2014 Committee Lunch

By admin, 30 March, 2022
Date of Meeting

    2014 Committee Lunch

    Date: Wednesday 1st week, Hilary 2014 (2014-01-22)

    Present: Dan Turner (President), Krista Halttunen (Vice-President (Administrative)), Georgina Wilson (Secretary), Max Dalton (Treasurer), Alex Mullan (Lindsay), Anna Hufton (Dr. WHO), Joe Mansour (Dr. WHO), Darryl Braier-Lorimer (Foody), Matthew Lynch (Foody), Caitlin Tickell (Academic Affairs and Careers Officer), Isaac Rose (Academic Affairs and Careers Officer), Sam Bumby (Access and Admissions Officer), Anonymous (Access and Admissions Officer), Robert Walmsley (Affiliations Officer), Nina Plowfields (Affiliations Officer), Henry Wisbey-Broom (Charities and RAG Officer), Aisha Simon (Charities and RAG Officer), Colm Britchfield (Design & Maintenance Officer), James Kavanagh (Design & Maintenance Officer), Elizabeth Tulloch (Student Disabilities Officer), Alex Cheng (Entz Officer), Kelly Brotherhood (Entz Officer), Xavier Cohen (Environment & Ethics Officer), Rivka Micklethwaite (Environment & Ethics Officer), Holly Marriott-Webb (John de Balliol), Harry Rimmer (John de Balliol), Thomas Posa (Ethnic Minorities Officer), Eniola Oyesanya (Ethnic Minorities Officer), Ian McFarlane (LGBTQ Officer), Alastair Bassett (LGBTQ Officer), Richard May (Website & Computing Officer), Claudia Freemantle (Women's Officer)

    Agenda


    1. Matters Arising
    2. Photocopier [Max]
    3. Drama Society situation [Rebecca Hannon]
    4. Pilch Theatre renting procedure [Rebecca Hannon]
    5. Bop Clean Up Revolution [Krista]
    6. Chants [Isaac]
    7. Rose Hill Levy [Isaac]
    8. Office Key [Isaac]
    9. New website [Richard]
    10. Constitutional amendments [Richard]
    11. AOB

