DIRECTOR OF FINANCE WORK BLOG

[steveleenow]

Well on Sunday, I thought I would be smart and install this new wireless router I purchased a few months ago but never got around to installing at home. The router works - the computer recognizes it and at first it seems to recognize and deal with my old Terayon cable modem just fine - but then when I try to get things working on the computer the software fails to recognize the cable modem sitting on the other side of that wireless router. But then, everything works fine when I plug the modem right into the computer, without the router. I'm guessing though that my cable modem is too old and that it's not compatible with newer routers? From what info I can find on my model of modem, it is a bit of a dinosaur... probably only DOCSIS 1.0. Newer models are all 2.0, with some even being at 3.0. One day this week I'm going to see the folks at the Shaw tower about this. From amazon, it seems newer cable modems are all under $100. I don't know what Shaw offers, but it is probably one that handles 2.0, which would allow you to have up to 30 - 60 Mbit/s in download / upload speed (of course shaw likes to max it at 25, and I notice that Novus maxes at 30, although they do have a package where for about $120 more than the one that offers 30, you can get 50 - but they seem to be totally ripping people off for that extra 20). The 3.0 allows up to 350Mbit / s, which lays the groundwork for what possibilities lay ahead for the future of the internet.

Sorry if that was above anyone's head! Anyway... I had wanted to hookup this wireless router so I could upload documents to the site while my main computer continues to scan stuff into pdf. Of course, I wasted half the day trying to get the router to work and so I got nothing done. What should have taken about 10 minutes took forever and I ended up living without the router. When I was sick I at the end of May and was uploading stuff from bed on my laptop - I simply took the internet cord from my computer and plugged it directly into my laptop. Which I guess, is what I should've done yesterday but I have also downloading some music which I only wanted to do on my main machine.

bleh.

So most of Sunday was written off. I was up very late Friday scanning stuff. Last night and today I've continued scanning and I'm almost done 1995. I sadly have not kept track of the hours I put into it but it's about 6 or 7 hours since last night starting late, around 10pm... the work has been on and off all day but it amounts to about 7 hours work. My apologies for not keeping track of it more closely --- I usually am anal about it but wasn't today.

Tonight, I got back onto the computer and at 6pm I sent Desmond an e-mail as I need to meet with him on Thursday or Friday this week to discuss our fees and our budget for the rest of the year and going into 2009. There are a number of issues on this front that have to be addressed... and more information on that will be posted widely for feedback and discussion later this month.

Tomorrow for my hours from 4 - 8, I'm going to be price shopping. I'll start off online finishing some updates on quotes for a number of things, and then will stop by Home Depot and a few other places to finalize the cost estimates for the expansion of the brochure wall in Surrey and for new brochure walls in Richmond, Cloverdale and Langley.

- Steve

[steveleenow]

Today I worked on a number of things (from 10:30am - 11am; and from 12:30pm to 4:30pm for a total of 4 1/2 hours worked):

• Tallied hours into excel worksheet and submitted to Desmond / Rolando (attached in the spirit of openness and transparency);
• Compiled and e-mailed proposal to Des / Deep for getting 1 or 2 multi-media computers in office (attached);
• E-mails with Deep re: feedback on computer proposal & layout of minutes page;
• E-mailed Desmond / exec. re: executive orientation @ Farris;
• E-mailed Desmond / exec. re: status of gift card program and received update on said program (information provided by GM noted in attached council report);
• E-mailed Desmond / exec re: publication name and meeting with David R;
• E-mailed Desmond for copy of compensation structure; worked on proposal re: leaves for elected officials;
• E-mailed David B / Desmond re: post audit memos for 06/07 and getting them distributed by June 20;
• Wrote on report to Council (attached) and submitted it to Titus and also posted it to my work blog;
• E-mailed Desmond / exec re: Cloverdale Assembly Coordinator / MSS-Cloverdale - separation of duties issue; and
  
• Posted to Emily's wall re: pancake breakfast.

In terms of my archival documents work, I hope to get the rest of 1995 and 1996 scanned this weekend, and if I have time I'll start posting the stuff I scanned from 1990 - 1996.

