After an extremely busy summer work term, I finally have time to look back at all the things we've done to see what we did well, and what can be done better. But first, a brief history.
In the beginning: It all started with a couple of co-ops who just wanted to drink: Mark Hiscocks and Chris Lyon. Somehow, they got onto the mailing list for Newbridge co-ops, and started crashing their events. Attendance was rather low at first, but the ten to fifteen people who did show up bravely drank enough for twice their number.
One day, probably during one of their binges, Mark and Chris decided that the co-ops needed an internal website. Nobody was really too sure what it was to be used for, but it seemed like a neat idea at the time. After putting in a request with HR and Legal, everybody went happily back to school.
The Dark Ages: So called because we have no records of what went on during this period. Many scholars have speculated on this odd time. They are all wrong. Anarchy and chaos ruled. Ottawa winter's are like that anyway.
The Return: In the summer of 1999, Corel hired a record number of co-ops, interns and summer students from various universities and colleges. The website was launched in June of 1999. By this time, there was a new co-op rep, Rafi, who is still not sure how he got stuck with the job. All organizations need a name, so we chose SLACC, for Social Liaison for All Corel Co-ops. The first order of business was a logo contest for the website. This was won by Robert Piek�, who was awarded a really nifty Corel polo shirt for his efforts.
SLACC grew bigger and bigger over the summer, despite all the efforts of El Benevolent Dictator, Rafi, to cut down on the amount of work he had to do. What the people want, the people seem to get. Events organized by SLACCers were: Tuesday movie night, weekly volleyball games at Mooney's Bay, the occasional lunch whenever Rafi forgot to make his own, and a Gotcha! game that was won by Michael Trinh and Ky Tuong Ly.
The two big events for the summer was co-organized by Newbridge folks, who were really supportive of Rafi's fumbling efforts. They both began as a beach party. The first evolved into a huge Volleyball tournament at the RA Centre. Twenty teams signed up, and Labatt gave us t-shirts as prizes. A film crew from the New RO came by and filmed Mark, despite all the efforts by the rest of us to get on TV.
The second time Rafi tried to have a beach party, it turned into a huge End of Term House Party. This included mostly free drinks, a barbeque and a bonfire. The fire was the only remnant of the original idea, and was only included because the pyromaniac Rafi kept complaining "I want a fire!". The marshmallow's were provided by Corel the marshmallows, and all the hard work was done by Stephanie Deguire and Genevieve Bolduc.
Thanks to all these people:
Rafi Syed, El Dictator
Chris Lyon: webmaster
Mark Hiscocks: mascot
Genevieve Bolduc
Stephanie Deguire
Dave McDonald
Next Term: well, I've started a log of events to help my poor memory, but I expect future SLACC members to append to this every term. That way, we can look at what we've done and get ideas for future events
Rafi Syed.
