Present: ES (Senior Welfare Officer), AC (Welfare Campaigns Manager), EM (President), JS (Working Class Students’ Rep), JC (Vice-President), LH, LM, OW (Male Welfare Officer), EGS, SPB, BC, EK, JG, HM, HB, FG, AS
Apologies: LA, LD, AH (Female Welfare Officer), RM (LGBT+ rep)
Absent: SASDB, OB, MR (People of Color Rep)
Take Your Time to Sign Campaign
ES: First campaign will be take your time to sign, focusing on changing culture surrounding housing by encouraging people to take time, consider finances and people, and sign for houses later in the term/year. Sometimes second years tell people they need to sign in September/October, which isn’t true and puts additional stress on freshers. I’ll run through what we’re doing and what I want your help with it. Some postering around college, also I’d like people to use a whiteboard and write down thoughts/messages then take a picture with it and we’ll put it up. Alternatively, send ES a message and picture and it can go on social media. Likewise, for areas that are often unpopular, it would be good to have info on why they’re actually great. Any stats/figures would be really useful. Eg. Some housing is released in the new year. 62.5% of people said that housing is a massive concern for them. Any tips or ideas about how to discuss housing and prices with friends and how to approach the conversation, send them to ES. On Monday there’ll be a facebook profile picture frame. Any other ideas?
SPB: Are we still doing a housing talk? We could have something welfare-related there.
ES: I’ll speak to CG (communications Officer) about that.
OW: We could raise awareness for targeted ads on facebook by certain companies. Freshers will get a lot of this and we need to tell them that this is related to estate agents trying to create pressure.
Stress Prevention Week
ACe: Stress prevention week is 4th-8th November, it won’t be a huge campaign because of take your time to sign, but something social media related with stress prevention tips. Maybe also people sharing experiences of how they deal with stress. Hopefully one event during that week. Any ideas?
ES: Maybe something like yoga and meditation.
*General Support*
EM: De-stress yoga was very popular before.
JS: Maybe art soc could also do something?
ES: We’ll generally leave it with you guys to look into how we do this.
HM: DU yoga society would be good to contact.
ES: Anybody keen on art soc collab?
SPB: Good to have variety, not everyone likes yoga.
*General agreement*
ES: We’ll have a poll for who organises what
EM: For some people yoga isn’t always relaxing, but sometimes village fetes have a load of stuff you could smash. Smashing things is very relaxing.
*General agreement*
ES: Usually I’d send out a document in advance with what we’ll discuss so you can think of things. Often you can’t prevent stress, so it’s more to do with stress management.
ES: Use canva online to make posters. For this we’ll also need Instagram posts. A4 things don’t go on Instagram, they need to be square. A4 for printing to go around college. Also include Cuth’s JCR logo and welfare logo on every poster. Greens and yellows are good colours. Post them on welfare campaigns page when they’re done.
Movember
ACe: Next big campaign will be Movember. Focus will be mostly on male physical health eg. testicular cancer. Men’s rugby are keen to be involved, possibly a photo of them holding balls. Also hoping to involve copp-a-feel for breast cancer awareness. Still want to discuss male mental health but we don’t want to leave women out of that conversation. Statistic about male suicide rate being higher misses common female obligations to care for others. Women still need to be involved in campaign, even if we highlight male issues. Any ideas about specific events around suicide awareness?
EM: Pre-Brooks Friday pub quiz.
ES: Good idea. Good way of not shoving education on people, questions can make people think. Also fun. Also bar is raising money for RNLI. Maybe one of the drinks could include a donation for Movember.
OW: Often get in an ale for this. Prices might be out of their hands. Normally get in a Movember ale.
JS: We asked JB to stock Movember ale and then we advertised it. Only problem was a surplus of it.
ES: In the past we’ve decorated the bar with handmade decorations. Also written down statistics on stickers to put around bar.
ES: Any more lowkey events?
FG: Would it be uncomfortable to suggest that men have a space to sit down and talk about their feelings together?
ES: I like the idea, but I don’t know if people would come. It would be fitting with the theme to offer the space though.
OW: Good to have the space even if people don’t come.
EM: So like book a room where people can do this?
FG: Not a drop in, just an opportunity for people to sit and talk knowing that it won’t be shared.
EM: Maybe brand it as something else? Maybe Cuth’s Café?
ES: We will have another meeting before then. Think about how we’d encourage people to come to it.
ACe: Branding will be important, otherwise people won’t come. Call it something that implies it’s a meeting and a chat rather than talking about your emotions.
HM: Have you seen bar mats about caring for friends? We should get some for bars. Could provoke meaningful discussion in the bar. A good subtle way of putting message out.
ACe: I like that.
JG: Calendars are a really good thing, maybe with pictures and stats.
EM: We already do a naked calendar for charity, you could speak to outreach and sports and socs to influence which charity, but two calendars might be too much.
Christmas Campaign
ACe: For Christmas we want some events like delivering candy canes and self-welf-elf with self care messages. Also keen to open conversation around estranged students and people who don’t go home for holidays. Want to encourage people during the week before holidays to start meeting other people who will stay over holidays. Remember that although Christmas is great for lots of people, some people struggle.
ES: I stay over most of Christmas, so if anyone is around it would be good for you to get involved.
ES: Go home and think about this theme for next meeting.
Actions
ES: We’ll put out a calendar of when things will be and we’ll have at least one more meeting this term. But for now we need some action points.
Action: LM and JG to investigate yoga, hopefully getting mats and instructor.
Action: JS to talk to SM (art soc president) about art soc collab
Action: EM to look into smashing things including health and safety.
EM: Could throw balloons full of paint at something
Action: Everyone else to make some posters and follow Cuth’s Welfare Instagram.
Action: Everyone to think of ideas for Movember and Christmas campaign.
OW: For testicular cancer awareness, we could reproduce video where people keep saying “check your balls.” A professional rugby team have done similar.
EM: Lot’s of welfare-conscious people are involved in men’s rugby this year, so might be nice to also target other societies.
JS: I’ll get in touch with darts. Could get a few lads from lots of different societies holding different looking testicular things.
SPB: It would be good not to forget about people on years abroad.
ES: Good, but maybe doesn’t need to be a campaign. Make it clear that people can skype welfare. Drop ins now have times in different time zones. Would be good to have some general posters
AS: Last year we made a group to organise meet-ups for people on years abroad when they were back for Christmas.
ES: We’ll include that in Christmas campaign.
Action: Everyone to tell friends not to stress about housing and put profile picture frames on on Monday.
*Meeting Adjourned*