Riding on a Team MBT victory, a sleep-deprived Louis Plamondon, ArtSci ’06, delivered a resignation letter to the current AMS executive yesterday afternoon, effectively making him the fifth senior AMS staffer to quit his post this academic year.
Plamondon returned yesterday morning to his position as the AMS Campus Activities Commissioner (CAC) after taking a two-week leave of absence to work as one of Team MBT’s campaign managers.
Upon his arrival, the AMS executive offered Plamondon the opportunity to tender his resignation, or face consequences for problems related to his job performance, said Shiva Mayer, AMS VP (University Affairs).
“It’s never a good thing when somebody resigns,” AMS President Ethan Rabidoux told the Journal. “But sometimes, it’s like you almost get to a point where it’s better if they go than if they stay, and that’s really what it got to [with Plamondon].”
Plamondon told the Journal he resigned because upon his return to the AMS, he faced stressors relating to his responsibility to build an ice rink on Leonard Field.
He said he had made the rink a lower priority than planning for the AMS executive election campaign, which factored into its eventual abandonment.
“It was a question of choice: do I keep up with CAC as my number one thing, or do I go all out with this election?” Plamondon said. “I could only choose one, and I chose the campaign.”
Plamondon said although the project had been handed over to the AMS executive during his absence, and was subsequently shut down, several problems arose that were laid on his shoulders when he returned to office yesterday morning.
“Quite frankly, I want to enjoy my last two months [before graduating] as a normal Queen’s student,” he said. “The position of CAC was more bureaucratic and political than what I signed up for.”
Mayer said he and two of the deputy campus activities commissioners had been tasked with completing the rink during Plamondon’s absence, but concerns arose regarding arrangements he made prior to leaving which came into play during his absence. The concerns, which mainly related to the safety of construction workers and insurance—along with the unusually warm weather—led them to abandon the project, Mayer said.
Plamondon said the current AMS executive expressed dissatisfaction regarding the way he handled the ice rink project, which was not a top priority for him.
“I think I accomplished a lot this year as CAC, all [the things] I wanted to do,” he said. “Even though the project is closed, this is not the kind of stress I wanted to face upon my return [to the AMS].”
More than $3,000 had been invested into the ice rink, most of which will be retained in the supplies purchased to actually construct the rink. Mayer said anywhere between a few hundred dollars and $1,250 had also been spent on labour building the rink.As a result, the project was over budget.
Plamondon said he wouldn’t have resigned if he hadn’t completed the main projects he’d set out for himself when he was hired. In January, AMS Assembly approved the creation, in perpetuity, of five new CAC committees, which Plamondon considers his legacy to the AMS. The committees include Capture the Faculty, Catch Me If You Can, Mystere, Queen’s Oscars and Gael Force One, a group tasked with turning a few key sporting events into larger-scale productions.
With this mission accomplished, Plamondon said he was more ionate about working to get Team MBT elected, despite the risk that they might lose.
“I thought I was going to make a bigger difference to the AMS that way,” he said.
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