Development and External Relations Update

The Development and External Relations office UPDATE is a monthly summary of activities in the section and is published for your general information. If you have questions, please contact Jim Goit or call at (902) 893-7950

• The AACC working group met in Moncton on October 4th. Jim was present to represent NSAC. The work of the various task groups was reviewed and the program for the winter meeting of the group was planned. The Organic task group lead by Ralph Martin has done a particularly good job. Jim promoted AASTW with the group as lots of their members will be attending.
• The Principal’s IT committee met for the first time since summer. Dave Ryan updated the group on the amalgamation of the CSU and ACS and outlined plans for the near future. There was also an update on the status of the SIS and a discussion on the next phase of the desktop replacement.
• Jim attended the Life Science Development forum in Halifax on the 21st. There was a presentation on Genome Atlantic by Joe Gillis. NSAC will keep a presence at these events and will host one of the monthly session in the spring.
• There was an excellent open house held at the AgriTECH park on October 22nd for Pizza ME a startup company that make ready to cook Pizza using new innovative techniques. There was a good attendance from NS business Inc, ACOA, NSAC as well as other park tenants. This was a very good opportunity to show what the AgriTECH park is trying to accomplish. People were every complementary to Laurie Sandeson’s work and to the facilities of the park.
• The Atlantic Agricultural Hall of Fame induction ceremony was another successful event. Don McInnis was the Nova Scotia Inductee for 2002. Both the Directors and annual meetings were held just prior to the induction ceremony. A good crowd was on hand for this important event. Jim and JoAnne have a few cleanup things to finish before yearend for the Hall. All material has been loaded onto the website at www.nsac.ns.ca/halloffame
• The Development and Alumni Relations Office had a booth in the mini-expo at Alumni weekend. Some printed material was developed that we can use for other occasions.
• Jim attended a strategic planning session in Halifax with Department of Agriculture and Fisheries senior managers. Dr. Coffin and Dr. MacDonald also attended. It was a good opportunity to keep NSAC’s priorities on the agenda for the department as a whole.
• The Annual Mail Appeal continues to bring donations into the office. This month a total of $6150 was received from this appeal. More importantly, a large percentage of these funds are from alumni who have not given a donation to us before. The plan is to send the request to all staff of NSAC in the next few weeks to give them a chance to contribute.
• Jim worked with the Foundation Auditor to develop a better fund tracking mechanism for foundation accounts. We get request for the status of the various individual funds and because they are pooled into a single fund for investment, we need to be able to keep track of them outside the normal accounting procedures. The Alumni Association already does a similar procedure on the funds it manages.
• Jo-Anne has registered 115 participants to the AASTW workshop coming up in November and is currently busy working with Barry Diamond to organize the workshop.
• Jo-Anne has receipted and sent thank you letters to numerous donors during the month of October as is reflected in the donation summary and is up-to-date.
• Ads were placed in Next Step Magazine, Small Business Week in Truro Daily News, Christmas Greeting in Rural Delivery, Better Farming magazine, CORDA - Trade & Commerce Magazine and others.
• The NSAC Post was mailed to CBC Maritime Noon which generated an interview with Chaouki Benchaar on “milk Fat”
• Publicity and preparations for the opening of the Wild Blueberry Research Centre were conducted for the November 1 event by Stephanie and Jo-Anne
• A successful Homecoming Weekend was held on October 18 and 19th which heavily involved the time of Jo-Anne and Stephanie for the entire month
• Promotional efforts were organized for the annual Autumn Assembly program. Many media picked up the release on the honourary Doctorate including CBC French TV in Moncton, Antigonish Casket, Yarmouth VanGuard and Le Courrier.
• Stephanie wrote and gathered photographs for a TV recruitment/awareness program with Eastlink Cable. This will be ongoing until early December.
• Promotions, signage and various other work underway for the upcoming AASTW workshop November 14 and 15
• The October issue of the NSAC Post was distributed both online and through mail
• Stephanie was involved in the advance promotional work for the Engineering Open House held October 29th
• Stephanie updated the NSAC campus maps and 5000 copies were printed. As well 1000 new NSAC postcards with an aerial view of the campus were printed.
• Stephanie finalized the NSAC submission to Macleans magazine. An interview was conducted with a student of the Organic Agriculture program as well as with is Director Ralph Martin
• Stephanie worked with Dr. MacDonald to produce a briefing note to the Minister on the Occupation Health and Safety incident reports.
• Stephanie produced a variety of Good News stories on the campus for the communications team in Halifax for the opening of the House.
• Stephanie met with Sarah Macdonald to draft plans for the Closing ceremony of the Millbrook First Nations program
• Stephanie met with Brian Crouse and Judy Smith to discuss and draft guidelines for the NSAC Student Emergency Fund
• Stephanie and Bernie MacDonald met with Natalie Webster to update her on the status of the Environmental Farm Plan from a communications perspective and the various issues facing the College.
• Stephanie arranged for a campus tour for a candidate for NSAC President
• Stephanie issued a release on the International conference being held in Halifax.