Strategic Planning and Community Involvement (SPCI) Committee
The Medical Students’ Society of McGill University, your MSS, is the official organization that represents a student body of over 700 promising future physicians at various stages of their medical education. The Society organizes many events and conferences attended by the majority of its members and which together make up the cornerstone of class, social life and exchanges between students of different years. Moreover, it is responsible for maintaining proper avenues of communication between its members and the Faculty of Medicine. Indeed, the MSS is your best intermediate to influence decisions made by the administrative staff and deanery with which the Society has regular meetings. The Society is a proud partner of several influential medical student federations such as the FMEQ (Fédération Médicale Étudiante du Québec) and the CFMS (Canadian Federation of Medical Students) and has seats reserved for it on the general councils of these associations.
In addition to these duties, the MSS wishes to unite the efforts of its members at the level of social action and enhance its involvement in the community, while also soliciting the community’s input into our student affairs. Many of you demonstrate tremendous leadership abilities, and we are already sponsoring a variety of dynamic student-led clubs and interest groups. Therefore, rather than aiming to trigger the will for social engagement, which already constitutes a preoccupation to so many of us, we intend to promote a platform whereby best-practices may be shared, new ideas discussed, and additional tools acquired, so that our involvement in the community, either local or global, may have a greater impact! We also believe in the necessity to ensure a constant follow-up of the initiatives launched by students in partnership with the MSS and with our community partners, in order to appreciate the extent of what is accomplished, provide a transparent justification of the resources utilized, and act in cohesion with one another.
The objectives of the Strategic Planning and Community Involvement (SPCI) Committee are:
- Manage the new Community Involvement Fund (available soon):
- Provide institutional support, counselling, funding and networking opportunities for student-led initiatives.
- Strategic Planning of the MSS:
- Survey and assess students' needs, interests and opinions and establish the future priorities of the MSS in accordance with those of the student body.
- Other long-term objectives to be discussed with members of the Committee.
In order to attain the objectives listed above, we have produced the MSS Community Involvement Plan, confident that such an initiative will prevail after our yearly mandates. The Community Involvement Conference, on September 10 (9am to noon), will officially launch this initiative.
Any comments or suggestions regarding this document will be carefully are very welcome (community.mss@gmail.com). Please note that the elements included in this plan will be gradually implemented. To be successful, this new and exciting project requires your active participation and feedback. It aims, after all, to empower students and facilitate the concretization of far-reaching projects developed with and for our community. We hope you will make the most out of it, and work towards its constant improvement!