2016 Committee Lunch

Date: Wednesday 5th week, Hilary 2016 (2016-02-17)

Attendance

Present: Anne Williamson (President), Cealach McKeating (Vice-President (Administrative)), Steven Rose (Secretary), Darryl Braier-Lorimer (Treasurer), Meg Peyton-Jones (Dr. WHO), Frederick Potts (Foody), Helen Davies (Sports Rep), Xavier Greenwood (Sports Rep), Joseph Lee (Academic Affairs and Careers Officer), Alberto Andrade (Academic Affairs and Careers Officer), Emily Webb (Access and Admissions Officer), Daisy Cutts (Access and Admissions Officer), Elliot Jones (Affiliations Officer), Rivka Shaw (Charities and RAG Officer), Ruby Breward (Design & Maintenance Officer), Molly Rogers (Student Disabilities Officer), Samuel Gibb (Student Disabilities Officer), Indigo Wilde (Entz Officer), Xavier Cohen (Entz Officer), Chilla Knight (Environment & Ethics Officer), Aidan Balfe (Environment & Ethics Officer), Hubert Au (Ethnic Minorities Officer), Thitapa Haritaworn (Ethnic Minorities Officer), Ele Saltmarsh (LGBTQ Officer), Rory Meryon (LGBTQ Officer), Andrew Truong (Website & Computing Officer), Daisy Cockrean (Women's Officer), Rachael Ince-Kitson (Women's Officer)

Absent with apologies: Hugo Monnery (Lindsay), James Letten (Dr. WHO), Saad Hamid (Affiliations Officer), Sophie Conquest (Charities and RAG Officer), Laura Bossino (International Students Officer), Nicholas Halterman (International Students Officer)

Absent without explanation: Zachary Leather (Foody), Peter Sayer (Design & Maintenance Officer), Lewis Scott (John de Balliol), Simon Kelly (John de Balliol)

Agenda

1. Matters Arising

2. Garden Party Update [Abi Williams]

3. Co-options of non-Committee offices

4. Co-option of Facebook admin [Meg & James]

5. Gardens Committee Report [Aidan & Chilla]

6. JCR/MCR Scholarships [Annie]

7. Birthday present for Maureen [Darryl]

8. D&M Shelf [Ruby & Pete]

9. JCR Pigeon Holes [Molly]

10. AOB

Minutes

Annie welcomed the Committee.

 

Abi told the Committee that 350 tickets have been sold to Balliol students, and that next week tickets would be made available to all Oxford students. She told the committee that she would re-advertise this to the JCR so that Balliol students would be aware of the need to purchase their tickets before the rise in ticket prices upon opening tickets up to the rest of the University. She told the Committee that there will be fifty tickets reserved for alumni. She also reported that she would be meeting with Bruce to discuss the possibility of providing tickets or subsidised prices to people who would not be financially able to do so in a scheme similar to one executed last year – though she anticipates a lesser response owing to the very reduced ticket price.

Cealach offered the point of information that for the Ball, this sort of scheme had passed through a GM, and hence suggested that it should perhaps go to the GM again.

Annie asked if the money for this scheme would come from the Ball budget, or if other tickets would cost more, or if it would be a levy.

Abi offered that there are various possibilities at the moment regarding the funding of the scheme that she would report more precisely later when she had more information from meetings.

Daisy Cutts asked to clarify whether this would only be a matter for a GM if it was coming from JCR money. Annie confirmed this was the case.

Abi reported that she would be meeting with Daisy Cutts soon to create a handover pack, as Daisy noted that the institutional memory is not currently ideal.

 

Meg explained to the Committee that there was a need to co-opt an officer to administrate the Facebook page following the 3rd week GM, and hence invited nominations for the role.

Daisy Cockrean was the only nominee.

Daisy told the Committee that she loves Facebook, the JCR page, and power – which she notes comes with great responsibility, which she believes she can live up to.

Daisy was co-opted by the Committee.

 

Aidan reported to the Committee that College is re-paving the path in the Fellows' Garden as the current path isn't draining properly, which is apparently a 'big problem.'

He told the Committee that the two options are stone or gravel. He reported that there may also be some replacement of trees in the future. Cealach asked which trees. Aidan replied the ones that are dying. People seemed oddly upset at the mortality of the trees on College grounds. Aidan assured people that they would not remove a tree without planting another tree.

Daisy Cutts asked if this would affect the Garden party. Chilla replied that it would not be done during term time, and may possibly be done over Easter. Ste expressed concerns that work conducted in Easter would not be guaranteed to have finished by Trinity. Daisy agreed and reiterated her concern that work may affect the Garden Party. Aidan offered that he doubts the work would be done over the vac.

 

Annie told the Committee that the Development Office are interested in a project for which money raised by the JCR for a particular project would be matched by external sources. She suggested that we set up a scholarship for refugees partly funded by students and funded largely by external sources via this projec. She noted there was a similar system in Jesus that reportedly worked very well. She suggested the JCR contribution would be through a £4 optional levy.

Richard raised concerns about the lack of security of funds raised via an optional levy. Annie told Richard that funding would be accrued before the scholarship would begin, so that funding wouldn't be pulled at any point. She noted that in Jesus, there is a 95% take up, which she hypothesised was due to a dedicated officer of this project. She told the Committee that the average take-up for opt out levies in Balliol is roughly 80%, and highlighted that the JCR would also be working with the MCR on this project.

Annie told the Committee that the money would have to be sorted before going to College with this idea, and told the Committee that at the moment, this is more in the ideas-stages.

