Development and External Relations Update

The Development and External Relations office UPDATE is a monthly summary of activities in the section and is published for your general information. If you have questions, please contact Jim Goit or call at (902) 893-7950

• AgriTECH Park
  • As part of a $4.8M AIF award to NSAC, work is underway to renovate lab space in the Fundy Building at AgriTECH Park. The AIF project, entitled “Creating New Wealth from Atlantic Bio-Resources” is being led by Atlantic BioVenture Centre which has its headquarters at AgriTECH Park.
  • The multi-year, multi-tiered R&D project is pursuing the development of innovative natural products in four niche market sectors from under-utilized Atlantic marine and land-based bio-resources. The Fundy lab will provide back up scientific support for microbiological and product development work.
• External Relations
  • Jim attended the NoveKnowledge leaders Breakfast where educaiton issues in the province was discuessed.
  • Renovations to the boardroom were completed and the system was immediately put to use.
  • Discussed were held on slight changes to the process for the Alantic Agricultrral Hall of Fame to allow shared nominations.
  • Jim attended the BioNova excellence awards event in Halifax making contacts with that sector.
• Marketing
  • Designs complete for initial International Food Business (IFB) degree including fact sheet, bookmark, website
  • Coordinating other IFB marketing material including poster and print ad
  • Coordinated with communications for Species at Risk program on campus
  • Began reviewing institutional research related to marketing
  • Continued development of long-term signage strategy
• Communications and Alumni
  • Produced feature piece for e-newsetter about NSAC’s community economic impact
  • Coordinated media relations for CCAA event
  • Produced e-newsletter for February
  • Coordinated CIDA event announcement with International Development
  • Coordinated CFI event announcement with Research Communications
  • Prepared and distributed media releases for several key events
  • Worked on convocation ’08 ceremony
  • Facilitated media requests such as CBC Island Morning interview
  • Produced annual report draft document
  • Began governance internal communications plan
  • Coordinated updating of alumni, news and events website sections
• 60 Found/changed alumni records this month
• Development and Fund Raising
  • Jim worked on a proposal to fund a development officer.
  • Jim met with several representatives of companies who support university fundraising.
  • Letters were sent out to several donors giving fund updates and proposing endowment creation.

• Website
  • New student union template is online: http://nsac.ca/su
  • We are anticipating a website re-skin within the next month or two.
  • Agritech Park website is now online with a new template: http://agritechpark.com
    
  • Online eBrochure/Viewbook software that was purchased earlier in the year is showing to be a great tool in getting paper brochures online. Currently Mike is testing it and more should be in "live" production during March.
  • Mike helped getting the new Ehtiopia Project is online at http://nsac.ca/international
  • Staff requests for training in Dreamweaver were ongoing throughout the month of February.
  • Vintage NSAC video from 1958 has been digitized and will be posted online in March.
  • NSAC is hosting the CCAA Women's Basketball National Championships. http://nsac.ca/nationals and Mike has been adding information as it comes in.