COCA: Solid Programming or Solid Drinking?

So…

I am doing my report on the COCA Conference I attended and I keep rolling the same question through my mind; is COCA worth it?

For those that do not know, COCA stand for the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities (website here: http://www.coca.org) and we at the ULSU pay a membership fee to access their resources with businesses and professionals in the world of campus programming.

We also get to go to this conference that I suspect you have heard of once or twice in passing.

Now as an organization COCA makes sense to be a part of; contacts, education, and resources for first time programmers or experienced veterans alike!

But what about that darned conference?

In case you haven’t heard some the rumors, COCA has been framed as one giant party filled with free alcohol and ample opportunities to engage in “questionable” behavior. Rooms full of naked people. The Devil play card in the back corner for someone’s soul. That kind of stuff. And now that I am back the question a lot of people have been asking me is, “so how was your time at COCA?” wink.

(That little wink at the end of the question makes reference to all the lovely rumors that circulate around the conference.)

Really, though, I can’t say that anything that went on during our stay in Ottawa would be rumor worthy material; yes there were the rooms with free alcohol, and yes we took a late night swim in a pool, but COCA is not this huge monstrosity of party that I keep hearing about.

Was it a good time? You bet! I saw some awesome bands, I got to hang out in bars with lots of cool people 5 nights in a row, and I got to talk to people doing the same job as me across the country.

So back to that first question; is COCA worth it?

The short answer is yes.

The long answer is yes, because it gives programmers the ability to become instantly comfortable in their job, develop their skill sets to create better events at their respective campuses, and make dozens of contacts across the country for professional purposes.

Cheers,

Eric
VP Internal

RIP George Carlin

http://www.etonline.com/news/2008/06/62841/index.html

A sad loss …

ET breaks the news that comedian George Carlin has died from heart failure. The man who made famous the “seven words you can never say on television” passed away at 5:55 p.m. Sunday at Saint John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, his longtime publicist said. He was 71.

Carlin, who has had several heart attacks and a history of cardiac issues, went into the hospital this afternoon after complaining of heart problems.

Carlin has more than 20 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, numerous TV and movie roles, and three best-selling books to his credit. Last year, he celebrated his 50th year in show business, and he had just finished his last HBO special in March, “It’s Bad for Ya.”

Work is no video game, neither is Dion’s Carbon Tax Plan

On Thursday, Liberal leader Dion released the controversial Carbon Tax Plan to the House of Commons and Canadians. As environmental risk becomes greatly prevalent in our news and in our daily lives, this shift in ‘green thinking’ has led to great speculation how Dion’s plan will be perceived by Canadian voters. The single best thing anyone can do is be educated about the issue, especially one which will directly affect every single Canadian.

Check these links and allow the time to think about both sides of the issue. Eventually everyone will have to choose what is more important, the planet we live on or cheaper gas and added convenience. This Carbon Tax may not be the ideal solution for Canada, or anywhere for that matter, but attack ad’s and bad mouthing isn’t a solution for government either. Canadians have always had an incredible ability to keep cool under the harshest of circumstances. Hopefully our elected representatives will eventually represent that.

Canadian Press- “Harper suggest Liberal carbon tax plan would “screw everybody” in Canada”

CBC.ca – “Carbon tax plan ‘good for wallet,’ Dion pledges”

The Progressive Economics Forum

Conservative party website – “Liberal Caucus on Dion’s tax trick”

Liberal party website – March 2007 enviromental paper

CBC.ca – “Carbon taxes: Cash grab or carbon savior”

CBC.ca – “Liberal carbon plan to offer 15.5B in tax cuts”

Thrillingly Forceful

Oh YouTube, your wonders never cease:

Share and enjoy.

Adam Vossepoel

President

VP Academic – COCA Travel Report

My official report in relation to my attendance of the Canadian Organization of Campus Activites (COCA).

