Perspectives of a First Year

Brady Warnick CCES 96 Delegate

Let's just say the 28th Congress of Canadian Engineering Students was well worth the $125 sign-up fee. I heard about this trip in my ENSC 101 class earlier, but because I thought more peo-ple were waiting in line, I completely ignored it. After Jeff was already signed up he told me that there was one remaining space (so he thought), so I called Morgan only to find that I was now the first person on the waiting list. Thankfully Kenny had to drop out and I was now on my way to Waterloo.

At that point I didn't have a lot of background knowledge on the CFES. Even after reading the entire conference package , I still had no idea what being a CCES delegate entailed _ other than sitting through a boring airplane ride. At that point there was also an element of fear, for I am a first year, and the other delegates were primarily seniors. I had heard rumors of the nasty initiation experienced by first years of other schools, so Jeff and I quickly decided that, if possible, we wouldn't mention that we were first years. In the end it turned out that we were not the only first years there and that everybody was just out to have a good time.

We all know that engineers like tradition and so near the end of the conference it was decided that a WESST delegate from each school would voluntarily shave their head. After a few days SFU was the only school remaining without a skinhead delegate. With my luck I was sure I was going to be the one _ even after proclaiming that it was too cold to go without hair in this god-forsaken minus-10 degree weather.

Before coming to the conference Jeff decided to cut his hair very short, apparently so that it would fare well under a toque. Although Jeff feels that his new hair cut is far from shaved, I didn't feel that it would be a big step to remove the remaining 5mm of hair from Jeff's head. But Jeff seemed to feel that this 5mm made all the difference in the world, and I wasn't able to pin this one on Jeff. That meant that it would have to be me. This didn't turn out to be as disastrous as I had expected, and I somehow managed to retain my hair by reinforcing my unwillingness to cooperate.

I now realize how lucky we are to be attending a civilized engineering school. Many people asked what we do for "frosh week" at SFU. I replied by telling them about first week and they were disgusted to believe that the first years were allowed to maintain so much dignity during their first week.

I'm just joking about the civilized part. The delegates of this conference are composed of some of the most enthusiastic and outgoing people in engineering across this country. The events that we participated in were all voluntary and basically just plain fun. There were hospitality suites every night hosted by many different schools throughout the nation, meaning that we had the chance to try many different 'traditional' drinks. Some of the more interesting include Newfy screech, "boat" racing, and something to do with a prairie fire and tasting a salt lick. Quite an experience.

After being kicked out of some hospitality suite, (which is about 2:30AM) the remaining partiers decided that the night was still young and that it was time for the first annual East versus West touch football game. The losing team would sing a tune at the next day's closing banquet. The field was the ally behind the hotel and within ten minutes we were frostbitten, but luckily we had 'warm' drinks to keep us active. We played for about 20 minutes before the Kitchener city police decided that we had kept the entire east wing of the hotel up long enough. At this point the game was tied, meaning that we had to resort to a coin toss in order to decide the winner of Canadian Engineering Cup.

By getting to bed only a few hours before dawn I think you can hardly blame me for missing breakfast. It was nice to sleep in, but I missed the WESST regional meeting, which included a trip to Stitches Discount Fashion Outlet. Thankfully though, Jeff was kind enough to pick out an effeminate, flowery blouse to wear to that evening's festivities. I don't know how I managed to get the smallest shirt, but I wasn't complaining as Puppy wore a petite, black leather mini-skirt. Very cute.

Since Friday was the last day of the conference, we had our plenary session. This is when we vote on motions or amend previous motions. Apparently in previous years this session was very dry. Each regional area mandated different motions that were voted on in the plenary session. I'd say that the WESST hosted the most informal regional meetings and we only came up with two motions which were: the word mandate is gender exclusive and should be changed to persondate, and that because the East can't two-step, the West shall supply a two-step instructor and teach the East to two-step.

Before the banquet that evening we were warned that all of the industry sponsors and the dean of Engineering at Waterloo would be there, and that we were to be on our best behavior. Once we caught word that all the Quebec delegates would be going to the dinner and then checking their pants (in favour of boxers), we decided to go ahead with our plans. I think that our sponsors thought it was quite funny when the entire WESST delegation walked across the room wearing flowery tops, leather mini-skirts and orange polyester vests.

In case you haven't figured it out, overall I found this conference to be a very positive experience. That may sound like a load of bull, but we actually did work at this conference. Each day consisted of many different workshops, speakers, and presentations, and so unfortunately it wasn't possible for any one of us to attend all of them. In order to put an SFU delegate at each of the different sessions, you could end up at a session that normally wouldn't be your first choice. However, after attending the sessions that I thought would be boring, I found them to be some of the more interesting. It really depends on the speaker. Next year the congress will be held at the University of Laval. The delegates I met from Laval assured me that CCES '97 will be even better than CCES '96, and if they hold true to there promise, then it will definitely be worth your while to get involved.

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