For the past 4 years the CSSS has been a source of friendship and wisdom for me, and thanks to the efforts of past presidents we've flourished into a strong and successful community. It would be my honour to continue those efforts, and if elected here are some plans I have for the coming year.


Hack time failed: let's think about why and do something better. I want to reach out to you to get your take, but this is my tentative idea. I see two problems with hack time as it was implemented. First, it was unstructured, so the benefits were restricted to camaraderie, silence and hardware access. Second, it was at specific times and places without marketing. As a result, basically everybody who showed up was from the common room which means they probably don't have demand for camaraderie or silence. Since it's at specific times, they have very limited time with hardware. Finally, the lack of structure just bores a lot of people.


What I propose is to have a hardware checkout system so you can play with the hardware whenever you like, and structured technical workshops. Classes don't teach a lot of important skills for the software development roles most CS students are after:

• git, CI/CD
• VMs/containers
• Linux/server administration

The thing is that a lot of students may not even know they need to know these things. We've had git and Linux workshops in the past, so this is doable.

Speaking of jobs, we never have networking events! The earlier students can engage with the jobs available in the lower mainland, the better they'll be able to prepare themselves for the market. Nothing sucks more than looking for co-op and realizing you don't have what businesses are looking for. I have some industry connections, and I plan on making more, so I can hopefully organize tours of offices and socials at SFU.


Finally, I also want to explore ways of documenting the knowledge and advice that floats around the common room so that CS students can refer to it. The CSSS site is underutilized, and that's a shame.


Thanks for your consideration!

Hello everyone,
My name is Paul Allan and I'm a 4th-year computing science student. I've been very involved in the Computing Science Student Society, having recently served as Treasurer and Director of Resources, and I'm putting my name forward to be the Vice-President of the CSSS. I believe that I am a good candidate for this position because I have experience across many of the executive roles in the CSSS, and other leadership roles, such as chair for Frosh Week 2016 and this year's upcoming Frosh Week.
My immediate goals are to update and finalize our constitution, along with our policies documents. Our current constitution is out of date and requires a rewrite of several operational policies to reflect a more active CSSS. I would like to lead the organizational committee that would rewrite these documents. I will also work alongside the Silicon Valley 2018 organizational committee to ensure all the planning and grants for their trip are taken care of.
My long term goals are to promote more networking events and workshops for computing science students. The CSSS has a fairly large budget that would allow either student-lead or industry-lead presentations and workshops to be offered at a regular basis, which would allow students to learn more about the field they are getting into. I would also like to organize more events with the various Department Student Unions in Applied Sciences and other faculties, such as the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Sciences. I would also like to organize events with the UBC CSSS, as many of our members are interested in getting to know students from another school.
I hope to work with you all and promise to put my best foot forward at all times.
Sincerely,
Paul Allan

Hi Everyone!


I'm Trevor Gale and I'm running for the position of Vice President. During the fall of 2016 and spring of 2017 I was the CSSS Director of Archives. Now, I hope to extend the grand tradition of previous DoAs becoming Vice President.


I think I'd be a great candidate for this position because:

• I promise to fulfill all requirements of this position including chairing meetings; interacting with members and non-members alike; coordinating volunteers and all other official duties
• I have a proven track record of attending meetings
• I will continue to make the CSSS and common room an open and accepting place
• I pledge to be open to discussion and suggestions on discord or in person for changes which the CSSS can make

Thanks Everyone!

Hi, I'm Vijender Bakhshi (VJ) and I'm running for Treasurer of the CSSS. If elected I promise to attend every meeting and to keep a detailed record of our financials._{Unvy Ulqen}!

Hello everyone, my name is Eric Gao and I am currently the CSSS Director of Archives. For this coming election I’d like to be your new Director of Resources.


As DoR I would ensure that the quality as well as quantity of supplies for the common room remains well stocked. Not only would there be Fanta and Sprite in the mystery column but a larger variety of pops including the rare and very sought-after Coke!


I would also continue our current DoR Paul’s renovations to the common room while keeping an open ear out to any requests or complaints of our CR community. To follow up with listening to our community, I would start an online feedback box to gather people’s ideas and comments.


I strive to be as friendly as possible to all those in our community and listen to all those who have something to say. From Ryan to Oscar I promise to always put some thought into serious ideas that are brought to me as well as pushing forward ideas I believe will help benefit the common room.


Now those of you who don’t know me may ask, who is this Eric guy? And why does he think he deserves to be our DoR? Well between being our current DoA and our past Exec at large and the Treasurer for SFU’s Canadian Cancer Society, I have a lot of experience navigating the bureaucracy of the SFSS and engaging with a variety of community members.


Thank you for taking your time to read this and good luck to all those who are running.

Hi everyone!


My name is Truman and I am running for Director of Resources. As many of you may know, I regularly frequent the Coca Cola machine-- and it may feel I care about the coke machine more than my health! Though this is not completely true, it is true I love the CSSS--it's practically a second home to me. And though I am new, I plan to do everything I can to keep the common room, and all CSSS resources as great as it's ever been!


