Exec reports - Public Relations

Introduction

The Public Relations Officer:

• Books rooms on Campus as required for Club activities.
• Organizes Wednesday evening slide shows.
• Arranges publicity for any VOC events open to the public.
• A good position for someone who can handle the booking system on campus, and who is reliable.
• Organizes the Jared Stanley Memorial Lecture in the fall term.

How to book rooms

First, you must be registered as the AMS booking representative for your club. This only needs to be done once with the AMS, the forms that have to be submitted and instructions can be found Here.

This allows you to book rooms over the internet, and usually works pretty well, although it should be done a few days in advance. This is for rooms in the general UBC campus, not in the SUB.

Examples of cases where you would want to book a room are the following: for a slideshow that expects a large attendance, for pre trip meetings for large VOC trips (fall and winter longhike, glacier school, etc), for the Jared Stanley talk, first aid courses, AST courses, etc. You are given the option to suggest a room, in general rooms in Buchanan work well, as they're open fairly late and other places would require a fee to open late. Rooms on weekends are more complicated, but the IKBC (library complex) has a few rooms that can be had free of charge (but have to be reserved well in advance).

Booking rooms in the SUB is a completely separate process, they have to either be done in person (with someone in the second floor of the SUB), or you might try to arrange for a room booking for the whole year (we applied for one for fall 2011 and still haven't heard the outcome). In general it's hard to get a reasonably large room in the evening in the SUB, although it would be convenient. Sometimes we might want to rent the Norm theatre to show a movie, this has to be done partly through the film society.

Note: IKB rooms are excellent for groups <100, Woodward for groups >100, although it's a bit far, Buchanan also has rooms for >100.

How to book the Norm

Confirm with both the FilmSoc and the AMS booking department that you can rent the Norm. FilmSoc needs to be on hand to work the projectors, AMS controls who actually books the room.

How to Organize Slideshows

Follow the message board for people that have done interesting trips over the summer, or during breaks. Contact them and ask them if they'd like to give a slideshow. Advertise about a week in advance on the forums, and 'bump' the thread the day of the slideshow if no one else has commented on it recently. Ask them for a brief blurb and a picture of the slideshow, and post them in the message board, with enough time that they make it to the VOCene. Post them in the trip agenda and in the wiki page for slideshows too, although the trip agenda and the message board have much more visibility.

We have a nice 1080p projector, although we sometimes have issues plugging it to computers, make sure people bring an appropriate VGA plug (Macs are usually the problem).

Alternatively to slideshows, it's possible to organize tutorials on how to do useful things, i.e., how to lighten your pack, how to make your own harness, etc. Jacob S. gave a few leave no trace seminars as well. Sometimes we show movies as well, and the people at the Gallery pub have been keen on us having them at their place.

How to Organize the Jared Stanley Memorial Lecture

Jared Stanley was a member of the UBC Avalanche Research Group in the Atmospheric Science program. He was an avid skier and a keen scientist. Jared passed away in January 2005 while backcountry skiing at Mount Seymour. This is an annual lecture to honour his memory and remind us all to be aware of the risk we're taking in the backcountry. This lecture was taken over by the VOC in 2008, because all of Jared's friend have now graduated from UBC.

Organizational timeline

• Decide when to have this lecture. Usually in end November or start December
• Contact Jared's family to confirm the date. Anna Parton (apartonnp-at-gmail.com). They might also have ideas/wishes for speaker/movies.
• Book a room well in advance
• Decide on a speaker and movie. See previous exec reports for ideas. Exec report - Trips Coordinator 2009 - 2010, Exec report - Trips Coordinator 2008 - 2009
• Advertise the event with posters and post on outdoor community website. Example ACC, BCMC, Wanderung and of cause our own message board. Old poster available here: Media:JaredPoster.pdf
• On the night make a little sign for the wall and make sure that everyone can find the place.

Past Exec Reports

Exec report - Public Relations 2009 - 2010
Exec report - Public Relations 2008 - 2009
Exec report - Public Relations 2007 - 2008
Exec report - Public Relations 2006 - 2007