MS – Mukund Soni
CT – Callum Turnbull
PD – Phoebe Davies
Minutes
Committee Stash Complaint (from Adam)
Unhappy because form was only open for 6 hours before it was closed. No option to select size, colour, Towa (who has run this) has said that those who voted after deadline will get T-shirt regardless of what you voted for. In previous years, had greater choice over all these aspects and more time to vote.
Housing Officer
CT – has been an issue over conduct of housing officers and housing ballot for main site. We want to send email to Keeley to ask if we can allow swaps so everyone gets opportunity to swap again with the newly available rooms. Alternative option – we do whole housing allocation again and housing officers fall to the bottom.
Bea – Are they being impeached?
CT – Unsure, needs to read up on this.
Liv – What happened?
CT – Ballot process involved some rooms that were greyed out for Welfare rooms. Housing officers realised that there were extra grey rooms at the end and moved into them themselves without giving opportunity to anyone else to move into them.
Phoebe – Don’t think we should do housing ballot again. Can we not just have them move back to their original rooms to minimise disruption?
Bea – Do housing reps get first pick?
CT – No, it is first come first serve basis for anyone who wants to swap.
Tristan – Fairer to follow the housing ballot order? Presumably those with early picks may have made different decisions had they known these additional rooms were available.
CT – No, would take too long for students and College and so Keeley has rejected idea. Keeley would set out how it would be done, will be done at a time we know in advance (so don’t have this occurring when some people might be busy). If you have any housing-related problems in general, feel free to just talk to Keeley, very nice person, door always open. Feel free to do so.
Nikita – Quite unprecedented, first time anything like this has happened.
CT – Yep, will not happen again, first time Keeley has ever seen this. She suggested in last week’s meeting having college take over the process. Previously, housing reps there to specifically assist those who wanted to live out, provide pics etc. Information providers, better this way as currently process is confusing, housing reps get so much flak, threats at ball etc., very nasty role. Also avoids risk of abuse of power. Ideas?
Cassie – Agree, why did we ever change to students in charge?
CT – Wanted greater autonomy.
Tristan – Broadly speaking makes sense, but wary of giving over power to college. Should agree with college on process before handing over. Has heard from other colleges that they sometimes account for first year ballot when determining second year ballot. We should make sure we are clear on process so this doesn’t drastically change.
CT – Happy to hand over so long as our concerns over housing are properly accounted for. Maybe Keeley attends an Emergency GM in Michaelmas where we can discuss? College wants to bring the whole process forwards so any issues can be dealt with well before summer vac.
MS – How much power do we currently have over how preferences are set?
CT – Pretty much full, college randomises, and housing officers use preferences. Asks committee to go ask our friends and people in JCR on what they think about handing power to College over housing.
Liv – Clarifies that it will go through a GM.
CT – Will have to go through GM, constitutional amendment, this is just to gauge support.
Bea – Better for welfare of JCR given emotional backlash, how toxic it is.
Tristan – Given how full on the actual ballot is, this becomes the overriding focus and housing officers neglect other aspects of their role. Hasn’t had much info on room for next year for example.
Nabeed – Are we still keeping housing officers at all?
CT – Yes, but restricted role compared to before. So, no responsibility, act as middlemen to transfer concerns to Keeley.
Library Committee
PD – next week is library committee, as this is exam season, wanted to ask questions. Recent rule change about desks overnight, check at 9am to prevent people leaving things overnight. Any questions about the new rule?
Keira – do they check before they leave?
PD – no, they leave at 5, most people who leave things overnight presumably would come after 5, too early for them to be able to really enforce overnight issue.
CT – can we have a sign-out sheet for people leaving for some time and come back?
PD – no way to check when people leave and come back.
Tristan – is there some theoretical limit longer than which people should not leave their items? Might have some impact and just clarify a bit more.
Liv – at the end of the day, fairly small library, might just have to work somewhere else if you have to.
Bea – can make law library silent for Trinity.
CT – Reading Room can have a bigger desk with more seats. Could change desk with puzzle to add more seats. Sometimes also means that people stand around it while solving puzzle and talk.
PD – other ideas?
Liv – could have a pot of highlighters or coloured pens.
CT – but would it get stolen?
PD – going to push for newer blankets.
Nabeed – could they use the basement more for space.
CT – lots of old books there, probably can’t use this.
Liv – maybe make the printer room nicer, quite big.
Nikita – can they give us free stationary at welfare teas?
PD – do people know about the St Cross exhibitions, what do people think about entry into library?
People know, and don’t have much to say on entry.
Nikita – can we have more boxes of tissues?
PD – do people want laptop raisers?
People agree.
Arina – can we have some phone chargers?
PD – thoughts on nook law library? Making it something you can book out?
General agreement with this idea.
Nikita – an option to book a small classroom or other bookable rooms if you have meetings. Agreement from Tristan.
Callum – insufficient space in college due to demand from tutors, postgraduate students etc.
Bea – annex trinity and turn it into a library.
Liv – can we have a second printer in college?
Yearbook
PD – ideas about yearbook committee rather than just me doing it?
CT – will it be like freshers committee?
PD – no, much less formal, less people involved.
PD – ideas about non-standardised pages for each person?
Keira – like it, we had this last year.
PD – ideas on a mind map of people with connections for relationships?
People feel it may be a welfare issue. But we can have halfway hall awards and yearbook awards like we had for this year.
GM Discussion
CT – went to Prescom last week, brought up our GMs being terrible. Ideas from other Colleges – change GM times to Saturday nights (or another time), make them more informal, have an independent chair who’s not President, send out standardised weeks for GMs at start of term, more that he cannot remember. Let’s start with changing GM times.
Half of committee disagrees with idea of changing times.
Some members of committee ask about quorum.
CT – cannot have free alcohol at GMs, don’t have license.
Committee members question whether we need a license to give out free alcohol, or whether that applies only to selling, CT agrees to talk to Adam about this.
Maddie – the one with free soft drinks after ball led to lots of people at GM.
Keira – should keep soft drinks alongside alcohol.
Liv – should remind people again of free pizza.
Tristan – tension between GMs seeming pretty formal but pretty much everything passes, so its overly formal and silly too. Encouraging more people to ask questions so chill.
CT – nice idea. Notes that Keble have weekly GMs but still have 40 people every time.
Arina – has this always been an issue?
CT – steadily worse over time
Bea – disagrees with idea of independent Chair, might lead to friend group using that for influence.
Toby – why do we need this?
CT – no need as such, just an idea as others do this.
Maddie – might be a good idea to encourage greater participation.
MS – also unsure about independent Chair, we can trust President to do a good impartial job, can’t say same about many members of JCR, especially for controversial issues.
MS – supports standardised weeks idea, unanimous from rest of committee too.
Nikita – can you show incoming freshers some examples of GMs that have passed?
Liv and Arina – introduce GMs more properly at first GM next year
Tristan – at the moment JCR budget seen as blackhole, useful to know how much money we have and use that to think about ideas, tradeoffs, what’s worth it in terms of contribution to student life.
Toby – chatted to Elsa about this, will provide a financial statement at end of the year.
Feedback forms
CT – we have had 5 responses over last 2 weeks, wants to use it, but hopes for more, please ask your friends to submit them. Knows people have complaints, wants to hear them. Reveals the form is not anonymous, gets insane flak from all directions.
Committee agrees he should try make it anonymous.
Arina – put it onto a poster with a QR code.
Liv – 2 options – serious and silly.
CT – mentions idea of talking to Welfaries about getting Balliolfess down. We all know its Honey.
Committee thinks it’s not deep.