Hey!
I was wondering if someone could talk a little bit about their experience as a CA. I'm a ca for brandon this upcoming year (just got the position) and was wondering what it would be like. I commuted first year so I'm a bit confused, haha.
My parents were wondering how many weekends we get off during the school year?
And does anyone know how many CAs there typically are in brandon?
Thanks!

The CA experience really depends on what you make of it. You'll either love it or hate it.

Some good things about it are you get to meet a lot of people. Planning events for you floor can be a lot of fun, and it's very rewarding making residence something more than just a place to live. Also gives you a lot of useful skills that look good on a resume. The benefit are a bit difficult to explain, cause it's really all about your interactions with your floor and team.

Some downfalls are late nights on coverage and quite a bit of paperwork. It was never overwhelming for me, but just bit annoying at times. Depends on your program, workload, and ability to balance it all. Also they make you go to a lot of info sessions/learning programs both during training and throughout the year. Meant to help develop you as a person and give you ideas for building your community. Honestly, I found them to be useless and a waste of time (way longer than they need to be), but can't do much about it.

Oh, and be ready for a lot of arts and crafts.

As for being in Brandon, you lucked out. I'm not sure on the exact number of CA's, but I would estimate around 22 (typically 2 per floor; 11 floors). Since you have such a large team, I hear you could get as little as 4 shifts a month. So you should get quite a few weekends off. Only downfall is due to the large population, it's more likely that you'll have to deal with more situations.

You'll learn more in the coming weeks seeing as training is fast approaching.

All that said, don't take my opinion too seriously. It really is something you have to experience first hand. So many variables that the CA experience will vary greatly from person to person.

But congrats on making CA and hope you enjoy the year.

Wow congrats on the position! When exactly did you "just get it"? Like recently? Because I know a lot of other fellow students who applied but did not get the position.

I stayed in Brandon last year and there were 22 CAs and a few other senior position peeps who live on the main floor.

Like what redstarr37 said, it was honestly really what you make out of it. What you put in, you get out of it. However for me, I unfortunately got 2 uninvolved CAs who did a poor job of engaging our floor, creating a sense of community, making everyone feel comfortable, and just having plain fun. So I lived uncomfortably with 50 other floormates for 8 months basically.

On the other hand, if you put the effort into it, you can end up loving your floor, your other CA partner and honestly having a blast for the year. It is really great going on coverage and shifting for the night. There was not one single time where I passed by those front doors and never saw CAs chatting away with other students. (You will be calling them your 'students' once the semester rolls in, haha). So it's a great chance to meet other students and become close with them. Remember, you ARE a Community Advisor, meaning that you are probably one of their first lines of people to go to if they ever have any academic, residence, personal problems, etc. - so be a good role model/ambassador to McMaster University.

Overall, it will be a pretty fun year if you put in the effort to truly get to know people. Have a blast, giggle, smile, laugh, and dance (ahem, Welcome Week). You'll have a great time as 8 months fly by so fast. Good luck!

I'm pretty much on board with the other comments.

I was a CA for two years, its a totally worth while expereince and the cons of paperwork and late nights really aren't that bad. Your RM Brent is fairly laid back and I know a handful of people on your staff team who are all really cool welcoming people.

In terms of weekends off, you get to request up to 5 days a month and the people scheduling will try to accomidate everyone, you'll have about 4 shifts a month which is pretty low compared to other staff teams. And if you are scheduled for certain days you can switch shifts with other CAs. When it comes to holidays, you'll have to work a couple so its fair to everyone, but the staff team will decide how that is all planned out.

Last bit of advice, during Welcome Week go to as many events as you can to meet students and get to know them. They'll enjoy getting to know you and seeing you a respectable person as opposed to someone who will be booking you. The relationships you make in that first week will really benefit you moving through the year.

Best of luck and enjoy it

Hey Afsha!

I just got your PM! So sorry for the delay! I was a CA in Brandon last year and I absolutely loved it. The Brandon team is pretty big (there was 21 of us, 2 on each of 10 floors, and 1 CA on 1st floor). So you should have a partner, which is always nice because building your community becomes more of a joint effort instead of you doing it on your own. In Brandon, because the team is so big, you get about 5-6 shifts per month, usually about 4 weekday and 2 weekend shifts. However, before the start of the next month, you send your senior CA (there are 3 in Brandon) your request for about 4-5 days off and they do their best to accommodate that. You then get a tentative schedule a few days later (before the following month starts) and you have the option of switching shifts with some other members of your team, so there's flexibility there as well! For example, if you want to go home, you could work towards getting a Thursday shift or even a Friday weekend shift and go home Friday/Saturday morning. I'll warn you though, it gets tricky, and you may not be able to go home as often as you'd like, simply because it's also nice to be around when your students are there for the weekends (it's also lots of fun because people are around, less stressed, and you can plan movie nights and other floor bonding events.

My floor was one of the really close-knit floors, we were also a themed floor. The community building itself was really done by the students themselves a lot of the time, so that was nice. However, you and your Co definitely do have to get it started especially in the first few weeks of school. The best advice I can give you is to use those first few weeks to really want and get to know your students. I loved every one my students and getting to know them early on was really nice because you actually get to become their friend rather than a CA. Also, spend lots of time visiting people in their rooms, talk in the hallway, hang out in the common room. A lot of the time, you don't even have to initiate the community building, at a certain point the students take it upon themselves and organize hangouts and get-togethers, it just helps if you get it started!

