Badger Bash

On Saturday morning I rolled out of bed at 7:30am to trek across campus to Engineering Mall for Badger Bash. Outreach team members John and Brigid helped me hand out free hot chocolate and talk about the NSCU with the game day crowd. It was a great chance to bring the project to the people.

John manning the battle station

Looking at some renderings with the first few guests

John taking a breather

Trying to keep up with the crowds

The UW Band playing various renditions of "On Wisconsin"

Basking in the sunshine after a morning's labor

Note to self: get two five-gallon jugs of hot chocolate next time. Our supply ran out after the first hour. The second hour we had to turn up the charm and chat with folks while handing out Wisconsin Union Initiative buttons. All in all, a great success.

Wheels are turning

It was a busy weekend on the building project front. I held a meeting with the building project student outreach team in lieu of riding on the WUD float in the Homecoming Parade. I have managed to schedule meetings two years in a row now during the Homecoming Parade. What a coincidence!

At the outreach team meeting we established what we think students want to know about the building and how we are going to get that information to them. Our first order of business was establishing 5 different guerilla marketing campaigns that each outreach team member will head up. Not to spoil the surprise but we have plans to get a Babcock Ice Cream flavor named after the project…

Getting started

Showing John the ropes

Brigid hammering out details

Melody has an idea

Trying to explain something to the team

Meeting adjourned!

Success!

Expect to see these faces more. These folks will be doing a lot of crazy things this year to bring the project to you.

Hmm…

Tomorrow, I will be attending a meeting for the West Wing renovation of Memorial Union. We are in the visioning processes for how we want that space to “feel.” One of the main goals is to make the West Wing at Memorial Union a hub for the arts. It’s a pretty weighty task to be thinking about how you envision the renovation taking place when the finished product is so far off. It is even harder to fathom when you realize you will be graduating long before that finished product comes into being.

Now that we are beginning to engage in the MU renovation more heavily you will receive two-fold updates: one for the NSCU and one for MU. It will be interesting to receive your thoughts over the next months on the subjects. It will be even more interesting to see how we in the Union balance both undertakings.

Below are my note sheets of half-baked ideas that I came up with during a 20-minute brainstorm prepping for tomorrow’s meeting. Good luck reading them:

Enjoy!