VIU Scenery

Retreat

The Senate retreat is held annually in August, before the start of the academic year.  The purpose of the retreat changes annually, but basically it is to build the expectations for the coming year, as well as team build.  The retreat is always held off-campus, and the usual location is Tamagawa Gauken in Cedar (however using another location is permitted). The 2009 Retreat was held in the Nanaimo River Room of the Vancouver Island Convention Centre, due to space needs.

In the past, Senate Standing Comittee Chairs, Vice-Chairs, and Support were invited to the retreat; however, in 2009 the Chair determined that the Retreat would be restricted to Senators only. For the 2009 Retreat, the Chair did agree to allow standing committee support to attend due to the governance presentation as it was thought this would be helpful to the support persons during our transition. This, however, was an exception and should not be an expectation in the future. Further, at the 2009 Executive Retreat, it was determined that all Executive members be invited to future Senate retreats (see email of September 21, 2009 from Diny van Beers). Executive members identified were: Pat Eagar, David Drakeford, Ric Kelm, Darrel Mansbridge and Toni O'Keefe. The Chair sets the expectations for the retreat agenda. Please see the sample email below regarding a past retreat.