Special Projects

My name is Matthew Ciuros and I am the director for Special Projects 2010-2011. I have been very privileged to serve the 2010-2011 term and have had the opportunity to see Special Project’s events make an impact amongst the Auburn community. My assistant directors, Erica Martin and Kaitie Gallahue, and I have delved into planning through the whole year. We set standards and responsibilities for our committee and tried to make sure that our committee members were working efficiently. We would like to encourage and welcome people to interview for the opportunity to serve for Special Projects.

As council members, we set deadlines for when things need to get done. We make a list of possible events and then  call representatives/ agents from outside resources to discuss costs, availability, and expectations for events. With these details we are able to narrow down the list of possible events and formulate the final list of events for UPC’s Special Projects.

After we know which events we are going to coordinate, we had to budget the events efficiently. After we meet the deadline for assembling a complete budget for the events, we had to be ready to coordinate the actual planning details. These deadlines for event preparation extend from April to the very last week. We have recognized that the opportunity of being selected as the leaders for our program, Special Projects, is demanding, however, we have enjoyed and been grateful for the opportunity to help foster the ideals creativity and imagination to the Auburn Community.

War Eagle!

Matt Ciuros, Director Special Projects

 

Speakers And Comedians

I meet with a graduate assistant and president once a week and discuss our goals for the coming week. I also meet with my committee members once a week and we also work on our goals. We are responsible for booking artists, which requires pricing, contacting the agents, filling out paper working involving event information and technical productions. On the day of events, I am in charge of coordinating arrival artists, announcing them at the event, crowd control, and making sure the event is an overall success.

Miranda Dollarhide, Director of Speaker and Comedians.

Volunteers

I am the Volunteers Director for UPC and my responsibilities are to plan block party during welcome week, work on the committee member application, set up the committee member interviews and choose the committee members for the upcoming year, we plan the committee member retreat and keep committee member retention. Obviously, you can see a pattern, my main responsibility is the committee members. Here is a little more detail on my responsibilities:

Block party is a great way to publicize UPC and get upcoming freshman and current students involved with UPC. We have member applications set out during this event as well during other events. Once we have all the applications, my assistants and I set up the schedule for interviews. After the interview process, we carefully select the members for each committee. Now we plan the committee retreat. It is a day long retreat and it has to be scheduled with team building exercises and fun activities. Once all of this is over, it is up to the director of each committee to keep their members in the loop. I then plan fun dinners and activities for the committee members and council to keep retention.

Sarah Early, Director of Volunteers

Public Relations

Public relations is a support committee that does a lot of behind the scenes work. We are responsible for putting the weekly announcements in this week @ AU as well as the plainsman. We make a monthly newsletter and are in charge of this blog. One of the things PR is more known for is hospitality. We set up green rooms for all the artists we bring in and make sure they have everything they need. As a director you have weekly meetings with the UPC president and adviser as well as the weekly council meeting on Monday. Public Relations isn’t as well recognized as other committees, but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Alex Le, Director of Public Relations

Fine Arts

As fine arts director, I am in charge of overseeing the planning of events such as open mic night, dinner and dancing, arts and crafts day, painting on the plains, and various other events. As director, I am responsible for committee emails, planning the meetings, and given responsibilities to each assistant director. Also, as the director, you make decisions about ordering decorations, planning catering, and making sure every small detail of your event runs smoothly.

Glendinning Johnston, Director of Fine Arts

Tiger Nights

I am responsible for planning Auburn’s late-night programming event known as Tiger Nights. This event normally happens once per semester and features inflatable games, a main stage entertainment, and free food. Since this is such a large event logistics and planning starts a semester beforehand, as director you are in charge of delegating tasks to your assistants and getting committee involved.

-Anne Smead, Director of Tiger Nights

Films

As UPC Films Director, my assistant directors and I are in charge of planning and organizing the various film events that we have for Auburn students. While these duties can vary depending on the type of event, there are some basic things that we have to do for all events. First of all we decide what we want to show. We decide this based on what movies are popular or what we think that students would like to see. Then we determine what kind of event it will be. Sometimes we simply play the movies in the Haley Center, sometimes we have outdoor movies, and sometimes we do special events like Dinner and a Movie or a Drive-In movie. Then we organize everything to make sure that the event will go as smoothly as possible. This can include buying decorations, arranging for catering, reserving rooms for the films to be shown etc. As the event draws nearer we collaborate with Publicity to make sure that students are hearing about the event. Once the actual event arrives we make sure everything runs smoothly with our committee, ensuring that all our planning has paid off. Those are the basic duties of the UPC Films Director and it has been a great experience learning how to tackle these duties.

-Wilson Smith, Director of Films

Publicity

Publicity for the University Program Council is everything that you would expect it to be and more.  We get to design all of the posters, which is really cool since everyone on campus sees them.  Plus Publicity handles all of the Tiger Transit and Athletic Event announcements and those are fun to do.  We also create the handbills given out on the concourse for all of the events and the window painting at Foy.  I like Publicity because it gives me, my assistant directors, and my committee members a chance to create things that the entire campus experiences.  I also like Publicity because we deal with all of the events for UPC, which keeps things interesting and dynamic.  There is never a dull moment in Publicity, and that is exactly why I like it.

-Carter Hawkins, Director of Publicity

Tiger Nights – Winter Wonderland

This semester the Tiger Nights Committee has been working hard on our upcoming Winter Wonderland themed event, which will be on Friday, February 18 from 7pm to midnight in the Auburn University Student Center. At this event we are trying to bring in a lot of new vendors with new novelties and attractions. In doing this we have to be in communication with multiple companies to work on getting contracts between them and the university. Some new things you can be looking for: an ice skating rink, make your own snow globe, a mentalist, a dj with a dance contest, a human sized snow globe you can get your picture taken in, and many other attractions.

This upcoming week we are working on different publicity items to get the word out. Our committee is making table tents for tables in the Student Center, Foy Dinning, and the Village Dinning. We are having banners, yard signs, posters, and fliers made and we will be putting them up around campus. This week will be extremely busy with all the final plans for the event coming together.

Anne Smead
Tiger Nights Director

Films

Planning an event for UPC Films isn’t too complicated, although it does take lots of planning and creativity. First my assistants and I have to choose what film we want to show. This has to be done in advance so that we can plan our calendar dates. When selecting a film we look at what films students have enjoyed in the past and then try to determine what upcoming films we think they would enjoy seeing. We then decide what kind of event we would like to hold for that particular film. In the past we have had Double Features, Drive In Movies, Stadium Movies and other varieties of events. Once we have a general idea of the event in place we get down to the specifics of making it happen. This entails reserving rooms to show the films, contacting the company that provides our films, working with publicity to advertise the event, and coming up with decorations and any other details that need to be worked out in order for the film to be a success. All the while our committee helps us to plan and execute whatever it takes to ensure everything runs smoothly.

 

Before you know it the day has arrived and it’s time for the event itself. This is where the planning really helps out, because if everything has been planned well enough then the event will definitely run more smoothly. We as a committee get to the location of the film early and ensure that everything is in place. If the room needs to be decorated or tables need to be set up then we take care of that. While the film is playing we make sure everything is still running smoothly and that nothing is out-of-place or going wrong. One the film is over and all the students have left we simply clean up after them and make sure we take down whatever decorations we have set up beforehand. We have had great feedback on films in the past and we are glad to provide quality events for Auburn’s students. We’re looking forward to our future UPC Films events and we hope that you are too!

 

-Wilson Smith

UPC Films Director