Politics and MBA's

This week we have elections for the representatives to the GBC. To break it down for you, we have 3 reps in each of the four sections, 1 social, 1 sports and 1 academic (class) rep. The different sections had different levels of interest and it turned out I was in the keener section.

I am running for class rep (speeches were yesterday - votes tallied tomorrow & announced the day after - stay tuned) and had 3 other candidates for class rep in my section, 5 people interested in social and another 5 interested in sports rep. In one of the other sections, there were 2 class reps, 3 socials and the sports rep won by default. The other two sections fell somewhere in the middle.

In our class, I have noticed that people aren't really campaigning, its more about "give a quick speech & if after the past 2 to 4 weeks plus 1 minute speech, you don't know me... then toss a coin." I say this because, by default, everyone in our program would make a "good" class/social/sports rep. To do any of these positions, you need to have some social/networking inclination, and some organizational skills. In order to convince two of your former bosses to write you a reference letter, and jump through the hoops of the MBA application process, you need to have organizational skills.

Speeches were yesterday, mine boiled down to "please vote for me!" and I don't think there was a significant difference in the class rep speeches. BUT I will give kudos to the Sports & Social reps who came up with some pretty creative 1 minute summaries of why they would be great. Including some songs turned into speeches, a video from a class mate who was out sick, a creative social math equation, an invitation to a party & a full on sports get up complete with Leafs Jersey.

The second years I have spoken with have said "its a popularity contest" so the speeches may be a mute point. But my advice to incoming students, if you run for a spot - make your speech fun, because even if you don't win, your section has to stay after class to listen to about 30 minutes worth of speeches and you can certainly make some friends by being a little entertaining.

To conclude this post - 2 of my friends from another section, the only 2 candidates for social rep, decided to do their speeches together, and then proposed to decide the "winner" by way of a drinking event. Some students rejected the idea of taking the democracy out of the process, so in the end they defaulted to votes & had the drinking contest for fun. Two guys who will a) go to the bar on a Tuesday when they have a Thursday AND Friday quiz, and b) chug not one, but two (they tied first round), beers to decide on social-ness both deserve major high fives.

For your information - GBC is Graduate Business Council. And my next post will likely be a summary of the three letter acronyms you can expect throughout your Rotman experience.