- Steve

[steveleenow]

I apologize again for not posting in a few days.

My foot was very sore over the weekend and caused me not to be in the office or in class on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week. I did check and respond to e-mails on these days but that work probably added up to less than 1 hour. I did receive a doctor's medical note for missing these few days which I submitted to Council.

On Thursday, May 30, 2008 (from 10:30am - 12:30pm - 2 hours), I scanned documents from 1995 into the master file for agendas and minutes from that year and with the exception of having to do one last set of minutes from January 1995 that year is now scanned >> which leaves me with just minutes from 1996 to scan into a master document. I plan on going to the storage locker tonight to get our agendas / minutes from 1997 thru 1999 so I can start scanning those this weekend.

From 2:30pm - 5:30pm (approximately 3 hours), Desmond and myself met with the KSA legal counsel to review a number of issues including the upcoming civil case, issues surrounding our regulations and bylaws as well as to discuss our past post audit memorandums.

Today, being Friday I was in the office from approximately 1pm until now (about 5 hours) >>> I attended an executive board meeting and during that meeting worked on my laptop taking documents in the 1993 master file and separating them into individual documents for each meeting. I got through all the documents up until July 1993 so those are ready for posting. My plan is now that I have a working laptop to continue this kind of work over the weekend while I scan the rest of the outstanding documents. I originally wanted to have the majority of meeting documents up by tomorrow and while I've almost met this goal, I will need a bit of time going into June to finish this process. My absolute deadline for having agendas / minutes online would be June 20, a few days before my trip to Europe.

We also took photos of executive members both as a group and as individuals for photos to be included in the agenda-daytimer >>> and also for online at this website.

Anyway >>> I am going to head to the storage locker to get that box of documents. Desmond told me yesterday that he had okay'd the purchase of a  multi-media computer for my use in the office, so that should be coming soon. I forgot to ask if he okay'd the purchase of the scanner / printer I would like to have attached to this new multi-media computer for scanning and archiving of other documents as well as the photos we have on hand from the past (and oh yeah >>> our newspaper article archive). I'll have to shoot him an e-mail to ask as it's on sale at Costco until the end of next week.

- Steve

[DJ Lam]

Steve: we need more updates! (I'm kidding. Mostly.)

[steveleenow]

It has been awhile since I have posted. I'm sitting in Council and it is a long meeting. It looks like Cram Jam might be done.

On Monday, June 9, 2008, I did do a lot of work but I did not track my hours. I probably did about approxiamtely 2 hours of work AT HOME. I re-uploaded photos taken on May 31, 2008 for the agenda daytimer to flickr for the KSA staff members who are doing the content and design of our agenda-daytimer - http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveleenow/sets/72157605548191947/ . I also did some work on revisions to some of the executive procedures that I want to bring forward this week but I honestly do not remember what work I did do.

Wedensday, June 11, 2008 - 9:00am - 9:30am (1/2 hour AT HOME); 12:30pm - 6:30pm (6 hours IN OFFICE) - I checked e-mail in the morning and also posted photos to flickr of how my own TV is installed in comparision to how the TV was installed in the Richmond lounge - http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveleenow/sets/72157605561885441/ . In the afternoon I was in the office and I setup my new office computer (I did not have a computer before). I unloaded my car of stuff that I had at home for scanning so that I can scan them in office at my new computer. I sorted documents that were at my desk, and sent some more e-mails again. I finally got a copy of the standard compensation structure from Rolando which will help me in my review of whether or not there should be sick leave for elected officials. I met with staff member David Ross regarding the Richmond lounge and its television and the possible re-painting of the lounge. We also discussed getting locks on the back room doors as well as the possibility of getting aprons and t-shirts for volunteers. Finally, I met with Derek Robertson over lunch to discuss KSA issues related to finance and the executive portfolios.

Friday, June 13, 2008 - approxiamtely Noon - 8:00pm (8 hours IN OFFICE); 10:00pm - 11:30pm (1 1/2 hours AT HOME) - I attended the executive board meeting that occurred and this took up the majority of the day. After the meeting, I met with the General Manager to discuss the statement of claim that is underway. Later that night I started work on compiling agenda.

