 freshers finished the week with 98 new friends. The hard work and ‘crommie ticker’ which was demonstrated through example by the 2016 leadership team was strongly reflected in the freshers, and I am positive that this energy will be sustained for what will be another fantastic year at Cromwell College.

Stepping into the role of President I am excited and nervous for the year ahead. I look forward to continuing the brilliant work done by past executives, whilst bringing my own to the role and to the year alongside the 2016 executive. It was the 2015 NAAUC conference that gave me the information and confidence to run for the position. The conference sparked something in me, an urgency to go back to Cromwell and create change, and to challenge and address things that hadn’t been addressed before at my college. The leadership team and I have already begun taking steps to create these changes which is extremely exciting for all of us. The year ahead will be a long one, but I am thrilled to see what we can create for the place and people that we love.

UON Student Living | University of Newcastle

John Fisher College | University of Tasmania

International House | University of Queensland

Cromwell College | University of Queensland

Duchesne College | University of Queensland

Grace College | University of Queensland

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