Originally Posted by myoozik

You do your research. Go on MacInsiders. Come talk to students in classes. Seek us out. It's terrible to say, but you know what, students for the most part, are apathetic and dare I say it, leaning on the lazy side. To sit back and wait for e-mails is kind of a cop out. It's just going to be a waiting game between you and your constituents if you wait for e-mails because you very well know that only a handful of students will be willing to write a meaningful e-mail. You could go your entire term shouting "E-mail us!" and you will more than likely receive less than 100 e-mails.

If you notice that nobody is e-mailing, despite reminders by SRA members to e-mail them, then do something different.

Yes, I do my research, but I cannot contact or otherwise know what 5000+ science students are thinking. It's so easy for you to say "if they're not emailing you, then do something different", but to be quite frank, I can spent an entire week trying to go to every science class on campus and still miss hundreds of students (the majority of which will still not say anything to me), all the while forgetting that I also have classes and homework, and a part time job.

Writing a meaningful email on a topic can take 10-15 minutes. That's not a lot of time, and quite frankly, thats what you have to do. Yes, we do our part, and for goodness sake many of us are working our asses off, but that's still not enough, and never will be.

Think about provincial or federal government. If you want to write a letter to your MP or the Prime Minister, you don't need postage. You can just throw an addressed letter into the mailbox and they'll recieve it. Often, you'll get a response too! You know why? Because no matter what, it's impossible to contact and get the opinions and views of 30 million people!

The numbers of constituents and representatives are smaller, but the situation is exactly the same here.

Originally Posted by deadpool

I think these are in the minutes of the last SRA meeting of his term, but Ian proposed a working group for Quarters dedicated to the name and logo of the place. It was supposed to be Caterine, McGowan, Ismael Viegas, Matt Wright, and himself.

This group was tossed aside, and the BoD, EB and SRA took matters into their own hands, and used their own policies to govern the branding of Quarters.

Furthermore, at that same meeting, they passed a motion amending the Quarters Operating Policy to include the Promotions Coordinator (responsible for all marketing, in conjunction with the GM, from what I remember of the job description we were given at Finance Committee).

It should be in the minutes that Ian took good steps towards making this process more efficient and compartmentalized so that it would be handled quickly and decisively.

There was also a working document that had HR stuff on it which made it not available for public. but the working document also included concept for the bar, concepts for food to match the bar concept, staffing structure changes such as the promotions coordinator, reviews of other campus bars which have recently undergone renovations, and suggestions from industry.

Originally Posted by c.thomson

I hardly think that the logo and name is what attracts students to a bar. Who cares what the logo looks like anyways. I can't even remember what Quarters' logo looks like and I've been there plenty of times. The things that are going to attract students to this bar are the prices of the food, the service, and the over all atmosphere of the restuarant.

The logo is representative of the overall atmosphere of the restaurant.

Originally Posted by Taunton

Yes, I do my research, but I cannot contact or otherwise know what 5000+ science students are thinking. It's so easy for you to say "if they're not emailing you, then do something different", but to be quite frank, I can spent an entire week trying to go to every science class on campus and still miss hundreds of students (the majority of which will still not say anything to me), all the while forgetting that I also have classes and homework, and a part time job.

Writing a meaningful email on a topic can take 10-15 minutes. That's not a lot of time, and quite frankly, thats what you have to do. Yes, we do our part, and for goodness sake many of us are working our asses off, but that's still not enough, and never will be.

Think about provincial or federal government. If you want to write a letter to your MP or the Prime Minister, you don't need postage. You can just throw an addressed letter into the mailbox and they'll recieve it. Often, you'll get a response too! You know why? Because no matter what, it's impossible to contact and get the opinions and views of 30 million people!

The numbers of constituents and representatives are smaller, but the situation is exactly the same here.

For all of this, I must say that Fadil does an impressive job, even though is he just out of his first year and has the least experience at Mac than anyone else on the SRA.

Take a lesson from him. He actively seeks out student opinion.

Originally Posted by c.thomson

I hardly think that the logo and name is what attracts students to a bar. Who cares what the logo looks like anyways. I can't even remember what Quarters' logo looks like and I've been there plenty of times. The things that are going to attract students to this bar are the prices of the food, the service, and the over all atmosphere of the restuarant.

Yes it sucks that the logo had to be chosen in such a short amount of time, but I don't think that people are going to boycott the place because the font is sans serif.

I have to agree. The logo has some importance; however, we have a captive audience with the advantage of the novelty of a brand new establishment. Now, I have pretty much nothing to do with how 1280 will be run day-to-day, but taking advantage of the novelty to show off the new (and hopefully much improved) menu and service will do 1000x more than any logo will do.

A logo and image are extremely important in the real business world. The situation on campus is slightly different than a new start-up in downtown Hamilton. I think this difference must be considered when you start to think "the logo will make it or break it for 1280".

Originally Posted by Taunton

I have to agree. The logo has some importance; however, we have a captive audience with the advantage of the novelty of a brand new establishment. Now, I have pretty much nothing to do with how 1280 will be run day-to-day, but taking advantage of the novelty to show off the new (and hopefully much improved) menu and service will do 1000x more than any logo will do.

