NAAUC Talk March 2017

NAAUC TALK March 2017

WELCOME Welcome to the new year on residence! Whether you’re a first year, returning student or fresh into your student leadership team, we hope that 2017 is building up to be a fantastic year for you and your community!

It’s been a busy time for residences Australia wide, as well as our NAAUC team, as P and O-Week has come and gone in residences across the country. New residents have begun settling into their life as on-campus students, embracing everything that their residence has to offer. NAAUC has been along for the ride as well, running a number of leadership and training sessions for new student leaders in every state.

This issue of NAAUC Talk will let you see what has been happening in the planning process for the upcoming 49th National Conference to be held at Mannix College. You’ll get an insight into the productive NAAUC team meeting held in January, whilst hearing tales of foreign lands from our travelling Immediate Past Executive Sylvie.

All this and much much more in this March edition of NAAUC Talk.

Enjoy!

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Official tri-annual publication.

National Association of Australian University Colleges Inc.

CONTENTS JANUARY UPDATE 4 TRAVELLING TEAM 5 MEMBERSHIP 2017 6 NAAUC MEMBER UPDATE: BURTON AND GARRAN HALL (ANU) 7 2018 CONFERENCE BID 10 NOTR UPDATE: TASMANIA 11 NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2017 12

JANUARY UPDATE The NAAUC Executive and Working Party recently came together for the annual meeting in late January. This meeting is an important stage of the National Conference planning process, giving the executive a chance to review their progress since September’s changeover, whilst ensuring planning for the year ahead is on track. For the Working Party, it was a valuable opportunity to finally meet fellow members of the NAAUC leadership team in person and continue planning their awesome events set to take place at conference!

The Executive flew in to Melbourne on Friday and enjoyed a lovely reunion dinner in the city before heading to Monash the next day for strategic planning and meetings. Whilst this may sound slightly boring, much was achieved and discussed on exciting updates and new initiatives coming soon for the organisation! Saturday evening saw the first of a number of newly planned networking/reunion dinners, in which new NAAUC team members were able to talk to a range of NAAUC alumni over lovely food and a few drinks. It was a great opportunity for NAAUC alumni young and old to reflect on the good work that NAAUC has done, and see the excellent progress we’ve made over the course of the last few years. Our Immediate Past President, Sylvie Giguere, was instrumental in organising this event, and our sincerest thanks go out to her for getting our alumni events off the ground!

We were lucky to have the Working Party join the Executive team on the last day of the meetings at the host of 2017’s National Conference, Mannix College, where they were able to give the Executive an overview of their events. This gave an excellent opportunity for the Working Party to show off their hard work since coming into their roles only a few months ago, and allowed the Executive to impart some wisdom and guidance to ensure the events are of the highest quality come Conference in July.

Ultimately, the entire weekend was a success. It showed that planning for the upcoming conference is on track and that the entire 2017 NAAUC team is united and working to the best of their abilities!

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TRAVELLING TEAM After another busy NAAUC year, I headed off to Vietnam in November for my first year medical elective at Hue Central Hospital. Located in the Imperial City of Hue, this 3000 bed hospital was my base for four weeks as I followed doctors during the week and travelled on the weekends to learn more about the country.

I spent my first two weeks of placement in various wards of the Paediatric departments. I saw that healthcare in this setting was a collaboration between overworked doctors and hardworking parents who had given up their jobs to move into the hospital whilst their child received care. It was a huge learning curve and incredibly confronting to see the tough situations the patients and their families found themselves in. The next two weeks were spent in the high-paced environment of the surgical department observing a range of procedures.

When we weren’t at the hospital, we were travelling around central Vietnam learning about the history and culture. One weekend, we went on a tour of the demilitarised zone with a local who was twenty-one at the start of the Vietnam War. We learnt a lot about effects of the war on the local communities and toured many sites that have remained untouched since the conflict. The resounding message from our guide was that the friendliness of the Vietnamese people means that there are no grudges held from the time of the conflict, and that is definitely the feeling we got from the friendliness we experienced around the country.

