Present: AK (President), MP (Sports & Socs), EM (VP), SM (Communications), EB (Librarian), JG (Facilities), LM (Senior Welfare), JC (PG & M), EC (Chair), EP (Outreach), MM (Social Chair)
Absent:
Apologies: JB (International)
Setting: AB is on the floor as he was late
Agenda
Minutes from the last meeting – everyone might have read them
ACTION POINTS:
EB did email CIS but they didn’t get back to her
Re the study room
JG: I think the donations for the conference room should be in line with the music room
JC: I think this should be higher because Greg did the music room off his own back which was nice but this is selling the name of a room
EB: We could do it for a lump sum and name it after them for 10 years, but does mean we could update it. If it was monthly people could have changes in their circumstances
JG: EA is quite keen to get women involved for the 50th anniversary – but that is a group you could try and approach
AK: We could find an inspirational woman and stick her name on it and then get other women to donate to the actual room
EB: Could we get those who donated to have little art soc portraits painted of them
No numbers have been landed on for this money wise
ACTION POINT: AK to talk to EA about whether we could work with a big 50 years of women event.
ACTION POINT: Everyone think about whether Beyoncé is inspirational enough
ACTION POINT: AB to circulate how much is in the reserves
JC wrote all 3 motions – legend
SP now has Summer Ball Manager on his plan
Training AK
AK: I would like you to tell me there was any training that made you feel better at your role. We’ve got some mental health first aid training now from MH (SU Welfare). Role specific
EM: Unconscious bias for everyone who is going to pick people for committees
EB: That was run in the summer term which is important for those on year abroads
MM: There was a health and safety one which was a little common sense but the uni has lots of regulations to follow
SM: The SU reps just advertised one about media and how to reach people and the stats behind it which is important for comms
AB: Cash handling training- the bar might do this. The bar supervisors have to do this training so we might be able to jump in with them
EC: For chair, conflict resolution was better or maybe also something to help the chair write governing documents because I had no clue
JG: Something about chairing meetings
EM: Not minuting training
New building focus group AK
AK: Please remember to not be negative. It’s going to go in Brooks courtyard because we need more space. EA wants it to be a multi-use space.
MP: POI about Collingwood- the gym person didn’t have a budget for the gym at all!!!
Everyone is in awe
AK: Anyway, the capacity would only be 100, I want it to be a gym. But we want this focus group to be people who would be from lots of different backgrounds. We don’t want people to mention the pool table because that didn’t go well. We just want to talk about what goes in the new building.
EC: I want to make a suggestion, for the focus group we should start by talking about the actual space, and then second go on to how it will impact the JCR etc
SM: I’d agree with that
JG: The focus group should also ask people about physical building work
All agreed
AK: Who do we want to be present in the meeting?
Pool, Fem soc, PGs, boat club, an exec member, AJ as assistant librarian, choir, Drama, Christian Union, People who live in parsons, Gym manager, some just open applications – just random people
Next exec meeting AK
AK: This is currently scheduled for after the next JCR meeting due to a change of date. Can we change this to the 10th?
We will change it provisionally but then if we don’t have enough to say in it we will change it back to it’s original date or cancel it.
Ripped Off Society SM
SM: People want a Ripped Off society and how far it should support things like rent strikes. What do people think?
AB: have Aidan’s done their rent strike?
EC: Supporting a political group isn’t allowed
EP: If they do rent strikes off their own back it should be fine
EM: I would love a ripped off society
MM: Why a society?
SM: It’s just what other people have found works really well in other colleges
JG: If we were to have a soc and put parameters on their formation, how would we manage that?
EP: Could we not put a clause in the standing orders that say they are doing it off their own back and not with support from the JCR
JC: We could say we don’t condone illegal behaviour but that’s probably not enough
AK: I don’t really know how Aidan’s are doing it
JG: They have the advantage of being DSO
JC: I didn’t think I’d ever hear those words
SM: I think the society will happen either way
AK: Aidan’s are not certain on doing rent strikes, it’s more about trying to get a group together for campaigning
EM: I think it’s better for us to be part of the conversation. Plus it is quite a small, passionate group that are pro the strikes
AB: Could we have it as an SU campaign team similar to welfare?
SM: We want a society because Communications already has too much in it and I don’t think it will get done
AB: Could it be like welfare campaign managers? Who you just oversaw?
EP: Can we make a ripped off position?
EC: But they’d need a committee?
AK: I think it should be more than one position in the JCR- we should have an SU campaign manager and then they can work with a ripped off society
JG: Would it be safer to push them back to the SU, rather than all colleges to have a little group. Could they have a Cuth’s rep within a bigger Ripped Off group?