I am currently a second year student, trying to transfer towards a bachelors in Computing Science and though I don't have confidence in my abilities, many people believe in me and hope for me to do my best. As such, it's my personal obligation to work hard beyond their expectations. Besides things that I do as a member (such as cleaning the room, tables cups, and whiteboards), I wish to maintain the Coca Cola Vending Machine and Exam bank. I am keen in researching new, available soft drinks to add to the mystery column and rearranging the column such that you will not repeat a brand more than 2 consecutive times. I also want to see if I can find more exams from the student body and encourage exam donations. I'd love to work with all of you towards keeping the CSSS a safe fun space for all Computing Science students!


Thank you,


Truman Bui

Hello CSSS,
For those who don't know me, I'm a second year CS major who tends to spend a lot of time around the common room. If you've been involved in the common room community some time in the past 2-ish years, there's a good chance you've met me. And during that time, I've done a lot for the society. My first semester I was Exec At Large, and since then I've put a lot of effort into helping our community.
Through this pursuit, I've become quite skilled at planning and running events. As President of the SFU Game Developer's Club, I've organized all our events for the past 1.5 years. And through the club, I've worked with the UBC and BCIT game development clubs to found BUS, an organization we use to promote student game development in the lower mainland. The cornerstone of this organization is the BC Game Jam, an annual event we started in 2017. The event drew 200 attendees this year and had a budget of over $10,000.

What I've done in the past

• A Lead Organizer for the BC Game Jam 2017 and 2018.
• Co-Founder of BUS Game Development Society, which promotes student game development in the lower mainland.
• An Organizer for the CSSS Mountain Madness Hackathon 2018.
• Co-Chair for CSSS Frosh Week 2017.
• Co-Organizer for Button Smasher's 2017, a charity gameathon raising over $750 for Child's Play.
• President of the SFU Game Developer's Club since November 2016.

What I will do as Director of Events

• Create the Events Committee we deserve. It will be a place where those interested in running events or becoming more involved can come and participate in our community.
• Attempt to finally turn the concept of HackTime into a regular event. This will be done by working with those who've previously attempted the task to see what's gone well and what's not.
• Bring about the inaugural Spring Frosh. This idea has been thrown around for a while, but I plan to finally bring it to fruition.
• Formally institutionalize the yearly CSSS hackathon as the annual Mountain Madness hackathon. This will help create a stronger identity for the event and allow us to make it better in the future.
• **And of course, continue the traditional CSSS Board Games Night.

The society has done a lot for me and I've done a lot for it. I hope to continue to help the society be it's best as your Director of Events for 2018 - 2019.

• Oscar

Haiyo,


I was your Director of Events last summer.


My priorities for this position will be to hold more seasonal events for members of the CSSS. More free food and social events.


Boardgames Night will be continued on a bi-weekly basis, and I will create more diverse food options than just pizza.


I will also be looking into organizing a hackathon for the Fall, and possibly smaller hack-based events for the Summer.


Thanks for your time,


Brendan

Hi all,


My name is Paymon Jalali, and I want to be your Director of Communications! I have been at SFU since 2015, and have been involved with the CSSS since day one either as just another member, a frosh leader, or as the CSSS Elections Officer. As the title mentions, the role of the Director of Communications revolves around handling communication between the members the CSSS, graduate students, and alumni along with performing public relations for the CSSS from promoting events to managing social media accounts in order to promote itself and expand its membership. Along with performing these tasks, I have several ideas I would like to implement as part of my platform to better serve the CSSS and its members:

CSSS Website

The first result on Google when you search for 'SFU CSSS' is our website, sfucsss.org. It's a good website with a lot of cool info, but it could be better. If elected, I want to revamp the CSSS website by updating or getting rid of dead pages, adding cool new information and guides, along with further integrating the website with the already existing CSSS social media platforms (facebook, Twitter, and Discord). This awesome student society deserves an awesome website.

Contact Form

As of now, I feel that it is too difficult for a CSSS member to contact an executive. If elected, I will implement a contact form, most likely on the CSSS website, in which members can contact executives with ease. With the contact form implemented, members can send questions, comments, and concerns to the appropriate person without any hassle.

Discord

Since its launch in 2016, the CSSS Discord server has become a staple within the CSSS community and has accumulated over 800 users! As of now, the Discord server is the go-to place to talk to fellow CSSS members about anything, and it is here to stay; however, I want to know what more you want out of it - which is where you come in. If elected, I will hold a meeting before the start of the next semester (most likely on Discord) to discuss the future of the server, and what changes you want made. I want the CSSS Discord server to serve the CSSS members in the best way possible, and I need your help in doing so.

tl;dr - I want to serve you, the CSSS member. If you have any questions regarding my platform or just want to chat, give me a shout at pjalali@sfu.ca or in person at the CSSS common room.


Respectfully yours,


Paymon Jalali

I am Dusan Kovacevic, a first year, and I am running for Director of Archives. My previous experience that would aid me in completing my duties as DOA would be my time as an executive for my high school's Red Cross Club and president of the Chess Club. When I was an executive I had to write reports of our meetings and keep our membership records up to date, and as president of the Chess Club I had to also report membership and create reports for our executives and record notes. I think I am experienced and would be a responsible choice for the DOA, with previous experience planning meetings and recording the contents of them.


Thank you for taking the time to read this,


Dusan Kovacevic