It’s tough to think of picking out the highlights of this trip as every experience was eye-opening and made me appreciate the beauties of Vietnamese culture. I would definitely recommend a trip to this amazing country to anyone considering exploring South-East Asia.

Sylvie Giguere Immediate Past Executive

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2017 MEMBERSHIP 2017 NAAUC membership registration is now open! Jump online to make sure your residence can benefit from all NAAUC has to offer. Whether it’s cheaper registration fees for conference or discounted NOTR prices, a 2017 NAAUC membership is the hottest ticket in town!

1 YEAR REGISTRATION* EARLY BIRD: 13 FEB - 30 APRIL

$295

1 YEAR REGISTRATION* STANDARD: 1 MAY - 1 JULY

$360

3-YEAR REGISTRATION** 13 FEB - 30 APRIL

$795

THAT’S 30% DISCOUNT PER YEAR *1 YEAR MEMBERSHIP EXPIRES 31 DEC 2017 **3 YEAR MEMBERSHIP EXPIRES 31 DEC 2019

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NAAUC MEMBER UPDATE

Burton and Garran Hall (ANU)

Burton & Garran Hall (B&G) is a self-catered residential hall at The Australian National University in Canberra. At B&G, our college pride lies in our diversity: approximately 45% of our residents are international/exchange students, and all of our residents come from a variety of economic, social and cultural backgrounds.

O-Week every year is run by our Residents’ Committee, the Burton & Garran Hall Members’ Association (BAGMA). As a team of 15 elected representatives including myself, our main goal going into O-Week this year was to ‘make B&G home’ for all new residents. We recognised that moving to a new city and making the transition from high school to university is a challenge for first years, so we set out to make all new residents feel comfortable in their new home by creating an O-Week schedule with events that catered to different tastes.

This year, O-Week was semi extended due to a directive from the University for each ANU affiliated hall to run three ‘dry’ induction days for new residents before the official residential O-Week programs commenced. Working within these guidelines, BAGMA ran dry night events on these first few nights, including a very successful ‘Not Your Average Trivia’ night (9 Feb) and an ‘Open Air Cinema’ with Ursula Hall (10 Feb).

Saturday (11 Feb) saw most returning residents arrive, and the official launch of the BAGMA O-Week with a funky ‘Kick Off ’ Party followed by an after party at Mooseheads, a famous Canberra nightclub. Following this, all night events were a huge hit, including our Merch Party (13 Feb), Mardi Party (14 Feb), Great Gatsby Formal Night (16 Feb) and Sunday Sesh event (19 Feb).

Mardi Party (with a mardi gras costume theme) was perhaps the crowd favourite of the week: residents went all out with their costumes which involved a lot of glitter, lace, leather, feather

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boas and fluoro attire. (The carpet of the lounge we held it in is still sparkling from all of the fallen glitter).

Day events were also very popular! Our International Potluck dinner was very success, where over 100 residents participated in small groups to create a delicious feast. Other day events we ran included: two coffee crawls where we visited some of Canberra’s hippest cafés, three social sport events, a cycling tour of Lake Burley-Griffin, a walk up Black Mountain, a tour of National Art Galleries, a pool party in one of our courtyards (as Canberra has no coastline) and various other activities and trips around Canberra and on campus. Contrary to popular belief, Canberra is a pretty groovy place to live and through our day events we showcased fun and enjoyable things to do around Canberra.

All in all, our O-Week was an absolute ball. BAGMA worked hard to ensure our events ran smoothly and every rep went out of their way to engage with all residents on a personal level. At the end of the week, we had many residents tell us that they really felt like B&G was their home now (some happy tears may have been shed). With a successful O-Week behind us, we felt exhausted, yet accomplished and motivated for the year ahead. Seeing residents make friends and enjoy themselves throughout the week meant that all of our hard work during O-Week had paid off. Bring on 2017.

