Conference Room
- Apologies and Absences
Present – MT (President), LM (Chair), JC (Sports & Socs Chair), AL (Librarian), CR (Welfare Officer), JG (Welfare Officer), AH (Outreach Chair), HR (Vice President) and RR (Social Chair), TH (Union Rep), MF (Treasurer)
Apologies – HLE (Postgrad Rep), AL (Senior Intro Week Rep)
Absences – none
- Reports
Full reports to be submitted by 6pm on Saturday for the JCR meeting
AL – Librarian
Arranging timetable – hopefully open next week
Book order this weekend
Seniors get a paid shift once a fortnight, volunteers the rest of the time
JC – Sports and Socs Chair
Website updated
All contact details for all socs
CR – Welfare Officer
Updated website
LM – Chair
Glossary of terms on cuths.com
Dining hall booked for first JCR meeting
TH- Union Rep
Currently prepping for University Challenge
Went to the Union ball on Friday, was not slapped by Pro Green. Was the only other Union Rep there but did a bit of networking with the Union sabbs
MF – Treasurer
Submitted last years books to be audited – just waiting to hear back about them
Done almost all the VAT for the last 3 months
Emailed all sports and socs to tell their budgets, will be emailing committees next week
HR – Vice President
Stop with ‘st cuth’s’, reintroduce all designs, including the freshers t shirt design
Totally schooled scruffy dog stash
RR – Social Chair
Oktoberfest – probably a week on saturday
Michaelmas ball – venue booked, 14th november
HR AP – include a ‘save the date’ in the newsletter
AH – Outreach Chair
Updating livers out section of website – still needs a lot more attention and admin permissions
College parents – everyone matched up by 9 o clock. Possible attendance system next year so parents aren’t left hanging
Had a meeting with the Union Community Officer about this years housing campaign
– 10th november for 2 weeks – focus on honesty, similar to Oxford Brooks’ ‘Stop, Think, Sign’ campaign. Focus on combatting welfare issues
JG – Welfare Officer
Has been speaking to the Community Officer who wants more involvement of LGBT reps in colleges and the LGBTA more generally
Very keen to have someone to run for the LGBT rep position, and the same goes for international and students with disabilities rep
MT – President
She’s still learning!
Charities commission needs a report by the end of the month – if we don’t do it then we cease to exist and will become a DSO (noooo!)
Creating some loose guidelines for sports and soc socials
Busy being chair of prescomm – at assembly she will represent the views of prescomm, while TH represents Cuth’s interests
Other big concern – finding an international rep – hopes they will make an active effort and perhaps reintroduce people we potentially lost in freshers’ week
- Newsletter (RR)
Pin at the top of the facebook page weekly? Except for weeks with JCR meetings in which case the first half of the week have the newsletter post and then the jcr meeting event pinned
Paper newsletter’s knocking around too – can be printed in the finance office
Location? Backs of toilet doors in the bars and jcrs in snap frames, potentially house noticeboards, on the tables at dinner on the reverse of ‘don’t take my fucking cutlery’ signs.
Deadline for all newsletter content – Saturday 6pm – to be sent to HR
- Facebook Groups (RR)
Now have 3 groups for each successive freshers’ week – each gets less and less utilised
Update the name – ‘third years’, ‘second years’ rather than ‘freshers’ 2012′
While we may feel they get a lot of spam, for the vast majority of people in that group it is the only freshers’ group they are part of. Therefore, go forth and spam.
- Freshers’ Week Review (MT)
International and PG Move In
Making decorations was a good team building exercise for reps – occasionally more supervision required
Less time needed for decs – teams worked much more efficiently when working in smaller groups and not mingling
Last year – one designated international team – international and PG students got to know the same friendly faces. This year there wasn’t the same amount of recognition
Frep numbers
Previously we’ve had 6 teams of 6, this year had 6 teams of 7 – better to have a few spare, esp if we lose any or people need walking home
Some issues with meal times – college aren’t happy about all the mouths to feed – about 60 people including exec
The numbers were most important when rounding people up but not everyone in needed in the clubs – Potential rota for sending people home in the evening
Wednesday – Pizza Night (Brooks)
Worked well, had lots of people come down to the bar and chatting away
Initially a lot of reps but the proportion got better as the evening went on and more fresh came down
Thursday – ‘Organised Fun’ (Bailey)
Apple bobbing was bloody marvellous
It’s good to have fairly cringey activities as people have a definite task to do and can bond over it
Friday
Largely left them to it
International night at the Union – maybe 20 cuth’s
A big, quite intimidating party – perhaps not the best for jetlagged internationals, many of whom might be quite shy or not want to drink
Lurkers on Saturday
Give people who’ve already moved in something to do on move in day – occupying them takes up rep time and they can get in the way a bit
An event in the garden that people can just join in with, whether they’ve arrived that day or earlier in the week – maybe something at the racecourse. Good to have something to direct people to
Saturday – Move in day!
