And so it begins …

Hello and welcome to the new EVNCYC blog!

We are back and, naturally, better than ever. As VP Communication I’d like to welcome all new and returning members to this year’s Equal Voice group at the University of Ottawa. Continuing on last year’s success we are hoping to expand our membership and the Experiences program, making this year an even greater success. In the coming weeks and months you can expect regular communication regarding events and opportunities, as well as information about the status of the exec. Through this blog and regular emails and facebook messages we hope to keep everyone updated and involved. So remember to check back often to see what’s going on and how you can become a part of it!

The Winter Semester

We have reached that point again, where our winter semester is almost over. That means that it is just about time for our AGM to determine next year’s executive. We have had a great time this semester, attending events such as the launch of the National Experiences Program, and the “Run for your Life” event. All of the executive look forward to seeing everyone out to our AGM on April 2nd!!

Winter Clubs Week

Hello all!

On Tuesday, January 20th and Wednesday, January 21st we will have a table for clubs week in the UCU. Please feel free to stop by and say hello, or better yet, bring along a friend to sign up!

Looking forward to seeing you!

The Exec

We are now accepting applications for the Experiences Program

Hello,

I hope your semester is going well and that you’re surviving crunch time. Now that the federal election is officially over, we’d like to start planning for the Experiences Program once again.

For those of you who don’t know, the program has 3 dimensions:
1) Internship – We find willing employers (like MPs, City Councillors, and NGOs) and arrange for you to volunteer weekly at their office and learn what it’s like behind the scenes. If you would still like to volunteer, but cannot make a regular commitment, we also try to organize job shadowing experiences for our participants.
2) Parliamentary – We organize regular trips to Question Period and City Council meetings and try to have an MP or City Councillor provide us with a debrief.
3) Engagement – We will post interesting articles and news about political and social events in Ottawa, which will help you network and engage with decision and policy makers.

To mention but a few names, last year we had the Hon. Rona Ambrose, the Hon. Carolyn Bennett, Alexa McDonough, and Ruby Dhalla as employers. Although we can’t make promises as to who we might get as employers this year, please add any specific requests (e.g. MP from your riding) to your application and we’ll do our best to get it for you.

At this point, we are accepting applications to participate in the internship program with an anticipated start date of the beginning of January. Please check our Facebook page (and blog at http://evncyc.wordpress.com/) regularly for information about the Parliamentary and Engagement portions of the program which should be starting up soon.

The application form is available on our Facebook page on the “Discussion Board’. If you would prefer the form as a Word document, please email evncycexperiences@gmail.com or reply to this message with your email address. If you’re interested in participating, please get your application in as soon as possible (email it to evncycexperiences@gmail.com) – not only will it help us plan, but you are more likely to get a match close to your interests.

Also, if you know of anyone you think might be interested in participating, please pass along our contact info.

If you have any other questions, feel free to leave us a message or send an email.

Good luck with the rest of the semester!

Laura – VP External

PS – Don’t forget that we have bi-weekly executive meetings in the Couches Lounge in the UCU on Tuesdays from 5:30-7pm (next meeting = Nov. 18th).