Sunday, June 15, 2008 - approximately 8:00am - 11:00am (3 hours AT HOME) - I finished work on compiling the agenda but I was unable to send it out as my internet at home was down. The agenda was sent out approxiamtely 24 hours later when my access was restored. The agenda for today's meeting is here:

http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2057.pdf

Monday, June 16, 2008 - approximately 1:00pm - 3:30pm (2 1/2 hours OFF-SITE); 5:00pm - 6:00pm (1 hour AT LAWYER'S OFFICE) - Earlier in the day I met with Desmond and DJ as well as with a real estate agent who took us to a number of possible rental office space locations for our new student newspaper. Later in the day, Desmond and I met with Desmond and our Lawyer David Borins to review the statement of claim and what would be presented to Council today.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 - approximately 9:00am - 10:30am (1 1/2 hours AT HOME); 12:30pm - 6:30pm (AT LANGLEY CAMPUS) - This morning I finalized work on a proposal regarding a summary of motions moved in December 2007 (attached). I carpooled Richmond Representative Vanessa Knight from Richmond campus to Langley, picking her up around 11:45am. During the Council meeting, I completed pulling out all the individual pdf documents for minutes and agendas from 1993 and began to upload 1993 agendas and minutes to the website:

May 19, 1993 Minutes: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2070.pdf
May 11, 1993 Minutes: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2069.pdf
May 5, 1993 Minutes: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2068.pdf
May 5, 1993 Agenda: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2067.pdf
March 22, 1993 Minutes: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2066.pdf
March 3, 1993 Minutes: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2064.pdf
February 24, 1993 Agenda: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2064.pdf
January 16, 1993 Minutes: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2061.pdf
January 15, 1993 Agenda: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2058.pdf
January 15, 1993 Minutes: http://kusa.ca/files/pdf/2059.pdf

- Steve

[steveleenow]

Sorry for the long time that has passed since my last post. I did leave for vacation on June 24, but I am still working on a number of things while I cruise around northern Europe.

Attached is a report I just submitted for next week's Council meeting.

In the days to come - we are at sea - and I will be making a few posts to the finance committee sections of these boards asking for your input on a number of items that are due for consideration.

Cheers from Sweden,

- Steve

[steveleenow]

I just submitted to Catherine Wilkinson, the Commercial Services Manager - a member services planning tool regarding the addition of movie theatre tickets from Empire Theatres and Cinemark Tinseltown... this was based on a motion I had submitted for consideration by the executive in December 2007 (attached), but it was unfortunately not discussed as Laura (the chairperson at the time), forgot to add it to the agenda for that meeting (I had submitted a lot to that meeting - so it is understandable that it got missed).

- Steve

[steveleenow]

Another item that got missed was a motion to start a long term plan for how member services could be expanded and built upon each semester in the future. Alongside the movie tickets information I sent to Catherine, I also submitted this motion - although I am sure she is already working on this kind of a long term plan for our member services.

Finally, you will find attached in the same document a motion that was carried to start up a gift cards program - which is being worked on.

Obviously, doing any of this will require us to do better advertising this fall of all our member services and you will see future posts here with plans to address just that.

- Steve

[steveleenow]

Here is an update on the hours I have worked since my last post that summarized the hours I have worked...

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 - approximately 2:00pm - 6:30pm (~4 1/2 hours) - met with the KSA legal counsel to write a letter to the RCMP asking them to investigate the May 2005 - October 31, 2006 time period in the KSA when Aaron Takhar and the "RAF Party" was in power.

June 18, 2008 - approximately 9:00pm - 11:00pm (~2 hours) - wrote and sent an e-mail to my fellow executive regarding concerns I had with the executive board and the work we are doing. Sent an e-mail to Deep regarding the layout of the documents and meetings page based on feedback received from a user of the site.

Thursday, June 19, 2008 - 9:00am - 11:00 am (~2 hours) - replied to a number of e-mails - some were in response to responses received on the e-mail I had sent the night before regarding my concerns with the work of the executive. Later that night, from about 11:00pm - Midnight, I responded to more replies regarding the same e-mail.

