I have a bit of a dilemma.  You see, AUSU has released the 2021 edition of it’s annual student survey. It’s a survey that basically seeks out the opinions of AUSU members and others as to what services they do that are valued, as well as seeking ideas for what else they can do that members would like to see happen.

The survey comes with a total of over $2,500 in prizes in the form of gift cards (Amazon or the AU Store) or free ProctorU Exams, so if you’re an AUSU member, it’s well worth the time to take the survey.

However, you don’t need to put in a student number if you’re not interested in winning the prizes, and hence comes my dilemma.  Not needing a student number means I can encourage all current readers of The Voice Magazine (that’d be you) to be sure to fill in the survey so that AUSU Council knows that this magazine is important to you.

The flip-side, of course, is that the more important Council feels the magazine is, the more attention they’re going to pay to it, and sometimes flying under the radar can be a good thing.  After all, part of what made The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson amazing is that CBS wasn’t too concerned with whatever Craig was up to (at least, according to him). (The other part was Craig Ferguson.  If you haven’t ever seen the show, and you enjoy seeing real interviews with celebrities, you could do much worse than to hunt down clips from it on YouTube.)

On the whole, however, I think it’s probably better if AUSU knows just how much you value the Voice and the opportunity it provides students (even if you’ve never taken advantage of it yourself.  And if you haven’t, why not?) to share their ideas, themselves, and earn a little extra on the side.

And to that end, I have to thank Michelle Jeanveau for taking the time to share a bit of herself as our featured interview in this weeks’ Minds We Meet column.  Find out about her quest to become a writer of books and materials for educating young children, and where AU has fit on that journey.

Also this week, we bring back the Course Exams, starting with a look at History 331, the social history of Canada.  In fact, returning articles is almost a theme of this issue, because we also have the latest installment of the Setting Up Shop series to help you if you’ve decided to make the move to entrpreneur, and another Local Shout Out with a look at more local businesses in the Calgary area.

I should point out that I’d love to see a Local Shout Out article from your city or town, so if there are a few (or even just one) local businesses in your area you think deserve some love, by all means get in touch with me at voice@voicemagazine.org.  I’d love to hear from you.

Of course we also have a selection of advice, news, reviews, scholarships, events and more on top of all that.

So, go do the survey.  Then come back here and enjoy the read!