Daisy Cutts asked how much money we would be raising with the proposed levy given the take-up of optional levies in Balliol. Annie reported that Jesus raise around £6500. She added that the ratio from the Development office of externally matched funds to JCR funds would likely be between 3:1 and 5:1. This could support a person at home fees (i.e. someone with asylum status). If the scholarship were to support an overseas student, the fees would be higher, and currently, given that it is uncertain what sort of money would be contributed by external sources, at the moment it is hard to tell what the project could support, noting that the project would scale according to funding.

Daisy offered her assistance in her capacity as Access & Admissions officer.

Xav C noted that there are other similar good causes that such money could go to, noting that the kind of student that's likely to be able to successfully apply to Oxford are likely to be from certain socio-economic backgrounds. He noted that this is still a good cause, but there exist other causes that we could consider.

Annie replied that since this would be externally supported it would be more likely to be successful as a specific and targeted project, rather than a general scheme for fundraising. She agreed that there does exist some socio-economic influence on applications, however it is very valuable to be supporting students who would otherwise have been applying to Oxford who are unable to due to countries being affected by war.

She told the Committee that because funds may vary year on year, money raised over the cost of funding a scholarship could be used to contribute to other good causes.

Meg asked about the possibility of funding a scholarship at another college so that there is no social influence of a student being supported by the JCR of which they are a part. Annie responded that the scholarship could easily be anonymised, removing this concern, which Meg responded to positively.

Annie emphasised that this item was simply to flag the idea, and there will be more discussions in the future.

 

Darryl noted the importance of Maureen to the JCR, and hence suggested the Committee pass £25 to buy a present for her birthday in the coming week.

 

Ruby noted that her and Pete enjoy building flat pack furniture. She suggested the idea of building a shelf to contain poetry and arts magazines and similar publications, noting that there already exists publications which we could display. Xav C suggested that students could donate there own books in addition to the JCR purchasing second hand books.

Cealach asked where the shelf would be. Ruby suggested it would be in the 'nice corner' of the JCR.

Molly reported that she's been working on a similar project in the last year and currently has a stock of publications, and is only waiting to purchase a shelf, and was currently determining the source of the funds for this. She suggested that her idea was to display welfare items, such as self-help books, auto-biographies of people who have dealt with mental health issues, and fiction with related themes, as well as other relaxing literature. She suggested that her and the D&Ms pair up, with which Ruby agreed would be a good idea.

Molly noted that there is a similar shelf in the library, however she believes that if there were a shelf were in the JCR, the system would be much more anonymous.

Xav G suggested that the stocks of literature in the library for interest reading is great, but fairly standard, and that Ruby's project would allow us to diversify the poetry available to the JCR.

Alberto noted that the library does purchase books based on the needs of the JCR. Annie agreed that it would be beneficial to pursue both the development of a JCR shelf of literature in addition to asking the Library for various items in order to facilitate the diversification the literature available to the JCR.

Ruby suggested passing either £50 for a shelf and books, or up to £50 for a shelf.

Molly told the Committee that she has a meeting with Bruce soon, with the anticipation of agreeing for the funds given by Committee to be matched from the college welfare funds.

Xav G suggested the Scrawl funds could be used to purchase poetry for the shelf.

The Committee passed up to £50.

 

Molly told the Committee that most officers are unaware that they have pigeon holes in the JCR office, and told them that they do.

Annie told the Committee that they should ask the lodge or an officer with a key to access the office, and also noted that a key could be obtained from the Porters' Lodge in exchange for the student's bod card.

 

Annie reminded the Committee to encourage the JCR to use the JCR airbeds.

Meg asked where the airbeds are in the office; Annie replied that they are very visible.

 

Molly asked if people knew where the felt pens are. She told the Committee that they are Crayola super tips. This humble Secretary is uncertain what distinguishes this from other felt tip pens.

 

Molly noted that next week would be Eating Disorders awareness week, and that she would like to repeat Mirrorless Monday.

Annie asked Molly to explain Mirrorless Monday to the Committee for the benefit of officers not students at the college last year. Molly told the Committee that the mirrors in all of the staircases were covered so that they could not be used, and included a positive message relating to body image. She reported that there was a lot of positive feedback from a variety of sources. She asked for up to £20 to do this again this year.

Daisy reported that she had received negative feedback from some sources, and suggested asking the JCR for their opinion first, noting that she is unaware of how representative the feedback she received is.

Annie suggested there be further discussions relating to precise nature of the event, however suggested the Committee pass £20 to fund some sort of similar project with similar aims.

Sam noted that he had set up an anonymised forum which people could be encouraged to use to give opinion on Mirrorless Monday and possible alternatives.

Molly asked the Committee for volunteers to assist in the setting up of the event. Meg asked when she would like it to be done, Molly replied probably Sunday evening.

The Committee passed £20.

 

Daisy Cutts suggested that something be done with the area to the right of pantry that is entirely unused and generally cluttered. Cealach agreed to help with some such renovations. Daisy suggested that it's a space with potential. Annie suggested people discuss with Cealach possible uses for the space.

 

Ste reminded the Committee that they are mandated to attend GMs, noting that this does not entail actively contributing to debate, actively listening, or even being awake. He reminded the Committee that it is in fact larger than the quorum of a GM, and hence there should never be need to count quorum at a GM.

 

Cealach reminded people that there would be a bop on Saturday, and that there would be an updated clean-up rota sent out soon. She reminded Committee that they have a responsibility to help shepherd people out of the JCR at the end of the bop.