Friday, June 20, 2008 - 10:00am - 3:00pm (~5 hours) - worked with our lawyer on going through our statement of claim that will be filed as part of our civil suit against those directors who purportedly abused the power given to them by the students from May 2005 until October 31, 2006. We went through the document very carefully - page by page. During the meeting, I remember sending and receiving a number of text messages related to KSA stuff.

Monday, June 23, 2008 - 4:30pm - 5:00pm (~30 Minutes) - signed the documents related to incorporating the new POLYTECHNIC INK PUBLICATION SOCIETY. Did a bit of cleanup at my desk in preparation for my going away. Said goodbye to people







NOTE... the times laid out below seem weird as they are very early in the day, but it's based on e-mails sent over the past few days. Right now, I am sailing across Northern Europe, where right now for me it is 7:30pm - but for Vancouver people it's 10:30am. E-mails and my laptop are all still on pacific time, so the recording of time in my work blog here is also in pacific time.


Wednesday, June 25, 2008 - 5:00am - 6:00am (~1 hour from Copenhagen Denmark!) - sent the letter to the RCMP from my personal e-mail address and forwarded said e-mail to the KSA Council. I was unable to attach it to my KUSA e-mail address and I sent an e-mail to Deep about that trouble. Corresponded with legal counsel via e-mail over a number of other items.

Friday, June 27, 2008 - approximately 7:00pm - 8:00pm (~1 hour at Sea in Northern Europe) - replied to an e-mail received from the RCMP - asked for clarification on advice received. Forwarded information to Desmond and David and updated Council on said information.

Tuesday, July 2, 2008 - approximately 6:30am - 7:00am (~30 min) and 9:30am - 10:00am (~30min) - received new information and forwarded to legal counsel information from the RCMP. Updated Council on said information. More correspondence with legal counsel on how to proceed with RCMP stuff.

Wednesday, July 3, 2008 - approximately 11:00pm - Midnight (~1 hour) - received and replied to e-mails regarding publication society; replied to e-mails sent by General Manager regarding hiring of Nathan Pink as a temporary fill-in for myself while I am on vacation; e-mailed Deep about improving / upgrading the conference room features in the KSA meeting room.

Thursday, July 4, 2008 - approximately 4:00am - 7:00am (~3 hours) - wrote and sent finance report for next week's Council meeting. Updated blog and attached report to blog. E-mailed Nathan Pink and introduced myself to him, asked him to cc me on any work related e-mails he sends to people in KSA.

Thursday, July 4, 2008 - approximately 8:00am - 10:30am (~2 1/2 hours) - updated and sent information regarding expanding member services and updated blog about said proposals. Searched for information related to December 2007 motions so that the executive can finalize and release money for said items when I return from vacation.



That's all for now. Later today I'm going to post a number of discussion items to the Finance Committee section of the forums as related to a number of topics including but not limited to a first draft of regulation changes and an update to the proposed new budget format.

- Steve

[steveleenow]

Saturday, July 5, 2008 - approximately 2:30am - 3:30am (~1 Hour in Kokkola, Finland) - I received an e-mail from Catherine saying she needed more information regarding the member services planning tool I had sent her and to call her. However, I am unable to call her as I'm in Europe - so I took a closer look at the planning tool I had submitted, and added more detail to it, including:

• Links to where the tickets can be ordered from each company;
• A draft of the costs associated with a first buy for each recommended set of tickets;
• A draft of the profit we should make on a first  sell for each recommended set of tickets;  and
• More information on the benefits  to students (although some of that was listed in the original attached document I sent).

I've attached the revised tool for your information.

Cheers,

- Steve

[steveleenow]

Saturday, July 5, 2008 - approximately 6:30am - 10:00am (~3 1/2 hours) - I used this time to sort KSA files on my hard drive. I had done this before but with all the scanning I had been doing lately - a lot had been piled into a "to be sorted" file. I got about 60% of the files sorted into proper folders so that I can more easily access stuff as I finish some of the marketing reports I've been working on. A lot of what I had scanned was going to be used as secondary research informing those reports and now I can input that information.