This can also be found on the ULSU website.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Executive travel report – VP Academic

June 18^th, 2008

Conference attended: Canadian Organization of Campus Activities (COCA)

Dates attended:  June 6^th 2008 – June 11^th 2008

Myself and Eric Hawthorne attended COCA this year on behalf of University of Lethbridge in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. The purpose of the conference is to educate student leaders and campus programmers on event planning and execution. The conference gives delegates a variety of education session options which one can tailor to suit their campus’ needs. Outside of the education sessions, the showcase’s provided by COCA provides delegates the opportunity to hear upcoming Canadian musicians who are interested in playing campus events. The showcases also give delegates the opportunity to talk to the artists and agencies in a more comfortable, less pressured atmosphere which is much more conducive to forming positive relationships.

There were two education sessions I attended which proved to very interesting and helpful in garnering new ideas for the UofL; “Unconventional programming” and “Small schools – Big ideas”. I also attended, along with Eric, two regional meetings which gave the opportunity for the schools in certain regions the chance to come together and discuss possible acts they are interested in bringing in. This allows smaller school’s a better chance to book bigger bands as it gives us a chance to block book acts that would be harder to bring to smaller schools with smaller budgets.

COCA also provided a trade show which gave delegates the opportunity to meet promoters, agency reps and Promotion Company and find out more information about them, as well what they can offer a particular school.

Overall, I feel that COCA provided a great opportunity to meet programmers and student leaders from across the country to foster stronger working relationships which can aid our small school in achieving bigger things. The conference was well attended and well organized and I genuinely feel as if I did come away with a better ability in event planning as well as a stronger comfort in having those pertinent contacts.

As always, more information is available via the World Wide Web on the ULSU blog at www.ulsu.wordpress.com.

Jenn Prosser, VP Academic

Smart Board meet ULSU executive…now shake hands.

The ULSU got our wicked Smart board today! It can do everything that anyone would ever want to do…including but not limited too:

Back from COCA with too much A/C

Greetings!

Back and fresh faced from the lovely and amazing COCA. Eric has been diligent on updating on bands and the other wicked showcases we saw, so no need to be redundant. I do have to say that my personal high lites are seeing Dan Mangan, The Coast, Hey Rosetta! and Hey Ocean! live. All these artists put on amazing live shows and they all are very very worth checking out.

The showcases in general were great and incredibly helpful for ideas on booking. If you personally heard any of these artists and are super jazzed to bring them to Lethbridge, than let us know! Chances are one of us exec’s will be equally jazzed so please don’t hesitate to throw in that opinion.

Besides seeing amazing bands and meeting equally amazing people, I got the chance to look at speakers available in the upcoming year and will be following up on a few people. Two themes I am going for this year in planning speakers and academic related events are “Politics can be sexy?!” and “Sex, drugs, Rock n’Roll”. If there are any suggestions out in the crowd, please comment and let me know if there is anyone you would like to see brought to the UofL. The sky is the limit right now, so give me all you got. I would love to see some people brought who are prevalent in Canadian culture and home town hero’s are always in my favourites.

While in Ottawa I got the chance to watch the Residential School apology while sitting on Parliament Hill. For a political junkie such as myself, this was an amazing event. The ability for our government, for any government, to stand up and apologize for past atrocities that Canadians committed shows true strength and true belief in what it means to be Canadian. Regardless of your political leanings, this event truly shows that we can work as a country to better ourselves and our society. As Adam posted earlier, I do recommend you taking the time to learn a little about this past but also remembering that Canada is an amazing country with an identity not always easily defined. Each and every one of us believes in Canada differently and identifies what it means to be Canadian differently. It is when we come together, as that day in The Hill, that we see really, we are all Canadian and that does mean something.

Jenn Prosser, VP Academic

Salutations

So it feels like I have a lot of catching up to do…

Well first things first. I’m Brodie, and I work as the ULSU’s VP Administration. A little about me, I like:

• long walks on the beach,
• financial accountability,
• puppies

True Story.

Well, now that we have that out of the way…. *awkward

Has anyone else ever noticed that the spelling of & structure of letters in the word awkward seems kind of, well, awkward?

Anyways, back to talking about important stuff.

CASA

Adam did a great job of explaining what CASA is, so I won’t delve too much into this. What I will say is that the 2008 Policy & Strategy Convention went great. The feeling of comradery between students from across Canada united for a common cause was quite intoxicating. A few highlights include the University of Alberta joining as ratified members, bringing CASA’s membership to the largest it has ever been with 24 full members. Also, yours truly was elected and ratified as a Regional Coordinator for Canada West. Yes, I actually asked people to give me more work. What can I say, I’m a keener (read: keeper).