Anya Bonan President of the Burton & Garran Hall Members’ Association The Australian National University (ANU)

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BID TO HOST THE

2018 NATIONAL CONFERENCE Every year the NAAUC Conference is made possible by the hard work of the NAAUC Executive, State Representatives and Conference Working Party. But the NAAUC Conference is nothing without a home!

As with last year, the process to submit a bid to host the July 2018 Conference will involve a number of steps, culminating with approved competing bids being voted upon at NAAUC National Conference in July at our AGM. To be approved to this stage, residences will have to first submit an application form, found on our website. This is to ensure that potential hosts can put together their strongest possible bid, and any potential issues can be ironed out early so residences understand all requirements of hosting conference.

The form includes questions asking about occupancy, facilities, pricing as well as asking what sets your residence apart from others when it comes to hosting the ultimate conference, in what will be our 50th year as an organisation!

Nominations will open on the 22nd of March, and all applications are due to secretary@naauc. edu.au by 12am 22 May 2017. Upon receiving your applications, we will personally review each bid and contact the nominated person to discuss your application. We want to work with you to ensure that you have everything you need for your bid before NAAUC members have the opportunity to vote upon the host venue at the AGM on Saturday 8 July. Nothing compares to the feeling of seeing 200 faces speechless from an inspiring guest speaker, or a room full of delegates having the time of their life at an event, all the while knowing you help make it possible. You are given the opportunity to educate, enlighten and support young leaders around Australia.

Preparation is the key! In past, the winning residences have not be chosen based on their exotic location or exciting social calendar, but demonstrated their exceptional organisational skills by presenting a well laid out, informative and concise presentation. If you are even considering submitting an application, your planning should start now!

If you have any further queries please forward them to info@naauc.edu.au. We look forward to receiving your bid!

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NOTR UPDATE Hobart

What a glorious morning in Hobart it was to host Tassie’s NAAUC On The Road seminar with our Conference Director Alice Langley and Tasmanian State Representative April Kenneally, fired up and ready to present.

The day was spent with the incoming committee members from Christ College, John Fisher College and Jane Franklin Hall in southern Tasmania during their P-Week as part of their leadership training.

The day was designed collaboratively with the input of all three college committees to create the most effective and relevant seminars possible. The morning kicked off at 9am and although most audience members were bleary eyed in the beginning, their enthusiastic presenters soon awoke a burning fire within them and the day gained momentum.

After introductions, the inclusion of all residents was the first topic wherein the main focus was on how they as leaders should conduct themselves and plan in order to engage all members of their residential communities. Effective event plans and strategies for optimum outreach were examined in depth.

The seminar then moved onto Traditions and Cultural Change and the concentration was mainly on the positive traditions of each residential community with a focus on how to bind together all residents. Whilst the avoidance of practices and events that may be detrimental or coercive for communities was also discussed.

After a short break, Fostering Wellness in residential communities was covered with an emphasis on mental health. It was also established what each leader could do, not only for their residence but also for themselves to ensure that a happy, healthy and comfortable environment was maintained in each of their college environments.

Operating Effectively as a Committee was the concluding seminar for the day and the group examined ways in which to maximise the outcomes of committee meetings and general committee functions. The day came to a close with an open discussion between the college committees through which pertinent issues were addressed. Before departure, our NAAUC team members were able to find the time for an ice cream and a stroll alongside the Hobart waterfront.

April Kenneally 2017 NAAUC Tasmania State Representative

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NATIONAL CONFERENCE MELBOURNE 2017 ( Mannix College)

Registration for the 2017 NAAUC National Conference opens on Monday 3rd of April!

Make sure you get in quick for our Early Bird rego prices before they run out. For even cheaper conference registration prices make sure your residence is a NAAUC member. If your residence isn’t a member, check out our range of NAAUC memberships to reap all the benefits and more!

The NAAUC Conference is nationally renowned as the peak youth leadership initiative within the university residential community sector and has inspired generations of student leaders from across the country in a forum of idea sharing and relationship building.

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