Welcome Week Rep Survival Guide
BY DANIELLE LORENZ, MACINSIDERS
With Welcome Week only a WEEK away (YAY!!!!), many upper year students are starting to prepare. Not as participants, like they were last year, or in years before that, but as Welcome Week reps.
For the past three years I have been a Welcome Week rep. I was a residence rep three times, for Whidden in 2005, and for Bates in 2006 and 2007. I was also a Social Sciences rep in 2006. This September I’ve chose to be a rep again, but this time as a Maroons rep. Because I have three years of being a rep under my belt (although most of the time I never wore a belt with my rep suit...), I thought it would be useful for all new reps to know what they’re getting into, and how to prepare for the week. Read on, and learn about how to survive Welcome Week!
Sleep
Get as much sleep as you possibly can before rep training starts, especially if you’re a Residence Rep. The first two days of Welcome Week will be 18 hours each, and physically exhausting due to move-in. None of your days will start after 10am, and most days don’t finish before 10pm. As a Res Rep, most of my days started at 8am, and finished at 1am. Add in all of the heavy lifting for move-in, and all the running around and cheering you will be dead tired. If you have any opportunities to take a break (even for a few minutes) try and take a nap of some sort.
Hydration
Three of the past four Welcome Weeks have been hot (last year being the hottest, with one day going up to 42C with the humidex). You will be wearing some sort of polyester suit that does not breathe. You will be sweating in it even if it’s a cool day. Make sure you drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated. However, you should also drink other liquids, as drinking only water does not replenish everything that is lost through sweating. Last year I ended up in emergency with dehydration from drinking only water. So please remember to drink juice and Gatorade/Powerade as well to replenish the electrolytes you lose (or you could be really hardcore and buy Pedialyte, but that stuff is REALLY expensive). That being said, if you’re drinking caffeinated beverages remember that they are diuretics and make you lose fluids as well.
Throat Lozenges
You will lose your voice. You will lose your voice more than one time. The best way to keep cheering after you voice has gone is to take some sort of throat lozenge meant for sore throats. I personally like Cepacol because they numb your throat. Other people prefer to use Halls, but I don’t like them because they tend to burn. You may also want to have tea with honey a few times over the course of the week as well.
Sunscreen
Considering Welcome Week takes place at the end of August/beginning of September there is the possibility for bright sunlight and a high UV index. It’s totally mom of me to remind you about the sunscreen...but you don’t want skin cancer now do you?
Change of Clothes
Know how your mom wanted you to always bring a change of clothes when you went away somewhere? Well, Welcome Week is another one of those places. If it’s really hot this year, you’re going to get really sweaty, and if it’s rainy like it was in 2006, you’re going to get damp, if not wet or totally soaked. Either way, you’re going to want to change your clothes and it’s hard to do so if you don’t bring any to change into. Same goes for shoes. You spend a lot of time on your feet, so you don’t want to spend part of your day in squishy shoes. If your feet get sore, it’s a good idea to have something to change into, because it will alleviate some of the pain in your feet.
Deodorant
Apply every morning. Bring to campus. Reapply as needed. No one is friends with the smelly kid.
Talking to People
Be as friendly as possible! You want to make sure that any student is comfortable talking to you, regardless of if they are from your building or faculty. You want to be approachable! You have to talk to people as a rep...which can be harder if you’re on the awkward side. It can also be difficult if the student you’re talking to is kinda shy. Although I must admit I’m not the best at small talk, you get a little bit of practice after awhile. Here are some suggestions for keeping a conversation going, that go beyond the ‘where are you from, how many siblings do you have, do you have a significant other’ type questions:
-What music they listen to
-What the favourite movie they saw this summer was
-What they’re looking forward to most during Welcome Week
-What sort of activities did they do in high school
-What course are they not looking forward to taking this year
Obviously there are tons and tons of other questions you could ask! As I mentioned, I’m not really good at asking questions, but I tend to better think of questions on the fly, especially since I can gage the kinds of questions I will ask based on earlier answers.
Food
I think as a res rep this is what bothered me the most. You get the most interaction with students, and have the longest days, and yet you get the least amount of appreciation. You will get two meals, both of which are on the move-in days. After that you have to supply your own food, and that $100 you are made to put on your meal cards usually helps cover that. If you’re Maroon on the other hand, you’re lucky enough to get most of your meals paid for. Faculty Reps are somewhere in between the two. Some good choices for food to eat on campus (to help you survive Welcome Week), includes sources of protein and carbohydrates. Protein helps keep you full and gives you energy, so try and have some at every meal. Another good food to have is soup. It has lots of salt, which you will need to replace over the course of the week. You will likely also want to bring things that aren’t sold by Hospitality services, such as fruit, cheese, Red Bull, peanut butter sandwiches or granola bars.
Weather
Remember to check the
Weather Network website every morning before you leave. Then you'll know what to expect (at least a little bit...the forecast for Hamilton isn't always 100% right) in terms of weather for the day. Then you'll also know to bring an umbrella, sunscreen etc.
DFF
This is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING for you to remember. In residence you learned that DFF was don’t eff your floor. As a rep, it means don’t eff your frosh. If you happen to be really interested in one of your students, please wait until after Welcome Week before doing anything about it. You are a leader and a role model; starting a relationship while you are still seen as those means taking advantage of a first year student. NOT COOL! You can wait until August 8th, and if you can’t you’re in this for all of the wrong reasons. And by extension, this means don’t start anything with any of your co-reps either.
Just remember...it’s more fun being a rep than it is being a first year. I was told that in my second year, and I have to agree. I’ve told the same to tons of students down the line, and they have also agreed with me. Be smart, be safe and
HAVE A BLAST AND A HALF!! (and hope to hell it doesn’t rain like it did in 2006).
Linear Mode
