Setting
In EE’s house, overlooking the river. His housemates are eating the mountain of food they bought from the vegan market.
Present: JC (Vice-President), ÁB (PG International Rep), EE (International Rep), KS, AP, JZ (International Welfare Rep)
Apologies: AS, DA, EM (President), ST
Absent: GM
Trip to Edinburgh
EE: It was difficult to coordinate when this would happen so it didn’t work out. Next time we should plan further in advance.
KS: I think a lot of people had summatives too.
International Formal
EE: EA was happy with it and liked the dancing.
JCR Restructuring
JC: We’re planning to restructure slightly. International rep will no longer sit on the exec, and will instead have the same status as the minority reps. All the minority reps will then sit on a committee together which will be chaired by a communities officer who does sit on the exec.
ÁB: It might affect international freshers’ week. It’s crucial for this to be well organised.
EE: International rep will still exist they just won’t be exec. They’ll still frep and be able to organise it. There’s a concern that there’ll be a representation struggle in people running for communities officer. I like that it’s more about the community and engages more people. It’s nice for internationals to also engage with home students. There have been some bad international reps, and having someone that is able to apply pressure will be useful.
ÁB: I don’t think international students generally get involved in other exec positions, so this could affect their representation on the exec.
EE: I think there is a need for better representation that this will help with. Also, we don’t set up the international committee before Freshers’ week. It might be good to have some extra internationals as freps. It’s hard to get people to apply for international comm, and I think it needs restructuring anyway. Events managers and publicity are important.
Freshers’ Week
JZ: I’d like to do a Halal food delivery thing. I think it’s good to get internationals to frep. It would be nice to have some be more visible. I had to message a lot of people directly to get them to come to events.
EE: How do we motivate international, and particularly Chinese people, to frep, if we facilitate it?
AP: I think it’s important to explain why they’re valuable.
JZ: It’s good to have someone that’s been here a bit longer but can connect better.
JC: I think if you’re going to do this, it should take the form of an international frep team, somewhat like the PG frep team, that operates slightly separately.
EE: I would like that.
KS: How would they go about connecting with all the housing groups?
EE: In the international welcome week home students aren’t around so it’s a good chance to go and meet them. This year was a lot more difficult because of the building work.
ÁB: Afterwards they could be distributed to other frep teams.
AP: I think there needs to be more information about moving in for internationals.
EE: We should have an international handbook.
JZ: It’s important to remember that freshers don’t read the handbook.
EE: I think international students are more likely to.
JZ: I think having a facebook group chat would be really useful.
KS: When people were joining housing group chats, lots of people asked questions that were answered in the handbook.
AP: Back home people don’t really make pages before so I wasn’t expecting it to work like it did.
KS: The facebook infrastructure here is very different to at uni in the states.
EE: We should also have a good presence on WeChat.
AP: Isn’t there a point at which we should leave them to not interact if they don’t want to?
EE: There is, but the problem is we don’t if that’s what’s happening.
JZ: We should send out a welcome email to internationals with a list of information sources and group chats.
EE: I’ve also realised that we don’t have any plug adaptors, and they would be really useful during Freshers’ week.
ÁB: That’s a good idea for an emergency situation where people can’t charge things.
EE: We have enough money to buy some. I think 5-10.
AP: Universal adaptors or specific ones?
EE: I think universal, but we will only need to buy them once.
ÁB: I don’t think we’d need more than 5.
World Map
EE: I’d also like to put up a map somewhere where people can pinpoint where they’re from.
Action: AP to speak to SC.
EE: It would be good to have it somewhere everyone goes, like the JCR. Or maybe the corridor that leads to the dining hall.
AP: At my friend’s college, they have a map that’s half New Zealand and half the rest of the world, and everyone is pinpointed.
AP: We could put the pins in ourselves and lock the display, but put up a piece of paper where people can write where they’re from and we’ll put the pin in for them.
KS: We could also put a post on facebook.
Action: JZ to print out WeChat group chat QR code so people can join.
Carnival
ÁB: We’re hoping to do something food based for carnival in the middle of February.
KS: Fat Tuesday is 25th February.
AP: We should do it on a Saturday because people don’t like going out on Saturdays but they do want to do something.
EE: We could do 29th February. It only comes around once every four years.
ÁB: More internationals live in Brooks than Bailey.
EE: We could do half at Brooks then half at Bailey.
JZ: It’s hard to move people around.
AP: Could we buy drinks for the first few people to arrive? Maybe first two teams.
Action: EE to speak to RJ (FCO) about this.
ÁB: We could instead do it on 28th and make it a Brooks Friday.
Action: ÁB to contact EK (Bar Steward) about using Brooks.
Films
ÁB: PGM comm is meeting today and they’re open for some films, maybe as a collab.
AP: We should show Parasite.
Pub Quiz
EE: When we will we do this? We should do it this term. Maybe the week before the end of term.
ÁB: That is peek summative season. Dissertations are often also due then.
KS: How about 15th February?
*Agreement*
ÁB: Let’s not call it “International pub quiz”.
AP: We should do a singles day as it’s the day after Valentine’s.
ÁB: We could also do this on 14th and make it a Brooks Friday.
Action: ÁB to contact EK about using the bar for this on 14th Feb.