Monday, March 14, 2011

A Big Thank You

I want to send out a big thanks to everyone who voted for me for senate, and for the entire FUSE gang for the UVSS, and an even bigger thanks to those who helped out with the campaign. I did not get elected to the senate, but all the FUSE candidates did get elected to the UVSS. I'm looking froward to a lot of good things from the UVSS next year, and I hope everyone on the board works hard for student's interests. As for me and my blog, I'm not sure what I'll do with it next year. Perhaps I will still cover UVSS issues and hold the board accountable for their actions, but without the ridiculousness of the current blogs that claim to fill that role. Along that line of thought, I will be releasing report cards for all the current board members next week. I wrote them during winter break, but didn't want to release them until after the election as I didn't want them to become political. So make sure you look out for those!

Rob McDonald

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Updated bio of Rob

I thought I'd write a little history about me so that those of you who don't know me very well can have a better idea of where I'm coming from.

I was born in New Westminster and lived in Vancouver until I was seven years old. Then we moved up to Quesnel BC for half a year before moving 55 miles outside of Quesnel in the middle of the woods. It was November and below -20c and we lived in a tipi for a month until we got the walls built on our one room trailer with an addition. Needless to say this was quite the culture shock. We moved around to different places out of town until I graduated from high school. My best friend growing up was our 3/4 wolf dog named Grizz. Other pets included at times a baby bear, a racoon, and a cat named Homer who liked to beat up coyotes.

After graduating from high school with straight A's I had planned to go to BCIT to do a broadcast journalism program. Instead, I changed my mind and decided to join the carnival to save up money to go to a Wilderness Survival School. I still rate the courses I took there as the most amazing experiences I ever had. I took me two years to save up for my first course in California, which was focused on physical survival skills, and then one more year to save up for two more courses in New Jersey, which focused more on Native American Philosophy.

I then moved back to Quesnel where I worked at Panago, studied Nutritional Consulting through Alive Academy of Nutrition, and got involved with the Metis. I sat on the North Cariboo Metis board of directors as a youth rep, and got involved with traditional Metis step-dancing, performing at various venues and eventually teaching it. I grew tired of the cold Quesnel winters and moved to Mexico for 6 months to teach English. I found I wasn't a very good English teacher and moved back to Quesnel. I soon discovered internet poker and learned that I could make an acceptable amount of money at it.

Based on the knowledge that I could make money anywhere as long as I had an internet connection, I decided that to move to Victoria where the winters are very mild. I also moved here with the intention of getting involved with the Green Party. I quickly got involved with the party and became the campaign manager for candidate Ariel Lade in the 2006 federal election. Around the same time the competition in poker became much tougher so I had to get a real job again after the election. I ended up going to Panago to manage the Shelbourne location. After a year of that I moved to Toronto, Ontario for a few months to work in the MMP campaign for a proportionate electoral system in that province. When that campaign finished I came back to Victoria and took over the management of the Panago in Esquimalt.

It was at this time that I knew I needed a career instead of hopping from one thing to the next, so after a year at Esquimalt, I decided to go back to school and applied to UVic. I am now finishing my 3rd year at UVic and I enjoy it very much. In the past two years I have started my own club where I teach wilderness survival skills to students. I have been involved in the Model UN Club, and I now sit on the UVSS board of directors.

In my time on the board over the past year, I have been very active on sustainability issues. I worked very hard to get students a referendum on whether we should phase out bottled water on campus or not. I have been working with the management of the UVSS to move the UVSS to more more ethical and environmentally friendly bank, and I have been a strong advocate for environmental groups and issues in general. This year I am running for the University Senate so I can push for a more sustainable campus and more scholarships and bursaries for students.

Hopefully this has been a fun read for everyone!

Rob McDonald