27 July 2009

IPCSA General Assembly, "Mazel Tov" and the Garage Sale

Second IPC Students Association General Assembly for 2009

By Shirley Ghozalli. Edited by Moira Blake.

IPCSA President Greg Ng announces the 2009 IPCSA President election

Students and staff members attending the second IPCSA General Assembly

On Friday, 17th July, the IPC Students Association (IPCSA) held their second General Assembly for 2009, following the first assembly held in May.

Opening this assembly, President Gregory (Greg) Ng announced the upcoming 2009 IPCSA election for the next IPCSA President. Calling for candidates from the crowd, Greg outlined the criteria and explained the duties and rights of an IPCSA President.

Following the election announcement, the IPCSA Accountant, Shinya Furumaki, detailed the Financial Plan for 2009, so everyone could see where IPCSA's funds came from and how they are used.

Next, the Event Committee promoted some upcoming events, including a party later on that evening and the Garage Sale. There was also advance notice of the IPC Olympics, an event that was started last year and would be held again in Term 2 this year. Organised as a House Competition, the IPC Olympics will showcase martial arts, and include competitions in various skills such as tug of war, a beep test and skipping. Still on the topic of sports, a new social basketball club was also promoted. It meets for games every Saturday from 3.30 until 5.30 pm in the IPC gym, with its emphasis on having fun rather than on competition.

A notice from the Education Outside the Classroom (EOC) team came next. This was to let students know about EOC activities for the August Break. These include a BBQ and Orienteering trip, an "Introduction to Scuba" course, a ski trip and a beach trip. For more information, check out the EOC noticeboard in the Dining Room, talk to EOC staff or email eoc@ipc.ac.nz. The EOC calendar page for August on the EOC website also gives the dates for these events.

After that, the current Hall Leaders and Assistant Hall Leaders filed up onto the stage to be introduced, so that other students can recognize those in charge of the halls of residence.

Then a special slideshow of Sakura Festival was played. This was followed by announcements from the Sakura Festival organizers. This annual festival is the highlight of all the events at IPC and usually attracts many people from Palmerston North and further afield. The 2009 Sakura Festival coincides with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of IPC. For this reason, the festival will be celebrated over 2 days. On the first day there will be the usual international food stalls run by IPC students, cultural performances, musical concert, and the photo competition. On the second day there will be a Charity Music Festival, food stalls and other stalls, run by non-IPC groups, and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The organizers called for participants for the performances, food stalls, and for the musical concert and the photo competition. A vote was also held to determine which charity organization would benefit from the Charity Music Festival. The students voted for the Child Cancer Foundation.

Ayuko Otsuka (left) and Ayaka Fujita (right) speaking in English to describe their experiences at IPC

IPC President Prof. Wayne Edwards congratulates the Term 1 graduates

Ayuko Otsuka and Ayaka Fujita, the two exchange students from IPU, came up next and delivered their farewell speeches, all in English. They are finishing their study at IPC and will go back to IPU in Japan in August. Ayuko said "I certainly want to come back to be an IPC student again!"

IPC President Prof Wayne Edwards spoke next. He reminded students to be careful about the security of their personal belongings and spoke about working together to improve the Internet service. He also announced the Speech Contest on 22nd July in the SCR and a new award, the "Certificate of Academic Excellence". This award is to be given to the top student in each paper, as long as that student achieves at least an A- grade for the paper.

This was followed by a roll call of the students who are graduating from IPC in Term 1. Each graduate received a rose from the IPC President.

The assembly closed with reminders about volunteering to help at the Sakura Festival and also at the Fashion Show.

The evening after the General Assembly, a ‘Mazel tov’ party was held in the dining hall. ‘Mazel tov’ is a Jewish term similar to ‘Congratulations’ in English. The party was a celebration for the 2008 students who graduated from Foundation at the end of the summer term and are already studying at degree or diploma level, and for those who are completing their Foundation studies this term and will start their degree or diploma courses next term.

The next day, a Garage Sale was held at the IPC Recreation Centre. It was open to the public from 11 am till 2 pm. 28 students participated in this event, selling some of their clothes, furniture and appliances. Some of them are graduating students who will return to their home countries. Compared to the annual Garage Sale in November, this one was smaller, but nonetheless, it attracted a good number of people from outside IPC.

Takahiro Miyazaki, a 2007 student who was the event leader for this Garage Sale, commented, "I think the Garage Sale was successful. When I walked around the gym at 12.30 pm, all sellers had sold most of their merchandise. We also prepared a baggage centre this year so that customers could leave the merchandise they had bought."

"I was really helped by many Event Committee members. I really want to say ‘thank you’ to them and everyone," he added.

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