PS- I forgot the most important thing! You get to know 20 other awesome people and Brent is the best! He's super supportive and understanding and an awesome person all around!

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Originally Posted by Bigmacfatpack

Wow congrats on the position! When exactly did you "just get it"? Like recently? Because I know a lot of other fellow students who applied but did not get the position.

I stayed in Brandon last year and there were 22 CAs and a few other senior position peeps who live on the main floor.

Like what redstarr37 said, it was honestly really what you make out of it. What you put in, you get out of it. However for me, I unfortunately got 2 uninvolved CAs who did a poor job of engaging our floor, creating a sense of community, making everyone feel comfortable, and just having plain fun. So I lived uncomfortably with 50 other floormates for 8 months basically.

Thank you! I got this placement a week and a half ago. Hopefully your friends that applied/are-waiting will hear back soon!

Sorry to hear about your experience... :/
I've heard that from another friend about another res and I think that absolutely sucks. Since some people have amazing experiences and some floors/buildings suffer.
Thanks for the insight! That gives me an idea of what to improve on for this year, haha.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Hey Afsha!

I just got your PM! So sorry for the delay! I was a CA in Brandon last year and I absolutely loved it. The Brandon team is pretty big (there was 21 of us, 2 on each of 10 floors, and 1 CA on 1st floor). So you should have a partner, which is always nice because building your community becomes more of a joint effort instead of you doing it on your own.

Thanks for the thorough response.
Is the first floor CA (the one that works alone) picked by chance or is it someone with experience..? I think working with a partner might be more fun (and easy for a first time CA) haha. Are the two CAs per floor usually one boy and one girl or is that left to chance?

Oh and just curious - what theme was your floor?

Thanks again!

Originally Posted by tfcfan01

Last bit of advice, during Welcome Week go to as many events as you can to meet students and get to know them. They'll enjoy getting to know you and seeing you a respectable person as opposed to someone who will be booking you. The relationships you make in that first week will really benefit you moving through the year.

Best of luck and enjoy it

With respect to welcome week, are there any specific roles for the CAs? Or do the residence reps cover working with the residence students throughout frosh week?
Thanks for your help!

Originally Posted by Afsha-noon

Thanks for the thorough response.
Is the first floor CA (the one that works alone) picked by chance or is it someone with experience..? I think working with a partner might be more fun (and easy for a first time CA) haha. Are the two CAs per floor usually one boy and one girl or is that left to chance?

Oh and just curious - what theme was your floor?

Thanks again!

Yes, the senior CAs are experienced and have been CAs for at least 1 year before (some exceptions apply sometimes), but you more than likely won't be on that floor and will have a partner. A lot of the time it ends up being a guy and a girl, but there are some exceptions, because they place people more based on personalities and compatibilities, so you could have 2 girl or 2 guy COs.

My floor theme was The Flintstones, but there were lots of really cool ideas!

Hey,
I recently got a CA position at Edwards Hall...has anyone been a CA there before (or know about it)? If so, how is it like? How many other CAs are there per floor? Any info would be great!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by akhan676

Hey,
I recently got a CA position at Edwards Hall...has anyone been a CA there before (or know about it)? If so, how is it like? How many other CAs are there per floor? Any info would be great!

Thanks!

Not in Edwards, but heard great things about it. Small community so you get to know everyone in the building well. The building is also really nice in a historical kind of way and it's at the centre of campus! THere's 1 CA per floor for a total of 2 CAs and 1 senior CA in Edwards

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Not in Edwards, but heard great things about it. Small community so you get to know everyone in the building well. The building is also really nice in a historical kind of way and it's at the centre of campus! THere's 1 CA per floor for a total of 2 CAs and 1 senior CA in Edwards

Thanks for ur reply!

Sounds good One more question..how are the evenings and night shifts generally structured?? If there's less CAs im guessing it means more shifts per person?

Originally Posted by akhan676

Thanks for ur reply!

Sounds good One more question..how are the evenings and night shifts generally structured?? If there's less CAs im guessing it means more shifts per person?

Less CAs on during weekdays 9 pm-1:30 am (Sun-Wed) and more on weekends 9 pm-3 am (Thurs-Sat). I can't comment too much on that, but realistically with 3 people you'd be on at least every other day, which isn't fair at all. But with Eddie, both Edwards and LP are considered the same staff team with the same residence manager, so what happens is that there's cross-coverage for night shifts, where LP CAs may cover Edwards and vice versa, so that adds about 12+ people to the Edwards team of 3 and it ends up being the same as any other building with 6-8 shifts per month.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Less CAs on during weekdays 9 pm-1:30 am (Sun-Wed) and more on weekends 9 pm-3 am (Thurs-Sat). I can't comment too much on that, but realistically with 3 people you'd be on at least every other day, which isn't fair at all. But with Eddie, both Edwards and LP are considered the same staff team with the same residence manager, so what happens is that there's cross-coverage for night shifts, where LP CAs may cover Edwards and vice versa, so that adds about 12+ people to the Edwards team of 3 and it ends up being the same as any other building with 6-8 shifts per month.

Oh okay, that sounds fair. Thanks so much for your help

Originally Posted by akhan676

Oh okay, that sounds fair. Thanks so much for your help

No problem! Hope to meet you soon and hope you're excited for training in a week! It's exhasuting but super fun .