Just a quick email to clarify a couple of things following the email which was sent to all 2015 Winter Session TA’s on August 13.

• There will be an Orientation for term 2 TA’s at some point in early January;  sorry for not mentioning that in my email.

• I had a few emails asking if the Orientation date could be changed as September 8^th is the first day of the term and some of you have classes or are orientation leaders or won’t be at UBC until the following week.  With over 100 TA’s, it would be impossible for us to find a day that would work for everyone so we do the best we can.  “Mandatory” should be interpreted as this:  Orientation is an important event for all of our TA’s and if you are available, then we would really appreciate you doing whatever you can to attend because we feel it’s important and will be of benefit to you.  Your TA appointment won’t be cancelled if you can’t make it to orientation, but if you can attend, please make the effort to be there.  The list of attendees is sent to the CUPE 2278 office.

• If you have classes or some other reason for not being able to attend for the whole day, even coming for the couple of hours when you are available is better than nothing.

• Please note that none of the TA training is mandatory, but again, we strongly encourage you to take advantage of any and all training opportunities that come your way.  They are a great way of developing skills and knowledge that will only benefit you – and in some cases not only as a TA, but you’ll gain life skills that will help you in a ton of ways (can you tell I’m a keen supporter of training?!).

The completed Schedule B’s have been coming in at a good pace – thank you!  I’m almost a little afraid of what my in-basket will look like on Monday!