Overall, this CASA conference went quite well, and I am super excited about the coming year for the organization.

ULSU Public Forum

So the dates for the ULSU’s Public Forum have officially been set for the first semester. They are:

• September 16th, Noon – 2pm
• November 25th, Noon – 2pm

We are really excited about these forums, and you should be too! This is a great opportunity for your voice to be heard! Have any questions, concerns, or ideas? Then come on down, we would love to see you!

Anyways, that’s it for now. Look for more details soon!

Brodie Pattenden

VP Administration

Gorgon Bills and the Canadian Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Well, strike one for personal freedom and electronic media in Canada.

Today, the Conservative government re-introduced and finally tabled Bill C-61, detailing amendments to the Copyright Act in Canada.

Initially, Minister of Industry, Jim Prentice, had tried to introduce this legislation back in December 2007. It was quickly and vocally derided by opposition party MPs, University professors, and the public. The Facebook group set up against the Bill had over 20, 000 members. As a result, Bill C-61 was not tabled at that time.

Well, the Bill once again reared it’s ugly head to unleash its Medusa-like effects on the freedom of personal electronic media.

The new amendments also have some serious implications for freedom of educational materials e.g. Digital inter-library loans. The proposed changes would see a crack- down on “digital pirates”, actually making the penalty for shoplifting a CD less severe than downloading and sharing it digitally.

Micheal Geist, a digital law professor at the University of Ottawa, does a much better job in explaining and dissecting what this means for the normal, law-abiding citizens and students.

Now, keep in mind that these are “Proposed Amendments”. They are not law yet. The Bill still must pass through the House. Hopefully MPs will realize that many of the proposed amendments will do more harm than good.

If you are feeling particularly enraged and engaged, give you Member of Parliament a call. They, much like the Students’ Union, are there to listen to you. Read the Bill over, do some research, and be heard.

Find your Member of Parliament

Current List of MPs

If you are unaware of what the big deal is about Canadian digital copyright laws is, educate yourself:

Copyright Reform Process- Details the amendments to the Copyright Act

Micheal Geist’s Blog- Critique of the proposed amendments

Slashdot- Interesting and colorful Forum on the Canadian DMCA

Canadian Parliamentary System- for those of you who mostly forgot Grade 8

Until the future,

Adam Vossepoel

President

bands! + songwriters!

The last batch of artists!

We saw a great deal of talent at the COCA conference in Ottawa this past week. Here are some shots from the last showcase:

Day 4:

Kobo Town – From some very deep roots, “Kobo Town” brought a great performance. With traditional reggae styles as well as some worldly influences these guys had a great sound. I was very impressed with these guys.

The Salads – The hardest performance of the entire conference. They definitely played their genre and showed their own personality in their short set.

The Johnstones – Oh Ska music, you will always hold a small place in my heart. These guys were both entertaining and ridiculous at the same time. But they sure got the crowd going and their energy definitely made a huge impact on me. A bit silly, but very fun.

Nadine Medawar – It seem very hard for a softer sound like Nadine’s to translate to the COCA atmosphere. She played well and her band did their thing, but I am afraid she got lost in the crowd a bit. Still, very well done.

Sweet Thing – A male vocal lead, who does nothing but sing?! Well done sir, well done! “Sweet Thing” was the best of the night for me and while at times the lead singer seemed a bit over the top, there has to be something said for an guy to go up there and sing as well as he did and do nothing else.

Day 5:

Day 5 saw the Singer Songwriter showcase, and it was very worth while. We were very lucky to see the likes of Craig Cardiff, Lesley Pike, Jessica Rhyne, Robyn Dell’Unto, Casey Desmond, and Colin Munroe. All of these artists showed a great deal of passion as they really tried to present exactly what they had to offer for us with their music. It was a great way to cap off the musical showcases that had been abundant throughout the entire conference.

And so with that, COCA 08 comes to a close for its musical portion. I will be posting later on the organization itself and how it has affected me in my job at the ULSU.

Cheers,

Eric
VP Internal