There was quite a build of traffic in relation to ‘The Great Fonteyn Disaster’
Fonteyn was mainly dealt with by the JCR, despite it being a college issue – we ended up relaying bad news when it didn’t technically involve us
At brooks there was only one staff member doing registration which at points led to big queues of over an hour for some students – definitely need more college staff trained and available
Reps need to be much more aware of all the steps arrivals need to go through – registration etc – worth devoting 10 minutes to at the start of the day
Fire engine turned up at Brooks trying to test access routes – access routes were blocked as 250 people happened to be moving in.
Note for next year – inform all emergency services of move in day, not just police.
Other colleges move in on Sundays – the uni, council and police want us to do the same
On sunday they get police and council support doing the jobs we have to do on Saturday – do we want to go for sunday? Resounding ‘no’. It’s also nice to see friendly faces upon arrival rather than police. Also there were communication issues on Sunday letting certain colleges on to the Bailey so we’d rather deal with it ourselves.
PG G? – largely dealt with by JCR – apologising for a a problem that wasn’t our fault – he realised it wasn’t our fault and didn’t blame us for it. Good guy, G? !
Saturday – White T Shirt Party (Bailey)
The evening event was good but we ended up leaving early as freshers were getting restless – anticipate the same thing – they all turn up exactly on time as it’s the first day and it’s very busy – potential bottle bar (?)
We wanted the bar to close at a certain time – an issue on the first and second nights but from Monday onwards the bar was very helpful and flexible – closed when we asked them to
Need more communication with the bar prior to freshers week
Move to Jimmys went smoothly – long queue but worked okay
Sunday – Amazing Race (Starting from Brooks)
If you write something in the handbook, people will do it, especially on the first day
Have the sports day on the first day – gets them out of town as well.
Sunday – Pub Quiz (Brooks)
Pub quiz at brooks – very well attended – shorter in future as a lot of people wanted to go to the bailey bar afterwards
Make sure the microphone down there is working
Sunday – Subject Social (Bailey)
Everyone got really in to the theme – good ice breaker
Klute – need to visit the club early to check everything is in order, come back, then go again
The management makes them let in everyone in who turns up – Johns beat us there by 10 mins and so we couldn’t get everyone in
They were very helpful getting us in to boathouse as an alternative venue, which free. Only about 100 in klute we had to pay for and got free klute entry for weds – silver linings!!
Both lots of people were happy
Try and make sure clubs stick to what they say they’re going to do!
Lots of second and third years out – not a lot you can do about this, just train the reps well!
Monday – Sports Day (Racecourse)
Affected badly by departmental timetables, try to get hold of department timetables beforehand
If there are big departments holding things then avoid these times
Frisbee really appreciated being invited even though it wasn’t that busy
Monday – American Sports Party (Brooks)
Fun lights in the open section of the bar – make it into a dance zone as the space wasn’t very well used
Brooks is very weather dependent – hire a larger marquee for the outdoor area? Get it for the week and do alternate nights?
Residents of brooks might complain but House 12 do get it every night…
Pop corn worked really well – unlimited for about the same cost as the inflatables, and everyone loves a freebie.
Monitoring the licensed area is incredibly difficult at Brooks – multiple entrances and exits – technically should be bar staff on the door but it was reps and exec enforcing rules
Wiff Waff was carnage – bouncers didn’t understand the concept freshers week
– make sure every single person knows what’s going on – manager, bouncers, promoters – they didn’t realise there were reps looking after fresh
Promoters avoided as much as possible
Studio can get us all in in 10 minutes, wiff waff took over an hour
‘Big nights’ are to be avoided – we can happily fill a club and make it good
Tuesday – Newcastle Trip
A lot of people thought it was going to be a guided tour and so were a bit disappointed
Very well attended – about 80 people, although trains were delayed
A good idea but definitely needs more planning and probably a focus – perhaps a museum or cinema trip
Tuesday – Board Games and Biscuits (Brooks)
Really successful – Articulate tournament, darts, people stayed there for the entire time or left for the Bailey and then came back. Not just a ‘chilled’ night but a genuinely fun alternative
About 35 – 40 people were there plus 2 exec and 2 rep teams
Tuesday – Toga Night (Bailey)
Tuesday night is when the fresh get naughty
Turned out well – bar looked amazing
This was the night when the vom began – people started to turn up hammered and this continued for the rest of the week until Saturday
Maybe get reps to be a bit more strict with pre drinking and drinking games – reps need to be the ones to tell them no, by the time they get to us it’s too late…
Studio – really successful night – got in easily, everyone was loving life
Half of them in studio 1, half in 2 – ideally we need to send reps in first to work out where we can fit everyone in and direct everyone to the same place
This was the first day exec was assigned to teams, which worked well
Wednesday – Photo & Matriculation
Photo mishap – unavoidable problem but still a pain in the arse – not booking for next year just yet!
