Leaders Feedback 2019
Attendance: Maya, Claire, Dazzy, Nathan, Mitchell, Morgan, Maegan, Tarren, James, Aisha, Emily, Kacy, Kiran, Rosa, Stephen
Training
Did you feel you obtained enough training to perform your roles over o-week?
Yes - Everyone
I would have appreciated more training on basic interaction. e.g. Introductions. Practice. More practice than theory. - Claire
Some things that were covered on camp were missed by those who couldn’t make it. - Kacy
Some of the stuff covered as a second year leader wasn’t useful. More practical stuff would have been better. - Claire
Scenarios that we covered e.g. note taking were unrealistic. More real world based activities would have been better. - James
We may need more training in starting a conversation with people that we don’t know - Stephen
Starting the conversation was easy, but keeping the conversation going was difficult. - Emily
I wish we had a conversation on how to exit a conversation. Stopping conversations that aren’t appropriate for the space. - Maegan
Learn how to leave a conversation smoothly. - Aisha
Techniques where we don’t need to know everyone’s names. - Stephen
A focus on the start, middle, and end of conversations.
It would be good to have something to direct people to, an activity for instance, instead of another person. - Rosa
The conversation training may be more useful in an event setting, instead of the O-week events. - Kiran
There are two focuses of conversation that we need to look at - O-week and then Post O-week. The difference being welcoming conversation, and then open, deeper, and more meaningful conversational skills. - Dazzy
Do we need a vague script? Answers to common questions. Key hit points to cover with new students.
Were the training sessions enjoyable?
Yes - Everyone
There was a good balance between talking and doing things?
There was a good balance. Events were spread evenly. - Rosa
More team bonding to make sure that all leaders feel included. Morgan
Playing games at the end of the day was a great way to end the day. - Phil
Would there be anything you wanted training in that you didn’t get?
Did you think any of the training sessions were unnecessary?
I didn’t think any were unnecessary. The content was varied and all of it was useful. - Aisha
Some training events did go on for way to long. The timer was a good way to manage the amount of time. - Aisha
Mental health training was too long for one group. The smaller group took on more of a conversational tone.
Te Whare Tawharau training: it was mostly about consent. It was useful to know some of the stuff, but a lot of it was not useful. - Maegan
We don’t have to do all of the college training. The training was more realistic. The most beneficial part was the disclosure training - it was the most transferable skill that we were taught.
Is there anything that you would do differently if you were planning it?
The values game took a lot more time this year around. Make it clear that it isn’t rigid. People restarting the game made it take longer. - James
It was good to see and understand what people chose as their values / morals and why. - Aisha
The dot game was good. We got to know people better. - Dazzy
It would have been better if the cooking challenge rules were made clear at the beginning of the game. - Rosa
Cooking Game:
Make the rules clearer
Buy ahead of time, set ground rules and a time frame for buying ingredients
Set a theme or a set of restrictions e.g. ingredients, time
Two teams were good. Next time we could have more team over two days, or split the groups some how
Oweek
For all events we need to advertise more and get first years involved to increase attendance.
Friday Pre orientation welcome
How do you think it went?
The turn out was small.
What did you like?
When they come in they get a name tag straight away. It was good that they had something to do straight away instead of being left to alone. - Kacy
Where’s Waddles - an aerial photo of uni with Waddles photoshopped in. Students needs to find him. - Phil
We need something else that the students could do while they wait for more people. - Tarren
I was under the impression that the events would have more going on. e.g. Board games during the events. There were a lot of people that were idling around, including leaders - Kiran
Mandatory socializing was good. - Morgan
I thought the bingo was fill everything up instead of one line. Make the rules more clear. It was still a lot of fun. - Rosa
Person bingo suggestions:
A small prize if there was a line, a bigger prize for the whole thing
Make it a secondary event
Some students switched off and found it confusing
Give the bingo card away with the name tags on arrival
Possibly make the game smaller and less confusing
Making the bingo game as big as it was was good to keep it interesting
Play test the game before hand
We need a briefing before every event so that everyone is on the same page. - Morgan
Brief the new students on events, an itinerary - Kacy
The google sheets for people to sign up for events was really useful. Printing this off each day would be good to keep people committed. - Claire
The tour was good, but it would have been smoother if people remembered what they signed up for. It seemed rushed to get tour guides ready. - James
A schedule would have been really useful to have for better planning on the leaders side. - Rosa
Make a plan, but be prepared to throw it out and work with Plan B, C, D… - Kacy
The first mythbusters was messy, the second was smoother. The first years didn’t know what sort of questions they should be asking. - Emily
- Grouping into departments make it look like the leaders should be answering questions
- Leaders should make students write the questions down instead of answering them in that space
- Give them tips that we wish we had in our first year. You don’t know what to ask until they really need it. - Kiran
- What I wish I knew in my first year would have been really useful. - Kiran
- On that note, Leaders could write down these questions that the first years ask - Rosa
- The event went on for way too long, with some questions having long winded answers
- Leaders could decide which questions to have read to the entire hall
- Some students were apprehensive about giving some questions to the group
- Let students know which leaders they can talk to should they have any more questions - Nathan
Ice breakers
Two truths and a lie failed with people sticking to their friends. - Morgan
We need chairs for the ice breakers. It felt very teacher to students. - Dazzy
It’s important to have the Name, Study, and Why questions. Worked well for mature students. - Phil
It’s important to brief before every event. Get a run sheet of approx. timings.