Saturday, July 5, 2008 - approximately 9:30pm - 10:00pm (~30 min) - I checked my e-mail and replied to a few e-mails I had received. Our legal counsel is going to finalize questions we have into a memo regarding the 2006 and 2007 post audit memorandums so that I can forward that to our auditors with an aim to having those documents public as soon as possible. I also heard back from Catherine who noted the KSA will be receiving marketing materials from the Arts Club and the Vancouver Art Gallery to advertise the student discounts they offer (something I've wanted the KSA to do for years now). She had not thought about advertising the film and writers festivals that are coming up this fall and asked if I could look into that, which I will. Finally, she noted they had been looking into Empire Theatres but had not considered Cinemark. And - I wrote this blog post.

I'm on my way out now to tour Vaasa, Finland. Later this afternoon I'll post some more stuff to the appropriate Finance Committee sections of these forums, which I noted I would be doing before the next Council meeting which is this Tuesday.

Cheers from cloudy Finland,

- Steve

[steveleenow]

Again - it's been awhile since I posted! I got back last Tuesday evening to a case of some serious jet leg --- I've never really experienced it before --- I guess it is all a part of getting older. Further compounding the jet leg was seeing the 12:15am screening of The Dark Knight with my girlfriend, her Mother and former Concerned Students Johnny Woo & Christine McLellan who I have not seen in a long time. I got home around 4 or 5 am that morning, and slept most of the day.

Most of my Saturday and Sunday were lost to another bad allergy attack - I hate those things - but I was able to upload a lot of photos of my vacation and also start my hunt for an apartment or basement suite in Surrey, as I would like to move there in August, to be closer to the school as I continue my work at the KSA and my fine art studies. With the price of gas and the two hours or so that i loose each trip to Surrey, commuting is becoming a pain I'd like to put in the past.

------------------------

In getting back to the swing of things, I did some KSA work last night and more today - here is a recap:

Sunday, July 20, 2008 - approximately 7pm - 11pm (~3 hours) - I began the task of going through these 3.5" floppy discs that were found and accumulated across different desks when we took over the KSA in November 2006. Most of the stuff is very old but I have found a few discs used by RAFites and some had some interesting files on them - such as two discs that belonged to Danish Butt with the original electronic copies of the Gallivan referendum questions from early 2006. I also found a lot of old minutes and agendas for various bodies, which I've sorted to the appropriate file folder within the collection of agendas / minutes that I have been building and putting online. Specifically, I went through 27 discs last night, 4 of which were from Danish, 1 of which was from Harvey Mann who served as the VP External for a short time in 2006 and another of which was from the minutes taker in 2005 - it contained two draft sets of minutes that I believe we previously did not have.

Monday, July 30, 2008 - approximately 9am - 12:30pm (~3 1/2 hours) - I sent a number of e-mails related to a number of things - the most important being an e-mail to our legal counsel asking for an update on a few things. He will have to me this week a memo regarding questions the KSA has about the 2006 and 2007 post audit memorandums, so that I can send that to the auditors for their response. Once that is done we will be able to release the memorandums for all to see. I also did a bit more work on the draft regulation amendments concerning our budgeting and financial procedures and posted said draft to a new FINANCE COMMITTEE section for this topic on these forums. I also posted draft revisions to the renumeration section of the regulations to the appropriate section on the FINANCE COMMITTEE forum. I also sent our Financial Controller some questions related to those sections and await his feedback. Finally, I updated my blog!

I'm going to break now for a short bite to eat but will be working more from home this afternoon. Some of the things on my to-do list for this afternoon are:

- Set times for upcoming finance committee meetings in July / August, 2008 and post an agenda for next meeting;
- Post my work hours for July / August, 2008;
- Post a summary for discussion of the state of our awards & bursaries - in January 2008 Council asked the Finance Committee to examine whether or not to endow the ones created by RAF during the time the court appointed interim board of directors was in place back in September 2006;
- Post an updated draft of the new budget format;
- Post the draft of the examination of fees at other schools;
- Review and examine the state of directives issued to Director of Finance and those issued to others as related to my portfolio; and
- Finalize a to-do list of other things that I need to complete in the weeks ahead.