    Minutes


    1. Matters Arising
      • Ian McFarlane and Alastair Bassett were co-opted as LGBTQ Officers.
      • Rosanna Holdsworth was co-opted as Drama Soceiety Treasurer.
      • Max and Dan updated on rent. MD and DT are meeting with the domestic bursar later today. The domestic bursar is going to propose 3.18% and the meeting will feed into the rent proposal that will be circulated later.
      • DT was mandated last term to find out about the Balliol diversity policy of fossil fuels. Drummond Bone (DB) would like to meet with two or three students to discuss this: Xavier Cohen and James Rainey were appointed.
    2. Photocopier [Max]
      • MD said that Maureen asked about the photocopier in the JCR. It could work but nobody uses it and Maureen would like to throw it out. MD would like to advertise that it exists. MD stated there was a small cost to use the photocopier which relies on an honesty policy. Isaac Rose (IR) said that committee should use the same passcode as Denise to photocopy in the JCR office.
    3. Drama Society situation [Rebecca Hannon]
      • RH pointed out that the constitution does not always make sense. It calls the DS "financially autonomous" but Max has to sign off expenditure. MD pointed out that he has to sign off all expenditure, and that the DS can make all the choices about spending money and the signing off is a mere formality. DT suggested that the DS have discretion over spending money so that it does not always have to be brought to committee lunch.
    4. Pilch Theatre renting procedure [Rebecca Hannon]
      • RH asked if we rented out the Pilch Theatre as a means of income. Claudia Freemantle (CF) said that it was available for public use and had to be paid for. DT pointed out that in practice people might not pay because it was a last-resort space.
    5. Bop Clean Up Revolution [Krista]
      • KH stated that she would send out a rota for the term's bops. She asked that everyone on committee encourage people to leave after the bop. KH wants to make the group on the clean-up smaller: one third of the JCR rather than half. This would mean that people would have to clean up fewer times during their term in office. KH also would like to buy more clean-up equipment. Alex Mullan (AM) pointed out that the bar had a lot of cleaning equipment. £40 was passed for KH to spend on cleaning equipment.
    6. Chants [Isaac]
      • IR said Balliol had a long-standing policy of no chants in the bar. Caitlin Tickell (CT) said that previous Lindsays had thrown out the chanters. AM said that he would be "tempted to clamp down" on people chanting. He also said he would start locking the cupboard because there had been "rowdiness going on with mops".
    7. Rose Hill Levy [Isaac]
      • IR explained Balliol's link with Rose Hill school, and pointed out that the levy was never claimed. MD said he would go through the optional levies and cut the Rose Hill Levy or cut it down to 5p. GW pointed out that it was hard claim money retrospectively. MD pointed out that the scheme was not actually going on any more so the levy was pointless.
    8. Office Key [Isaac]
      • IR said that the key to the JCR office kept in the Lodge was lost. £30 was passed for D&M to cut as many keys as possible to the JCR office for various committee members.
    9. New website [Richard]
      • RM asked what people wanted from the new website. IR said that he had lots of thoughts to discuss with Richard. DT mentioned the termcard used by the MCR website, and suggested that it might be useful in encouraging people to plan ahead for termly events. Aisha Simon (AS) said that there could be a bulletin online so as to assuage the general emails that go out to the whole JCR on a regular basis. KH pointed out that if people google "Balliol JCR" then the website is what they see. Chessy Whalen (CW) pointed out that the emails were also important in engaging people in the JCR.
      • Xavier Cohen (XC) asked about hall menus. DT said that he received hall menus each week. RM said that the link to hall menus on the website was temporarily down but should work usually.
      • Molly Rogers (MR) mentioned that she had heard of software for anonymous welfare chat which she would find out more about. IR suggested that there should be two front pages depending on whether or not you were logged in. He also suggested that their be a Committee section from where we could download documents to aid constitutional memory.
    10. Constitutional amendments [Richard]
      • DT gave a run down of the impending constitutional changes due to the conversion to charity status. He encouraged people to put forward any queries that they had with the current constitution now because it would be much harder to change in the future. Nina Plowfields (NP) raised the possibility of legal binds. CF said that there was demand for debate on whether men vote for women's officer, so that might be something that should come to the GM. DT said this was precisely the kind of thing to be brought. DT also said that he would be happy for people to email him with ideas and he would put forward a motion with various options so that no single JCR member would have to be associated with controversial issues. CW pointed out issues with who would chair: given that DT would have made the motions he wouldn't be able to chair. DT suggested that he might be more liberal with the constitutional in these circumstances.
    11. AOB
      • DT said that Doug will retire at the end of Trinity. Doug has been here for thirty years and will be difficult to replace. The college are putting together a proposal for how they might distribute his roles. They are anxious that the JCR don't take a formal position on this. DT asked if anyone has any opinions on the matter. CT pointed out that there were issues with the Dean also being head of Welfare. IR said that the Chaplain should carry on with "Doug's Lunch" and keep calling it "Doug's Lunch".
      • CT raised a problem with the lack of a taxi fund. KH said that there was no official taxi fund: tutors had given money to students for late-night transport beforehand, but only informally. DT said that it should be debated in a GM and that it might have to go through optional levies. MR said that she had investigated this and that if you had a "really valid" reason you could get money through the Junior Dean. DT suggested that we set up a working group. CT, CF and IW nominated themselves as a working group to investigate the issue.
      • CW said that OUSU alternative prospectus would like photos of people at Balliol. She asked for volunteers to model in the photos she would take.
      • Thomas Posa (TP) raised on-going problems with storage rooms. Hs is looking at what they could do to clean them up. RM said that half the stuff in the room opposite the storage room had been cleaned up last term. DT said that a similar process was ongoing with the music room. TP said he would like to be "more drastic" with the clear out than what had happened in the past. RM suggested banning people from using the music room. Matt Lynch (ML) pointed out that their was a logistic problem with people leaving at different times. KH said that the issue would require more discussion outside the Committee Lunch. CW said that some people on their year abroad might be storing things.
      • MR said that she was planning on doing a mental health discussion next week. It would be quite informal but she encouraged committee to turn up. The suggested time was Wednesday early evening. Anna Hufton (AH) said that the reason for it was to change our perception of mental illness so that it was brought out into the open. MR said it was important that people go who have had no experience of mental illness.
      • DT said that the Master wanted to thank everyone for the Memorial Service on Sunday of Andrew Kirkman.
      • The meeting ended.