Matriculation – think about where people are going and when they’re leaving – we got stopped by Mary’s and Collingwood coming through the arch, a problem which could have easily been avoided
Everyone coped very well with the last minute change of plans
Wednesday – Formal & Gatsby Night (Bailey)
Formal – decs went well, jcr and bar felt transformed – worth spending a little extra to make it feel special
Almost all of the first sitting went home to ‘get changed’ – almost inevitable when the first sitting is so early
All the tickets were wrong – need 5 for 5.30 not just 5.30 – lots of people came late and the dress code was wrong as well
Need more food for reps – dependent on timings perhaps give the reps brunch and they can sort their own tea? Or get them to pay for pizza that night
Funkyard went down a treat
People didn’t realise EG was coming on after funkyard so a lot left – lost a lot of people to loveshack and Fabios as that’s where they thought we were going and wanted to leave early to beat the queues (this was as a result of the wiff waff fiasco which hopefully won’t be an issue in future)
Lots of chunder
Quick clear up – need someone to be barking orders
Klute – not very busy but those that went had a good night
Welfare and reps – don’t actually know what to do with drunk people – can’t make decisions – would like more support from college in certain situations
Thursday – Freshers’ Fair, Tie Dye & Acoustic Afternoon (Bailey)
JC didn’t book the dining hall but it worked out in the end
Had some random socs just rock up but he managed to fit them in
Need more people to play music but still worked nicely
Considering the general lack of organisation for this day it went very well and tie dye went down an absolute treat
Thursday – 90s Night (Bailey)
Freshers started arriving at about 9 – some fresh arrived early and left because the bar was empty
Make sure we monitor noise – how far down the bailey we can still be heard (often beyond 8)
CR made a makeshift sling from a loveshack t shirt for fresher B?
Papa Johns handed out free pizza, it was great
Fired a frep
Loveshack were very good to us, monk was not – very forthright with poor old Jo Bo
Thursday – Pizza & Pyjamas (Brooks)
40ish people to start with, then maybe 20 or 30 – a lot came just for pizza, not quite enough for everyone
A lot of people needed it as they were knackered – always nice to have an alternative event later in the week.
Didn’t need 2 teams of reps – only 3 or 4 needed, especially on a film night
Friday – Silent Disco (Bailey)
Silent disco – ran smoothly
We rented in out either side of the night we used it – difficulties with batteries
Headphones are a good way to measure capacity of the dining hall
Clear up was hella fast
Didn’t lose too many people to going out
Have to start everything late this night as fresh get bored after about 3 hours but that does mean they come down later and are drunker
Welfare had a very messy night
Post parties in House 8 – 2.30/3 o clock – we shouldn’t have to shut down parties, college responsibility. They do clear out pretty when MT rocks up though coughfunpolicecough
Friday – Union Welcome Ball
Union party – not that well attended by cuth’s
They felt they were missing out – most came back to the silent disco on the midnight bus or taxis before
The union wants us to leave the night free but we won’t!
Saturday – JCR Meeting (Dining Hall)
Went very well – great attendance
Vote closed early by accident but had a 77 turn out which wasn’t bad
Dancing was fun and broke up the governance – had a nice ‘end of camp’ feel
Saturday – Beach Party (Bailey)
No welfare issues, everyone was tired
Had a nice party feel – the reps being excited helped to perk up the droopy fresh
Should reps be off duty at midnight?
Freshers were having a good time watching us getting drunk
We all had rep shirts on which was potentially a little questionable
We can’t look after them all the time though. No toast tonight.
Ents Generally
Dance mat – amazing, really well used – people on it all night – you’re on it with someone else
Two person things are more fun and better used
Ask AR if we can have it for less time
Visually impressive for the cost even if they’re not being heavily used – looks and feels like there’s lots going on
General Points
White frep t shirts not great for first night – can’t tell the difference between freshers and reps – give freshers white fresh tops and have reps in green (?)
Facepaint was very helpful – brand them!
Brighter wristbands would be more helpful and easier to spot
Alternative wristbands for under 18s rather than just coloured in
Liaise with other colleges about fancy dress for the night, makes it easier to spot our babies
Have assistant team leaders
Get a tech manager for the whole of freshers’ week – doesn’t have to be the green machine manager but someone who can work it all week, maybe a couple of gremlin assistant
Need someone to do a playlist for every night – we ended up using the same one for most nights
Bottle Bars – American, Gatsby, Silent Disco
Placement was not ideal in Brooks
In the dining hall not really necessary – the bar is empty as we’re all in the dining hall
Worth having to take people away from the main bar – but bottles are not that in demand
Need to be a lot more obvious – need more signs as you can have the bottles on display
Add a ‘bottle bar’ sign to making decorations
Tell people in big queues for main bar
- Any other business
JG – Would like a ‘safe/responsible attitudes to sex’ guidelines on cuths.com – ‘We the JCR believe…’
Pub Quiz – This week have it on the bailey, straight after the jcr meeting? LM will speak to speak to AH