MT: What experience do you have, specifically that makes you apt for this position?

TH: I co-chaired MUS Carnival. It’s an event that has a budget around $100,000 … I oversaw a committee of 16 people to make sure it went well and I think it went very smoothly. I was chief of staff for my faculty frosh. I oversaw 32 frosh staffers for that. I’ve had numerous involvements in business competitions, Model UN. I was sent to West Point last year and I was a director and McMUN chair. On top of that, before I came to McGill, I worked in a bar. I was a manager and I oversaw well over $100,000 of sales and inventory. I took care of daily sales reports. In summation, this is right along what I’ve been doing for a long time. I really think the skills I’ve developed over the past four-plus years are really going to translate well to this position.

MT: Do you have any particular visions on projects you will bring to McGill?

TH: I think my focus is going to be getting tangible things done. I’ve noticed that student governance has a fair amount of bureaucracy to it, which is fair. In the same sense, there is no way that has to hinder progress. Things like the student-run café, I think it’s absolutely realistic to set tangible goals for that, like having renovations begin starting next summer. I’ve actually spoken to [current VP Finance] J.P. about that at length and we both agree that it’s something that can actually happen.

Currently, there isn’t a formularized method to determine the order of how the committee goes through all the funding applications. So I talked about formulizing a triage process for that and actually publicizing the process. […] I think this will help it significantly, specifically for events that have deadlines which require that funding. The second thing was looking at multiple deadlines … I think having multiple deadlines will really change it. Instead of one giant pile of funding applications, they will come in a more manageable pace.

MT: What are your plans with the student-run café and the other space that is becoming available?

TH: I’m kind of putting the café on hold because that will depend on whether or not students want that. After looking through the [student space] survey results, I assume the café will still be at the top of the list. If it is, the first step would be going over the current business plan, which would break down exactly what needs to be done into a series of steps. For example, going to the architecture students’ society and get them to draw out floor plans. Then looking at what the overhead would be, so what would it actually cost, what supplies we need. Currently, J.P. is drafting one of those, and I’ve talked to him at length about it … This would allow me to fast track it and make sure that it does happen.

MT: What were you for Halloween?

TH: I was originally Max from Where the Wild Things Are, but I had the wrong jumpsuit, so I traded with a friend of mine for Tintin. He had the little dog and he safety pinned it to his shoulder and I had the similar coloured shirt he wears; so it was really great.

See TVM’s interview with Hofmeister here.