I'm sticking close to home today because my Mom is not feeling too hot - the jet leg has had a worse affect on her and she's been having some heart pains since we got back.

- Steve

PS. For those interested in my vacation pics / videos, here are the relevant links:

- Days 1 - 4 (arrival on cruise ship, time in Tallinn, Estonia): http://flickr.com/photos/steveleenow/sets/72157605826156549/
- Day 5 (Day 1 in St. Petersburg): http://flickr.com/photos/steveleenow/sets/72157606211706967/
- Day 6 (Day 2 in St. Petersburg - includes trip to Hermitage): http://flickr.com/photos/steveleenow/sets/72157606278068094/

[steveleenow]

Monday, July 21, 2008 - approximately 1:30pm - 4:00pm (~2 1/2 hours): I updated a few of the forums with ideas I got over lunch... I got further feedback from the lawyer regarding statement of claim and the memorandum to the auditors. I replied to a few other e-mails I had received. I heard back from Rolando who noted he would get me a quarterly budget update for July ready for distribution to Council tomorrow (although, as per the regs - this is technically the responsibility of the GM). I sent out my office hours from now until end of August and I also revised and sent out e-copy of an old form we might use in the office to know what each other's office hours are. I setup dates for the next four finance committee meetings. I notified council of my hours, finance committee dates and updated discussion topics on the finance committee sections of these forums. I started the agenda for Friday's finance committee meeting. Finally, I invited a few students to apply to be part of the President's Ambassadorial Team:

http://www.kwantlen.ca/president/pat.html

And I took 5 minutes to register for my fall courses!

More work and updates to come...

- S

[steveleenow]

Monday, July 21, 2008 - approximately 6:00pm - 9:00pm (~ 3 hours) - I completed a review of the awards and bursaries and posted summary of that review to a new Finance Committee discussion section of these forums for discussion. Last year, I felt that some areas were over-represented while other areas were under-represented by our current offerings --- one of the proposals posted here looks to cure that for the 2008-09 school year. The other proposal asks Council to allocate all funds collected from the bursary fund in 2008 towards endowing the awards created in September 2006. I also forwarded the latest draft of the statement of claim (which is privileged and confidential) to my fellow executive and asked for direction on how we should proceed with it. I also posted to the KSA Calendar, the dates and times of my upcoming Finance Committee meetings, which I set earlier today (and for good measure, I posted the upcoming Events & Communications Committee meeting which is taking place next week (as per an e-mail Trevor Loke sent out about 6 hours ago).

- S

PS. I wish more executive were supportive of maintaining work blogs online... Trevor was for awhile which is great and I hope he continues... and it's been great to see Ashley and other staff post to the forums from time to time... but trying to get other executive and elected officials interested in the idea is well, as easy as getting the CFS to post their meeting minutes online.

[steveleenow]

Monday, July 21, 2008 - approximately 9:30pm - 1:15am (~3 hours and 45 minutes) - I did more work on the Finance Committee agenda for this week and I did up a summary of the directives that have been issued by various bodies for me to complete with an eye to laying out what has been done on said directives and creating a revised time line to ensure the directives are completed. I also did a tally of 2008 council meetings that I attended and provided written reports to, as well as a tally of 2008 executive board meetings I have attended. I cross-referenced this tally with e-mails sent regarding meetings I had missed - all mainly missed due to medical issues / illness for which I have verifiable medical notes. This is in response to concerns the executive has with my performance.

Ultimately, I know that my performance has not been perfect, but I have not created excuses out of thin air. I feel my performance improved before I left on holiday and I continued working while I was on holiday and it will continue to be good now that I am back.

So I sent that information as compiled to my fellow executive for their consideration, along with copy of all the related medical notes. I've posted that compilation as an attachment to this post, but I am unable to attach the medical notes as the PDF for them is just too big.

I will post more as I work tomorrow (or later today - it's now Tuesday)!

- S