A logo and image are extremely important in the real business world. The situation on campus is slightly different than a new start-up in downtown Hamilton. I think this difference must be considered when you start to think "the logo will make it or break it for 1280".

It's not about the make-it-or-break-it aspect as far as the logo goes.

It's that so far, we have seen an indeterminable amount of mishaps ever since the project was taken over from Ian Finlay. When he was spearheading the project, we saw $45,000 of funding come in from Student Services and $15000 from Labatt.

He also had a plan in place, as we just said to Joey Coleman.

The reason him and I are pissed off is because we worked on this project before the new SRA, and new BoD took over, and it was going really well. Now, it's turned into a giant debacle, with questionable decisions from the BoD/EB/SRA regarding the name, and logo covered up by a "oh that vote wasn't binding" tagline.

As much as I didn't support Norman's views on the issue, I empathize with him on how protective people are acting towards this project, without any good reason.

Originally Posted by ferreinm

The logo is representative of the overall atmosphere of the restaurant.

It's really not a big deal. It's a nice logo, nobody is going to pay any attention to it in five years from now anyways. You're not even going to look at it when you're walking into the place anyways. People are not going to base their desicion to try out the only undergraduate student run pub on campus, based on what the logo looks like. It's not the deciding factor, and I think that our energy could be better spend towards arguing over something that matters.

If someone on the SRA had shit on a piece of paper, and tried to pass that off as the logo, than this outrage be more justified. But that's not the case.

When you voted for your SRA representative, you trusted them to be able to make good decisions.

Originally Posted by c.thomson

When you voted for your SRA representative, you trusted them to be able to make good decisions.

lol. They didn't even get to make the decision.

Originally Posted by c.thomson

When you voted for your SRA representative, you trusted them to be able to make good decisions.

As has been mentioned more than once, the SRA Representatives did not vote on this.

Originally Posted by Taunton

"the logo will make it or break it for 1280".

I do agree that the logo has much importance, and it's too bad that there wasn't more time. But it's over now. The logo has been decided, it's not amazing, but it isn't that terrible. The catch-phrase was the bigger issue and it's being reviewed.

I do not agree that the logo will make it or break it for 1280. I could not care less what the logo looks like. The things that I care about are similar to the reasons that nobody liked quarters.

-super greasy food
-terrible wait times for food
-terrible service/ air-hear waitresses
-the fact that it was gross looking, dark and dingy inside

The pheonix has none of these issues, and that is why is has always been a great place to be night after night.

Using pheonix as an example, the things that "made it or broke it" had nothing to do with the logo. I don't even know what their logo looks like.

Originally Posted by myoozik

lol. They didn't even get to make the decision.

Haha nice timing we said it at the same time!

Originally Posted by c.thomson

I do agree that the logo has much importance, and it's too bad that there wasn't more time. But it's over now. The logo has been decided, it's not amazing, but it isn't that terrible. The catch-phrase was the bigger issue and it's being reviewed.

I do not agree that the logo will make it or break it for 1280. I could not care less what the logo looks like. The things that I care about are similar to the reasons that nobody liked quarters.

-super greasy food
-terrible wait times for food
-terrible service/ air-hear waitresses
-the fact that it was gross looking, dark and dingy inside

The pheonix has none of these issues, and that is why is has always been a great place to be night after night.

Using pheonix as an example, the things that "made it or broke it" had nothing to do with the logo. I don't even know what their logo looks like.

I never said the logo will make-it-or-break-it for 1280. Re-read the post!

*facepalm*

Originally Posted by Taunton

I never said the logo will make-it-or-break-it for 1280. Re-read the post!

*facepalm*

No no, I completely agree with you Ben, I can see now that the way I did that was sort of confusing :S

The Phoenix has all of those issues. They just have a wider selection of beers to make the wait better, and an awesome patio.

The inside is just as clean as Quarters, except that the Quarters decor, mismatched lighting and exposed wiring was not very feng shui.

The service at both places is equally bad at times, and great at times. Over the past week I've been at Phoenix three times. One of these included the waitress forgetting my side, and completely giving my friends the wrong items.

Another time included the waitress going on a 20 minute smoke break, in front of us, while we could see our food sitting on the pass inside the kitchen, through the window.

The third time though, we knew the waitress and got excellent service. She was fast, efficient, and had all our orders properly.

The same things happen to me at Quarters. I'll have wrong food given to me, inattentive waitresses etc.

Phoenix just has a better reputation from a while back, but now they are just like Quarters used to be.

I will concede that the atmosphere is different, and better at some times. I personally love the beer selection even though they got rid of the Oatmeal stout.

My post isn't to undermine Phoenix, as I love the place, but I need to point out that it is not nearly as heavenly as people make it out to be.

@Joey, please keep discussion about the 1280 logo. Finances spent on Quarters can be addressed in one of the many Quarters threads, or privately via PM with Ian. Thanks!