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
  • Jim and Laurie participated in an ATP business planning with CORDA, park and department staff. This will support the new ACAI building program.
  • Laurie Met with process engineer, Ascenta Health Ltd., to discuss ACAI building and things to consider in planning pilot plant and lab space; also spoke to executive director of Bio-Processing Plant at Innovation Place in Saskatoon and plant manager at POS Pilot Plant in Saskatoon
  • Laurie worked with Gerald Post(NSDA) and Deborah Porter(TIR) on room data sheet details for the new building
  • Laurie developed a job description for Atlantic BioVenture Centre (science coordinator) and one for Executive Director, ACAI
• External Relations
  •  Development & External Relations unit appears in Club of Truro Annual Advertizing Magazine
  • Jim worked with Dr. MacDonald on the review of tenders for a new hybrid car for administration.
  • Jim attended the annual NSIA meet the grads night at the Glengarry.  This is a good opportunity to visit with future alumni as well as interact with older alumni and potential donors.
  • Jim attended the first day of a three day Risk Management Planning seminar at NSAC.  This comprehensive assessment process was sponsored by the Federal and provincial Governments and may result in research work at NSAC.
• Marketing
  • Development team attended the Come to Life launch of Canada's University Capital campaign in Halifax. Also in attendance were four NSAC staff/faculty and eight students.
  • Jenna and Sarah attend Sustainability committee meetings. Sustainability pledge online is now active, giving participants the option of receiving a personalized calendar printed at the print centre. Eco-house project spearheaded by Engineering is moving forward; wind turbine project of K. Corscadden pending funding approval.
  • Re-initiated research project for CFAVM and Academica Group;
  • Consulted on speakers for Atlantic Agricultural Forum;
  • Provided briefing document to Recruitment on findings of competitive intelligence research on applicants, specific to prospective student attraction print material;
  • Attended first meeting of Strategic Enrollment Planning Committee (SEP);
  • Adjusted media buys related to social media growth;
  • Consulted on the communciations issues related to the transition of AgraPoint to a closer relationship with NSAC;
  • Completed and began implementation of Facebook promotion plan;
  • Completed design of NSAC calendar for Sustainability Committee and Recruitment;
  • Began work on development of value propositions for the institution.
• Communications and Alumni
  • Jim and Jenna attended a switchboard meeting to discuss the new switchboard tree. Jenna booked training with Aliant to implement new switchboard menu.
• 93 Found/changed alumni records this month
• Jim, Alisha and Jenna worked on materials for the Alumni/Foundation Director’s meeting.  The meeting was postponed due to weather concerns
• Winter edition of Agricola News was mailed. So far, lots of positive feedback has been received.
• Alumni Facebook Group was converted to the official Fan Page.
• Attended Career Fair and met with a number of alumni.
• Began participating in FarmVille as a means to engage and interact with alumni
• Development and Fund Raising
  • Jim and Dick Huggard visited with Carol Versteeg to go over a list of potential major donors.  There were several calls to those some of our larger donors.
  • Jim, Alisha and Jenna worked to prepare for a winter fundraising campaigns. There will be e-mall, phone and Social media elements to the campaign.
  • Alisha and Jim attended the CCAE workshop on Leadership in Halifax.  This was an opportunity to interact with other professionals in the are of University Advancement.

• Website
  • Digital displays were mounted and activated in Jenkins Hall and the Athletic Centre.
  • The embraceyourworld.ca site is continuously being spammed and Mike is implementing some anti-spam features.
  • The new webserver is up and running. Mike is slowly transferring our hosted sites over to the new system to ensure the sites will work once transferred. Agritechpark is currently hosted on the new system and the OACC should be live in February.
  • The new webserver has
  • Software was purchased for the new webserver. Updated stats reporting and the newest version of Coldfusion Server were installed.
  • A database of NSAC phone contacts was created. Mike will integrate the database into an online searchable form.
  • The sustainability pledge form was completed this month.