Hello, everyone! Below are the candidates’ platforms for The Peak‘s Editor-in-Chief election for the 2016/17 year.
Audio files:
Listen to Tamara Connor’s speech HERE
Listen to Max Hill’s speech HERE
Questions and Answer period for both candidates HERE
Platforms:
TAMARA CONNOR:
A bit about me:
- Contributor since Spring 2014
- Collective Rep on the board of directors since July 2015
- Features editor since January 2016
- Lots of experience in leadership roles
- Driven, ambitious, and has an undying love for this paper
Beliefs:
- The Peak is a great paper, that doesn’t mean it can’t be better.
- Everyone involved with The Peak is passionate and talented
- The EIC should be a leader, not a boss
- Ultimately the section editors and the contributors are the most important parts of this paper, the EIC needs to serve them well
Commitments:
- Web:
- Doing a massive design change on the website
- Increase web security (this has been a big issue in the past, and with respect to my web-first attitude, having better security is super important)
- Explore new plug-ins on WordPress to diversify content and make pieces more engaging
- Add 2 new editorial positions that are both only concerned with web-only content
- Have a vision meeting with the Multimedia team to talk about how to make the section as strong as possible
- Add a photo section to web where the photo editor can create online galleries for his/her photos
- Contributor integration
- Continue to address exclusivity in the office
- Bring contributors into the editing process
- Encourage more contributors to participate in the post-mort meetings
- Take risks
- Change up the layout, the logo, page 3, EVs…
- Brainstorming new ways of going about deciding the story going on cover
- Since cover has been an ongoing issue, I’d like to see us try some new way of pitching cover that doesn’t exclude contributors but that gives Photos/Production enough time to plan it
- Print
- Look into getting more stands around campus
- Smaller papers, more diverse layout
- Make inter-office communication a priority
- Making sure illustrators understand what we need them to produce
- Giving strong concept to Photos/Production but letting them have some creative freedom
- Keeping contributors in the loop
- Making sure all editors are on the same page
- Dedicating small amounts of time to talk about vision/concerns/questions on a weekly basis
Vision:
- Smaller print papers that have more engaging layouts
- More outreach to other group on campus, work in tandem with them on events
- Grow our social media game
- Create interesting, hard-hitting, SFU-centric content
My obstacles to overcome:
- Learn to forgive myself for small mistakes
- Trust my coworkers more
- Learn more about HTML
- Learn more about what it means to lead a newsroom
Fun fact about me:
- I enjoy investigating fan/conspiracy theories about obscure and forgotten television programs (also the Denver airport).
_____________________________
MAX HILL:
Hey everyone! My name’s Max and I’m the current Editor-in-Chief of The Peak. I’m running for a second term in my position, and I’m really excited to continue the incredible work that we’ve been doing at the paper for the past year. For those of you who may have missed my speech on Wednesday, I wanted to provide a little more information on my platform as well as my qualifications for the role. If you have any other questions or want to get in touch with me at all, email me at [email protected]!
A bit about me
I’ve been at the paper for three years now, and I’ve worn a lot of different hats in that time. I edited the features section for a year and also served as the paper’s copy editor and proofreader for a semester each. For the past year I’ve been EIC, which has been an incredibly rewarding learning experience. Having been with The Peak for so long has given me a lot of institutional and on-the-job experience that I believe makes me the best candidate for the role. I’ve spent a lot of time both as a contributor and an editor, so I can empathize with the experience of both contributors and staff members. I also just really love what I do and look forward to working with all of you for another year.
What I want to continue
This past year has been a hugely important one for The Peak, and I think we’ve already seen a lot of signs of the changes that so many people are fighting for. We’ve become much more focused on web, and I want to continue pushing for more quick, web-friendly stories while transitioning the paper towards a focus on more investigative, analytical stories with diverse layouts and a wealth of illustration and photo content. We’ve also written more stories that address the interests of SFU students, covering campus celebrities, ongoing trends on campus, and issues affecting students directly. We’ve expanded our web and print reach, and our website just had its best year ever. We’ve had faster, more streamlined production days and had most of our staff out by midnight every night. We’ve become a lot more welcoming to contributors and made the office more comfortable for editors, which I’m really proud of. All of these are trends I hope to continue in my next term as EIC.
What I want to introduce
I also have a lot of new plans that I think can improve the paper as well as the experience of our contributors and editors. I want to build a comprehensive employee handbook with information for new editors and contributors that we can build together collaboratively. I want to find a way to involve contributors more directly with the creation of the paper and the decisions that we make, and to offer more constructive feedback. I’m hoping to work with our production team to redesign the paper and update our image (we haven’t changed our logo in over a decade — it’s time to shake things up). I want to focus more on shortening papers and maintaining a workable balance for our design team and editorial team. I want to include more opportunities for us to spend time together and discuss our hopes for the paper as well as our broader motivations and future goals. I also think we can improve our social media presence and pull examples from other papers in order to best address the interests of our readership. Other ideas include bringing in guest speakers, moving more paper stands into the UniverCity area and to Surrey, turning around news stories more quickly, introducing a bursary for graduate students, and fostering stronger inter-paper relationships.
What I want to address
As much as I’m proud of all the amazing work we’ve done in the past year, I recognize that changes need to be made. I want to foster a more open and transparent work environment where people feel comfortable voicing their opinions and concerns — this also means listening to and respecting the ideas and opinions of both our editors and our contributors. It also means making sure we treat one another with respect and compassion. I want to work on being a more calm and professional presence in the office, and to let mistakes happen so that we can learn from them. I want to be more comfortable trying new things and pushing boundaries. I want to better mediate workplace conflicts and make sure that everyone feels like they have the space and support to do their job. I want to make sure our editor and collective meetings are streamlined and that meetings only address issues that concern everyone — this means more small meetings during the week, where we can work together to plan content and resolve issues.
That’s it!
There’s a lot more that I personally want to do, and I also really look forward to hearing all of your ideas of how we can make the paper better, too. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have ideas of your own or have any questions for me. I really look forward to continuing at The Peak for another year — this really is the best job ever, and I’m lucky to be able to do something I love that gives me so much fulfilment with so many talented people.
