To All SGPS Members, The 2020-2021 Executive team will be holding a town hall-style meeting this Friday,  June 5th @ 2:30 pm EST. Town Hall Guidelines You will have the opportunity to bring up your ideas/concerns one at a time After an executive addresses your idea/concern you will have the opportunity to clarify or ask a follow-up question before we move to the next student If you have any concerns or would like to speak to the Executive team privately, please reach out to me at president@sgps.ca and we will start a dialogue. The chat function will be open during this meeting for individuals to state that they have a question and you will be added to the speaker list. This is not a formal meeting although we will be trying to keep a list of speakers and do the best to address individuals in order. We ask for your understanding if we make an order error or miss your name, it is not our intention to skip anyone and will ensure you have the time to talk Should you have any questions or concerns leading up to this meeting, please feel free to reach out to me at any time. Thank you, The SGPS Executive Team Click here to access the Zoom link for the Town Hall The password will be sent out via the SGPS mailing list one hour before the meeting.

Have you seen the recent update from the AMS and City of Kingston regarding Bus-It fees? If not, you can read more about it here. Our friends at the AMS have negotiated this on behalf of the SGPS for many years and have kindly consulted us all throughout this process! If you are wondering how this will impact you as a graduate or professional student we have some answers. From internal discussions and based on the media releases, the City of Kingston and the AMS is committed to ensuring you will have access to transportation. As plans for returning students become more clear negotiations will be prioritized to ensure we are represented! As of right now, city transit is free and your current eligible SGPS student card will cover you until August 31st. We will be sure to update you often on what the plan looks like come September 1st. Please know that no matter what, you will be supported and have financially equitable access to transportation.

To All SGPS Members, As you may have noted from the communication released on May 1st, the 2020-2021 Executive team will be holding a town hall-style meeting this Friday, May 8th @ 2:30pm EST. It is the goal of this session to give the membership the opportunity to comment on the strategic plan created by the Executive team. We understand that this is a very stressful time for many students and you all have various concerns that are causing frustration and anxiety so we ask you to please review the strategic plan to ensure your concerns are covered in the document. It is important to note that the Executive will not be discussing issues already covered within the strategic plan during this meeting, our goal is to update it with issues we have missed. To this point, we have created a set of guidelines for this meeting to ensure everyone has the opportunity to speak and bring up ideas. Town Hall Guidelines You will have the opportunity to bring up your ideas/ concerns one at a time After an executive addresses your idea/ concern you will have the opportunity to clarify or ask a follow-up question before we move to the next student Issues that are already discussed in the strategic plan will not be discussed during this meeting- we are simply providing a platform for members to *add* to that plan. If you have any concerns or would like to speak to the Executive team about content in the strategic plan, please reach out to me at president@sgps.ca and we will start a dialogue. The chat function will be open during this meeting for individuals to state that they have a question and you will be added to the speaker list. This is not a formal meeting although we will be trying to keep a list of speakers and do the best to address individuals in order. We ask for your understanding if we make an order error or miss your name, it is not our intention to skip anyone and will ensure you have the time to talk Should you have any questions or concerns leading up to this meeting, please feel free to reach out to me at any time. Thank you, The SGPS Executive Team Click here to access the Zoom link for the Town Hall The password will be sent out via the SGPS mailing list one hour before the meeting.

To all SGPS Members, It is the hope of the 2020-2021 Executive that this message finds you, your friends, and your family well although we appreciate that this is a very busy time and many of you are facing various hardships. Our Executive team is committed to mitigating and representing Graduate and Professional students on these issues. In our previous letter to SGPS Members on April 21st, we made several statements surrounding the direction our Executive Team will be taking during our 2020-2021 term. One of which was the release of a strategic plan which would provide insight into priorities of the SGPS; it is important to note that this plan is non-exhaustive and is influenced heavily by the current situations surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Should an issue important to you or your department not appear in this document, please remember that your voice should be heard. Reach out to your department representatives to bring these concerns forward to council, further, we are holding a town hall event on Friday, May 8th where you can comment on the contents of this document directly to our team. It is our goal to make the actions and goals of the SGPS more transparent over our term and to integrate trust and consistency into our structure. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to work with and for all members of the Society of Graduate and Professional Students at Queen’s University.