Project Description

The Vice Presidents coordinate and oversee the activities that are integral to the candidate semester while providing additional leadership and assisting the President. They are also in charge of the candidate meetings and the end of the semester banquet.

Event Preparation

The VPs are responsible for the following things: emailing candidates, getting to know the candidates, keeping attendance, making deals, and doing project reports. The VPs are responsible for the following events: Candidate Meeting 1, Packet Turn-In Part I, Tilden/Marina BBQ, Candidate Meeting 2, Bent Polishing, Candidate Meeting 3, Pancake Breakfast, Candidate Meeting 4, Packet Turn-In Part II, Candidate Evaluation (Officer) potluck, Initiation, and Banquet. Please see Brian Love’s document titled vp instructions in the VP Binder for details about events.

Problems Encountered

[Candidate Meeting #1] – (1) It was difficult to come up with an icebreaker for a 100 plus people. Perhaps a more organized approach can be taken instead of breaking everyone up into groups by major. This is a problem because the majors are uneven (EECS has too many people) even if you break them up into two groups. Possibly you could give candidates a number as they enter the room so each group will have an equal number of people. However, this may prove difficult due to problem 2. (2) Since there were so many people who came to CM#1, the sign-in process took a very long time. Having two sign-in sheets did not help the situation because there were just too many people coming into one entrance. At times things got chaotic and people did not sign-in or did not pick up packets. This may be solved by having more than two sign-in sheets or redirecting the line to another entrance (such as the back one). I suppose it isn’t that big of a problem because it just delayed the start of the meeting, but if you wanted to say give everyone a number to split them up into groups, it would definitely be difficult. I am also positive not everyone was eligible for TBP and just came for the free food. Next time if there is a way to make sure people are on the eligibility list it may cut down on the line. [Tilden Park BBQ] – Many people seemed bored at times and wanted to leave. Although we played some sports, there were no organized events. It may be a good idea to have an ice breaker or have organized activities. This would make the BBQ more fun and people would feel occupied so they wouldn’t want to leave. [Packet Turn-in] – Make sure to have a camera and make sure to take a picture of every single candidate, regardless of whether they want to or not. [Bent Polishing] – Try to talk to the candidates more when they polish the bent. I am sure it is not fun for them. Maybe join in so they don’t feel so bored doing it. [Candidate Meeting #2] – Make sure to have enough copies for everyone about the small group activities. Since funds are limited this may not be possible (although it really doesn't cost that much to make copies), but I think it would have been a lot more helpful and clear if every candidate had a copy of the small group requirements. During our semester, we only passed out directions for the photo hunt and potluck only to the small group leaders. Another idea is to have the directions ready early and include it in the candidate packet. [Pancake Breakfast] – You may also want to have some sort of activity at this event. Possibly have an ice breaker or contest to force candidates to talk and be involved. [Candidate Meeting #4] – Make sure to bring attendance sheets to the meeting. By this time you should have already emailed and spoke with candidates who have problems. At the meeting, you should talk to candidates who have not listened to and are still in trouble with finishing their requirements. [Banquet] – Start early to look for locations. [Small groups] – (1) Stress the importance of this requirement. For some reason we assumed everyone would do it but there were many complaints from group leaders that the candidates were not showing up to take pictures for the photo hunt or cook for the potluck. Perhaps you could have some sort of requirement for the photo hunt that each candidate must be in atleast half of the pictures. (2) Figure out a way to reimburse groups for the money spent on the potluck food. Although, you may not want to reimburse groups in order to save money. However, I know that I personally did not get paid by all my group members so group leaders may have to pay more. [Officer Potluck/ Candidate Review] – In order for this to be effective it needs to held earlier because it is very difficult to reject a candidate after you as a VP made deals with the candidates. An alternative would be to make sure the candidates know that the deals you make with them are not a guarantee that they will be initiated (we did this but I would stress it more). [Project Reports] – Do these immediately as it is hard to remember things long after they occurred such as right now as I am writing this one.

Improvements Suggested

See Problems Encountered

Enjoyment

Yes, very enjoyable =).

Appendix

Members participating: Peter Masatani and Amar Patel

This report was submitted by Amar Patel (Vice President) at apatel@tbp.berkeley.edu on Friday, January 16, 2004 at 19:57:42 (PST)