Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Elizabeth Elming
Toronto, ON, Canada
www.libbyelming.com
libby@libbyelming.com
6eme@queensu.ca
Student no - 05549558

Subject: Appeal to drop WRIT250 & ENGL281

Attn: Associate Dean (Studies)

Hi there,

My name is Elizabeth Elming and I am a Queen¿¿s online student currently based in Toronto. I am writing because I am hoping to drop two courses from the fall 2017 semester. I sincerely apologize that I am appealing to drop these courses at such a late date, and I thank you in advance for your consideration of this letter and of my extenuating circumstances.

I am appealing to drop both WRIT250 and ENGL281 as a large change in my career this fall made it impossible for me to complete my classes. I had originally hoped to take a full course load in order to fast-track the completion of my degree and I am disappointed that I wasn¿¿t able to achieve what I set out to achieve this school year.

I currently work as a full-time consultant in the music industry in Toronto, focusing on the music publishing and songwriter side of the business. My industry is incredibly fluid, with schedules being changed to suit artist release plans, tours, songwriting camps, and business trips at a moment¿¿s notice. As a consultant, I need to decide quickly when I am offered a contract, and because of the fluctuating nature of the business, I often cannot plan ahead when it comes to my commitments.

Earlier this year, I picked up the Canadian Music Publishers Association (CMPA) as a client and have consulted on three projects for the organization so far. When I signed up for my classes in August of this year, my work for the CMPA was finished for the year (as far as I was aware). However, in mid-September, I was offered a contract to run two projects for the CMPA at the last minute. These two projects entailed taking a group of 30 music publishers and songwriters to Germany (Berlin and Hamburg specifically) and to Los Angeles. Both projects were a part of the CMPA¿¿s ¿¿CMPA Create¿ program and my job for these projects included the following work:

1. Managing songwriter submissions for a 3-day writing camp
2. Managing publisher submissions for B2B networking program
3. Managing selection process for both publishers and songwriters, and updating all applicants accordingly
4. All travel coordination for a group of 30 people (flight bookings, hotel bookings, car services, border letters, schedules, contact databases for participants etc.).
5. On the ground management of publisher group, and the running of a three day 12 songwriter writing camp (including liaising between music supervisors and A&R reps providing leads for the camp). Camp days are 10 hour days at the studio, plus additional outside work to ensure that all aspects of the camp are running smoothly.
6. Coordinating video crew brought in to film each event and additional evening networking mixer events in each city (please see the links below for a look at some of the video content and press coverage the events I ran received).
7. All post event work including event surveys, expenses and receipts for travel subsidies, grant reporting, song tracking and metadata management, tour accounting, song pitching and promotion etc.

I was brought on to manage these two events at the last minute which meant that I had to get up to speed on everything quite quickly. Making the arrangements for all of the participants in such a short amount of time, created a very high stress environment for me. These events are incredibly time consuming, and as such all of my other consulting work and my school work had to be put on hold.

Managing such a large group of people for a large organization like the CMPA was a huge opportunity for me; one that I could not pass up. I attempted to stay on top of all of my course work, but I eventually had to drop two courses before the academic deadline. I believed at the time that my remaining two courses would be manageable (WRIT250 and ENGL281), however, I misjudged my circumstances and should have dropped these courses as soon as my contract with the CMPA was signed. It takes approximately a month of full time work to properly plan a ¿¿CMPA Create¿ event, so even though the events themselves were only about a week long, I was constantly working to put everything together and keep everything organized (please see my supporting documents for a look at when I was hired, when these events took place, the schedules I put together for the songwriters and publishers in each territory, and a screen shot of all of the supporting documents that are required to bring an event such as this to fruition).

Moving forward, my plan for the future when it comes to my school work is to take a more realistic approach to the completion of my degree. By taking a full course load, along with my full-time consulting business, I was overextending myself and as a result, my school work suffered. My CMPA contract this year left me completely exhausted, so much so that I am only getting around to appealing to drop these classes on Christmas Eve as it is the first day that I have had off from work for almost the entire year. I am disappointed in myself as I know that I can do better and I usually pride myself on my commitment to my education. I know now that I need to manage my time more effectively, for both my school work and my health. I will be taking a much lighter course load going forward (no more than two classes at a time) and I will sincerely work on keeping myself organized so that I don¿¿t miss any additional important dates and deadlines.

Thank you again for your consideration of my appeal and if you have any questions at all, I will be happy to answer them. I can be reached at my Queen¿¿s email address or at my consultant email address, both of which are listed at the top of this document.

All the best,
-Elizabeth Elming

Student Number 05549558




CMPA CREATE EVENT LINKS:
CMPA in SOCAN words and Music (this article mentions the CMPA Create program)
https://www.socanmagazine.ca/sound-advice/sound-advice-the-cmpa-looks-ahead-in-2017/

Create Germany:
http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/cmpa-create-germany-to-help-expand-global-opportunities-for-canadian-music-publishers-songwriters-645346143.html
https://www.youtube.com/watchvthiosXfCwnw

Create LA:
http://www.fyimusicnews.ca/articles/2017/11/17/cmpa-helping-boost-songwriter-revenues-through-global-summits
https://www.youtube.com/watchvzqY-kkUGiHI (2016 video as 2017 video has not been edited yet).