What did you think didn’t work so well?
How do you think we could improve it?
Locals Lawn Games
How do you think it went?
I loved watching the first group form - Nathan
I wouldn’t attend this event in my first year. - Kacy
The point of this event is to keep people interested over the weekend. Keep motivation and traction going over the weekend. - Maya
OUSA Events coincide with Locals events so turnout may be lower. - Dazzy
Games day, instead of specifically lawn games. Board games, lawn games, video games. List a range of games.
We can’t run events that only the leaders will enjoy. - Maya
Monday Pre convocation BBQ
How do you think it went?
What did you like?
The food was being cooked at the same time as the event. That was really quick and a good way to handle it.
What did you think didn’t work so well?
The kahoot was not the best way to get first years involved.- Kiran, leader and past first year
First years did not care about our facts, because they don’t know us. - Aisha
The quiz went on for a long time because we had double the number of leaders. - Morgan
Teachers have caught onto kahoots and they are not fun anymore. - Dazzy
The kahoot and food was not enough for the event to be worth while - Kacy
How do you think we could improve it?
Truth vs. Lie for leaders on stage
The kahoot might need to follow something informative so that people know what’s happening. - Rosa
Reduce the number of options - Dazzy
Have all the leaders on stage when their names are options - Stephen
Match faces with names in the kahoot - Maegan
We can’t run the games and food at the same time - Morgan
We may need to run the whole event later - Maya
We need more for them to do - Morgan
Sports Day
How do you think it went?
Started off good but then it got hectic with people leaving towards the end. - Emily
Sorting teams out was difficult. We could have started this when in HQ. - Aisha
What did you think didn’t work so well?
Morgan didn’t know that you couldn’t sign up for more than one event - Morgan
How do you think we could improve it?
Let people know when the draws were and how long they were playing for - Rosa
Let people know they can sign up for one, but play another sport. - Tarren
Advertise BBQ / Water / Physio
Print out a map of the venue with these locations and hang it in the tent
Locals Challenge
How do you think it went?
Overall it went well. The teams that came to me had a good time matching faces to names. - Aisha
It could do with some fine tuning, but overall it was a really good event. - Maya
What did you think didn’t work so well?
Choosing where to go didn’t work for all teams - James
There was a lot of waiting, and one team got lost - Kiran
Te Whare Tawharau was hard to find. The lost team got lost finding it. - Morgan
How do you think we could improve it?
Create a loop for teams to follow
Start the BBQ earlier rather than later. - Claire
Pre Toga
How do you think it went?
This was the best event of all events. Some students said the pre toga was better than the actual toga - Kiran
This is a really good social event - Kiran
What did you like?
Making the togas with them was a lot of fun. - Rosa
First years were encouraged to make togas with each other - Aisha
What did you think didn’t work so well?
Some of the music that was played wasn’t appreciated by the first years. - Morgan
There were too many tables - Morgan
This was due to a venue change that we couldn’t control
How do you think we could improve it?
More pizza needed - A few people
First year interaction with the music. Let first years choose some songs to play. - Rosa
Bring umbrellas for the eggs? I’m not going to be a body guard - Claire
We don’t need to sacrifice ourselves so that students aren’t egged - Stephen
Specify there is no ATM, or let them know where the closest one is - James
Orientation Welcome
How do you think it went?
It was a nice event, concise - Emily
What did you like?
Because we were prepared for a small group we could make it work better than the first event - Morgan
How do you think we could improve it?
We have plan, and we could ask if first years would like to do some of the things - Tarren
We could do a tour in this event too - James
Generally any feedback on Oweek
We tried our best, and we did well - Kacy
More instruction would have been useful - Morgan
Maya should have made her todo list public
Regarding tent city: During sports day the tent was empty and unmanned - Kacy
It can be disheartening with a lower number of people, but we did an amazing job given that - Dazzy
Put the time table in the OUSA bags - Rosa
Big picture, sky is the limit, what would you do?
Helium balloons with Locals on
Bouncy Castle
T-Shirt
Sugar cookies that spell out cookies - sugar cookie stamps
Youtube ad was highly influential
A mixer in the evening
Communications
I will send everyone all the communications that went out over oweek
Could we have worded this better to appeal to the first years?
- Format the timetable not as a table, but as an agenda on a day by day basis - similar to the instagram stories
What would you have written?
OUSA has catered their marketing towards the cohort. We should have done something similar. - Kacy
Headliner events, instead of day by day - James
Clickbait. - Kiran
What would you change/keep for next year?
Print the newsletter each week to keep in HQ - Rosa
Marketing training or Kacy, Maya, Dazzy, and Nathan
Schools visits at the end of the year. Locals to visit schools. - Kacy
Year 13 deans - Claire
Big picture what else could we do?
Buy a blimp
Buy a plane
How do we get the message out to first years to increase numbers?
High school vs uni teams - Claire
Meetup app - Kiran
A letter in evision that shows up for all eligible students - Maya
A letter with student ID card - Rosa
Follow Up
Get the run sheet for the mature student workshop
Write to Dan: Locals needs to be near a similar sized college so we are not suffocated
Get a megaphone for sports day