Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Co-Founder at Purposely, helping companies support volunteerism

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Purposely

Co-Founder

Responsible for building our amazing community of volunteer-driven organizations. This includes overseeing sales, marketing, partnership development, and expansion.

Director of Community and Partnerships

Lisa Helps got elected by the largest margin in Victoria's history, and won a majority of the votes at all but one polling station.Built and managed the campaign team - hiring, onboarding, and supervising staff and key volunteers in lead roles including Communications, Volunteer Coordination, Data Coordination, Canvassing/Field Coordination, and Fundraising. Created and executed the Campaign Plan in consultation with a community of expertise. Worked with the candidate to develop and roll out the campaign platform.Created or oversaw the creation of all campaign systems and infrastructure, including the supporter database, internal communications/collaboration tools, and project management.

Lisa Helps for Victoria Mayor 2018

Campaign Manager

Worked in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing for one month on projects relating to the Local Elections Campaign Financing Act, Housing, and other projects in municipal affairs portfolios.Worked in the Third Party Caucus office in a research & communications role; drafting speeches and speaking notes, briefing notes, backgrounders, and summaries.

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia

Legislative Intern

Coordinate, develop, and support volunteer teams in 10 provincial electoral districts in the North of the Fraser region of Metro Vancouver.

Dogwood BC

Provincial Organizer

- Managing the day-to-day of the society and coordinating the human and financial resources of the organization.- Primary spokesperson of the organization. This has included over a dozen media interviews, as well as presentations to, and meetings with, dozens of stakeholders, including unions, businesses, non-profits, and member/non-member student societies.- Building and maintaining stakeholder relationships with non-member student societies, political parties, and other community organizations/individuals.- Drafting agendas and chairing monthly Board meetings in accordance with Roberts Rules.- Planned and helped coordinate a province-wide student housing campaign, called "Where's the Housing?" in September 2016, calling on the provincial government to allow universities and colleges to build on-campus residence housing.- Planned and coordinated a province-wide youth voter engagement campaign around the 2017 provincial election, called "Count On Our Vote" from February 2017 to May 2017

Alliance of BC Students

Chairperson

- Full-time Chief Executive of the registered non-profit society with an annual revenue of over $4.5 million and assets of over $8 million;- Oversight of over 50 staff, including 5 managers;- Coordinated and supported the organization’s Executive, which consisted of three other VPs, and Council, which consisted of 16 directors;- Ensured that the organization’s day-to-day was in accordance with the strategic objectives of the organization by regularly meeting with staff and management.- Drafted, extensively consulted on, and introduced the organization’s 2017-2020 Strategic Plan;- Job description development, as well as recruitment, interviewing, training, and orienting of staff, volunteers, and directors of the society;- Spokesperson of the society, which included giving a seminar on self-care and leadership at a leadership conference, giving eight New Student Orientation speeches to groups ranging in size from 200 at the smallest campus, to 700 at the largest campus, and opening numerous conferences and an award ceremony.- Helped coordinate the signing of a $15 million loan agreement to build a student union building (SUB), which included signing a memorandum of understanding with the university to secure a long-term lease on a parcel of land, as well as initiating a joint university administration – student association SUB Steering Committee to select a project manager and initiate the space-needs program.- Conducted research, analysis, and outreach to create a new service for students – a Startup Incubator to support student entrepreneurs, with a planned annual budget of $75,000 and $400,000 earmarked for initial costs.- Negotiated with senior university administration and consulted with students to conduct a $120,000 renovation of university space into a 10,000 sq ft student centre with a social justice space, multi-purpose room, meeting rooms, recreation room, and office space.

Kwantlen Student Association

President

- Responsible for the annual Lobby Days, coordinating a week of meetings with the provincial government. Student societies from across BC met with over half of the members of the legislative assembly in order to convey recommendations for post-secondary education policy.- Planned, budgeted, consulted on, and got approval for two major campaigns: student housing and 2017 provincial election.- Member of the executive team which oversaw and coordinated the resources of the organization

Director of Campaigns

- Full-time Vice-President at the registered non-profit society with an annual revenue of over $4.5 million and assets of over $8 million; - Responsibilities included day-to-day oversight of three full-time staff and numerous student directors/volunteers, media and government relations, campaigns, and community outreach;- Directly managed and oversaw the $180,000 Lobbying Budget of the student association.- Over 15 media interviews on a variety of topics with non-campus newspapers, radio stations, and TV stations; dozens of interviews and relationship-management with the student newspaper.- Planned and managed a student voter-mobilization campaign during the 2015 Federal Election with a $15,000 budget:- Most active and ‘liked’ Facebook page of any student society campaign in Canada during the 2015 Federal Election, with a $500 promotional budget;- Used Nationbuilder, Slack, Asana, and several Google products to coordinate two staff and the volunteer leadership team, as well as over 30 volunteers;- Collected over 2,700 pledges to vote – over 25% of the student body, by broadly canvassing students, speaking to over 80 classes, and conducting targeted social media promotions;- Hosted a series of events which brought 18 regional candidates to campus from every party, as well as a series of events which engaged students with the electoral process.- Participated in dozens of lobby meetings with municipal councillors, BC MLAs, and federal MPs as a post-secondary education student advocate.- Part of the management team responsible for negotiation a 3 year contract between the Student Society management and the employee union (BC Government and Services Employees Union).- Helped organize a multi-campus Annual General Meeting of the student association, attended by over 180 people.

VP External

- Drafted agendas and chaired monthly meetings of the Kwantlen Student Association's committee.- Ensured effective and productive meetings occurred by following up with members and staff on action items and opportunities.- Supported the VP External in running campaigns and hosting events;- Ensured accurate records were taken and maintained properly;- Helped plan and coordinate events during the 2014 BC Municipal Election;- Attended the Canadian Alliance of Student Association's 2014 Advocacy Week in Ottawa as a representative from the Kwantlen Student Association, and met with 8 members of parliament to discuss post-secondary issues in Canada.

Chairperson of the Standing Committee on External Affairs

Assistant to the Executive Director,  administration & coordination

Lawyer's Rights Watch Canada

Executive Assistant

- One of 16-24 voting members on the KSA Council (i.e. the society's board of directors) - Attended monthly meetings and vote on the business of the Society; consult with students and ensure that their issues are dealt with and their opinions are represented on Council.- Attended Arts Faculty Council meetings to provide a student voice at the academic governance body which oversees the Arts Faculty at KPU, making crucial decisions for the 8,000 arts students.- Met with the Dean of Arts to consult on issues pertaining to arts students.

Arts Representative

- Attended regular monthly meetings to discuss and vote on issues and recommendations to the KSA Council (i.e. the board of directors).- Considered applications for positions within the governance bodies of the organization; reviewed dozens of resumes and made appointment recommendations to the society's Board of Directors.

Member - Standing Committee on Appointments

- Attended seminars and workshops on environmental sustainability and grassroots activism.- Networked with fellow attendees.- Compiled a report for the Kwantlen Student Association

Student Delegate to Power Shift BC

Student Delegate to the Zero Waste Conference

Attend regular monthly meetings to discuss and vote on issues and recommendations to the KSA council.

Student Member on the Standing Committee on External Affairs

Planned events; coordinated with participants and volunteers; conducted a survey and research based on the survey.

Co-Organizer of Sustainability Week

- Attended seminars and workshops on the social justice and environmental sustainability of food - including issues of sourcing, distributing, waste, availability, security.- Networked with fellow delegates.- Compiled a report for the Kwantlen Student Association.

Alex McGowan