EP: That’s how DUCK works and it goes quite well
ACTION POINT: AK to suggest this to the SU
EB: I think people care more about their colleges, a ripped off society would feel more grass roots
MP: I like JG’s idea because we can just treat them as a normal society, but it doesn’t come back to us if something goes wrong. They can still be at sports and socs fairs even if they aren’t technically a JCR society
JC: We could just not ratify them but support them starting up
EB: They might want to be ratified to legitimise them
MP: It’s like poker soc, we are being pretty rational, we should just say this in the meeting
JC: The trustees can overturn anything that happens in a meeting so if this got passed but was dodge then they could shut it down
EC: Having a campaign person to be on your committee is good because they can make it clear to the ripped off group what it is and that it isn’t okay from a JCR perspective and feed back if their aims change
AK: I think we will be associated so they should be ratified so we have some element of control if things go wrong
JG: That’s why we should give it to the SU
MP: I’m against a ratified society, Cuth’s people can do whatever they want. We aren’t there to monitor their every move
EC: They want to be a society though, so if they want that then we can give them our terms
AB: It’s going to be very difficult to suppress this group of people, so the best solution is to install controls on it, have it as a committee and have lots of method 3 to make sure people don’t have extreme views like rent strikes
EM: People will still want rent strikes and we shouldn’t stop them because their opinions are valid
JG: Should we just have a way of having a mailing list to see who we are dealing with
MP: Suggested action point, to have a meeting between with the people who would head it up to make sure we are all the same page?
AK: We need to discuss it but more urgent is deciding if they should be ratified. Do we want them ratified? For 7/12, against 2/12, abstentions, 3/12. If you disagree then please feel free to disagree with it at the meeting. In conclusion we support the soc being started, it can be ratified but we don’t support rent strikes
AOB
Sports and Socs order
EC: The JCR sports and socs award, what is it? Is it still a thing? Does it still get used?
JC: Is this the one for coaching? Yes. So if someone wants to do a course to help their soc or society they can get it
EC: Is this still in the budget?
AK: When I made the proposal budgets for FCO I got rid of it as nobody had used it for years, but I could add it in again as I need to create a new proposal budget for the trustees next week.
EC: In the order it says that you can receive up to £200 or 60% of the training cost, but it’s not clear which is the cap. I will edit it so that people know it’s the smaller value
MP: If no one is going for it then couldn’t we put it in the participation fund which people go for and people could use it for that
AK: The participation fund was really popular this year and we should budget more for it in the future
EC: It says there are 4 awards for active members?
JC: Active members used to be defined in the orders. That means people who are actively taking part in the society
ACTION POINT: EC to edit this
EC: We mentioned once, the terms at which a sport and socs can stop existing – it got brought up that every s&s that wants to exist the next year needs to submit a budget even if it’s of zero
MP: I don’t think that’s the best way. I was happy with the system I proposed
EC: You’ve said one that has less than 10 members and the S&S chair says it’s not got quantifiable benefit to the JCR would cease to exist but I think the zero budget would sort this
MP: There is also a third thing that stops them existing
JC: We used to have a ratification form which people had to do, and having that could stop having to do the bureaucracy of a £0 budget
AK: We took that out to take away the extra stage
AB: I think JC system is better because I’m not meant to be the one with list of S&Ss, MP should, I should only be dealing with the ones who want money
MP: I agree, we don’t need more motions etc
JG: To do with the 10 members- I think it should be possible for people to declare that their soc doesn’t exist anymore
EC: Would ratification solve all this?
JC: It would be better than a zero budget
AB: We should have people submit an exec member as a part of their ratification then they can exist
AK: One issue about that was that people just hadn’t elected them yet
JG: On that basis could we have a continuation of the current exec being able to put on the form until it changes
All agreed that that would be a good part of the ratification form
EC: Do you think we should enforce secretaries in s&s?
JC: I already wrote that out
AB: There are some smaller S&s where the president is the treasurer
JC: I also wrote that out, treasurer should only be necessary if they handle money, and president should be unnecessary as long as someone takes responsibility for the society, which could also be the treasurer.
JC: About disbanding societies; there should also be a process to announce at a JCR meeting that a S&S has disbanded
JG: Are we going to offer the chance to pick up the society then/ within a certain amount of time
ACTION POINT: MP to draft a procedure to that
Position holders
JG: Have people been keeping up with whether people on their committees attend JCR meetings?
EM: Lots of people have been pretty good with sending apologies
EC: But we need a register- I made one and none of you use it
MM: Why I don’t clamp down too much is because my whole committee would be vonced
EC: Your committee is one of the most contested, so VONC them if they don’t turn up
MP: Are we still enforcing it for sports and soc? What are we going to do?
AK: Dock their budget.
MP: I am not comfortable with that
AK: All they need to do is send apologies
EC: I would be willing to be more lenient with people signing in for more than one society because at least then there is representation
All agreed that we are over complicating this and it’s quite doable with a little bit of organisation