2014 Committee Lunch

By admin, 30 March, 2022
Date of Meeting

    2014 Committee Lunch

    Date: Wednesday 3rd week, Michaelmas 2014 (2014-10-29)

    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), Ross Cathcart (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), Izzy Williams (Women's Officer), Claudia Freemantle (Women's Officer)

    Agenda


    Matters Arising

    1. Time change next term [Georgina]
    2. Handover packs [Georgina]
    3. Zumba [Alex]

    Agenda

    1. Successor Planning [Dan Turner]
    2. Democratic status of JCR/college balls [Xav]
    3. Veggie Pledge [Xav]
    4. John's funeral [Dan]
    5. Pizza money [Georgina]
    6. GM etiquette [Claudia]

    AOB

    Minutes


    Matters Arising

    1. Time change next term [Georgina]

    The room is free at lunch time every day next term so far, if we wanted to change the day of CL.

    2. Handover packs [Georgina]

    I have set a deadline as Monday of 6th for handover packs.

    3. Zumba [Alex]

    The woman who would charge £40 per session is only free on Sunday. This is no good for the JCR. The woman who costs £60 might be free on Monday. LR23 can’t be used for Zumba because it would mean extra cleaning, but it could be used for yoga!

    Agenda

    1.Successor Planning [Dan Turner]

    Rather than a Lindsay Bar lock-in, DT suggests a crew date with the new committee. CB said that this would be quite expensive. AM said that on a lock-in the bar would lose “a fair amount”. CF said that there was a lot of bad feeling surrounding the Committee lock-in, and that the Duckworth’s might find it particularly difficult, because they technically aren’t on Committee. We voted on stopping the lock-in – this passed by a majority. AS asked if the charity musical lock-in was also a loss to the bar, and AM said that it probably lost less because it was done slightly differently.

    2. Democratic status of JCR/college balls [Xav]

    Xav said that this year there was no process for deciding whether we have a ball or not, and that he would prefer it if there was. RM said that the last motion about passing money for the ball might be an equivalent, because if it had failed the ball wouldn’t go ahead. DT said that the constitution requires us to elect a ball committee, and that if we don’t elect anyone then we don’t have a ball. CB said that GM motions often aren’t representative of the whole JCR so a ball vote should happen online. DT suggested a referendum. SB said that the Michaelmas term was too late to have the referendum, but that holding it before the summer would mean that third years would vote for a ball that they wouldn’t attend. DT pointed out that every three years, the College labels the ball a Commemoration Ball, so in those cases it isn’t really up to the JCR whether it happens or not. DT suggested that XC bring an amendment to the GM to couple the Ball Committee elections with a referendum on whether people want a ball.

    3. Veggie Pledge [Xav]

    XC said that there is a growing thing called a Veggie Pledge in Balliol. It all started with College talking to Dan about the fact that College now has good provisions for veggies, and they would like the JCR to take action to encourage people to do this. People make individual pledges on the Facebook page, and then the College with the most pledges by the end of the month gets ÂŁ100 behind the bar at the Gardeners Arms. ML confirmed that this is not currently JCR endorsed.

    4. John's funeral [Dan]

    DT now can’t make John’s funeral because of a meeting with the Master. We now have the money for the charity as a cheque in Dan’s pidge, and whoever goes needs to take the cheque and post it in the box at the service. DT said that we should pass money – up to £50 – for the train fares for the people who go. This passed.

    5. Pizza money [Georgina]

    I explained that due to voucher issues, I had overspend on my budget for the last GM, and asked if the extra ÂŁ25 could be passed for the pizza. This passed.

    6. GM etiquette [Claudia]

    CF said that in GMs, when people talk about personal experiences, it can be difficult to discuss things constructively. HMW said that in the JdeB debate, people kept revealing times when the JdeB had hurt them, and that this was difficult for the new J de Bs to defend because it wasn’t even their issues being discussed. JM said that personal stories were useful, for example when people talk about what they have on Sunday evenings to get the GM times are moved. JM thinks we should set up guidelines about what people say. CB thinks that there are problems with disputing against emotive language. It’s hard to disagree with an argument which is essentially “I felt like this”. CF said that a good example was the tortoise debate: people clearly had opposing views, but they were included in an abstract way.

    MD said that quite often we weren’t discussing the motion; the forum was more being used as a place for people to talk. AH agreed but said that she thought that this was the point, and that we don’t have an alternative forum to discuss these types of things. AS said that she thinks that it’s important not to get fixed on procedural issues. AS suggested booking the JCR one evening and opening up an informative discussion. DT said that this might best be done after a GM, when business has been formally closed. AH said that we should not send around guidelines just after a GM because people might take it personally. XC argued that it wasn’t always bad for “emotional connections” to be made between people.

    AOB

    RM said that no one cleared up after the GM and we probably should. AH said that lots of people were there, and therefore the new time (7pm) was good. KH said that if someone wants to bring a motion to change the time they should. ML said that possibly 7pm helped pantry, but we shouldn’t base the time of the GM on this.