2015 Committee Lunch

Date of Meeting

2015 Committee Lunch

Date: Wednesday 1st week, Hilary 2015 (2015-01-21)

Attendance


Present: Duncan Shepherd (President), Aisha Simon (Vice-President (Administrative)), Richard May (Secretary), John Clark-Maxwell (Treasurer), Richard Ware (Lindsay), Thomas Posa (Dr. WHO), Amy Ford (Dr. WHO), Gaetano Iannetta (Foody), Michael Wrathall (Foody), Ryan Diamond (Academic Affairs and Careers Officer), Jess Poole (Academic Affairs and Careers Officer), Alice Farrell (Access and Admissions Officer), Xavier Greenwood (Access and Admissions Officer), Emily Barradell (Affiliations Officer), George Badger (Charities and RAG Officer), Emily Webb (Charities and RAG Officer), Florence Hardy (Design & Maintenance Officer), Jack Wheatley (Design & Maintenance Officer), Molly Rogers (Student Disabilities Officer), Matthew Lynch (Entz Officer), Calum Jacobs (Environment & Ethics Officer), Colm Britchfield (John de Balliol), Anne Williamson (Ethnic Minorities Officer), Cameron Kigonya (Ethnic Minorities Officer), Samuel Gibb (LGBTQ Officer), Alex McKenzie (Website & Computing Officer), Charlotte Suttle (Women's Officer), Kathryn Pritchard (Women's Officer)

Absent with apologies: James Kavanagh (Affiliations Officer), Benjamin Atueyi (Entz Officer), Daisy Pearson (Environment & Ethics Officer)

Absent without explanation: Daisy Porter (Student Disabilities Officer), Oliver Johnson-Munday (John de Balliol), Indigo Wilde (LGBTQ Officer)

Agenda


Co-options

  1. Drama Secretary [Conor Jordan]

Introductory

  1. Introduction from the Dean [Rachel Quarrell]
  2. General introductions [Richard May]
  3. Relationship with College [Duncan Shepherd]
  4. Contact information [Richard May]
  5. How to pass money [John Clark-Maxwell]
  6. Institutional memory [Duncan]
  7. Using the website calendar [Alex McKenzie]

Main Agenda

  1. Lockers [Jess Poole]
  2. Anonymous complaints [Duncan]
  3. Computing Committee [Alex]
  4. TV Room Working Group [Duncan]
  5. JCR responsibility [Richard May]
  6. MCR Meet-Up [Duncan]
  7. Table Tennis Equipment [Richard Ware]
  8. Halfway Hall [Duncan]
  9. D&M Supplies [Jack Wheatley]
  10. CL timing [Richard May]

Minutes


Co-Options

  1. Conor Jordan was co-opted as Drama Secretary.

Introductory

  1. The Dean greeted the Committee and congratulated them on their election. She highlighted that the incident at Christmas Dinner had resulted in a degree of loss of trust between the College and the JCR, and that we should be cautious and polite in dealing with Fellows in the future. The Dean expressed a view that there are still people who have still not owned up, and that we should urge people to come forward. She made clear that College is interested in people who committed less serious offences as well, and that this week is the last opportunity for people to come forward without severe punishments. Additionally:
    • Booking forms will be stricter in future.
    • Greater consideration of staff is necessary, including thank-yous.
    • People need to finish dinner properly rather than leaving it to fizzle out.
    • Those hosting events will be responsible for management and behaviour.
  2. We all introduced ourselves to each other.
  3. Duncan briefly discussed the JCR's relationship with College, and highlighted that Rachel was a strong supporter of the JCR.
  4. A form was passed around for everyone to fill in their contact details for Denise.
  5. John explained that there are four categories of expenditure: spending using your budget (can be passed under your own authority), ordinary expenditure (stuff that happens regularly or upgrades to existing stuff), money passed at Committee (< £50) or money passed at a GM (> £50). He requested that in general people speak to him to sort out finances, so that he could help plan things.
  6. Duncan expressed a desire to improve institutional memory, and said he would send round a spreadsheet for people to document significant things that change long-term.
  7. Alex explained how to use the website calendar, and requested that people list any events on there.

Main Agenda

  1. Jess stated that nobody ever returns locker keys, and replacing the keys would cost around £250. It was asked whether they should simply be replaced during the planned TV room refurbishment (£100 / block of lockers), which would be cheaper. It was decided that this should be discussed further by the TV Room Working Group.
  2. This item was referred to Welfare Subcommittee.
  3. Alex explained that he attended computing committee, and that if anyone had items to bring up they should contact him.
  4. A GM motion has been drafted, passing about £550 for new couches, lockers and storage boxes. Matt Lynch expressed his willingness to either recruit more members into the TV Room Working Group or to spearhead the project himself. Aisha and the D&Ms volunteered to join the TVRWG. Aisha suggested we consult the people who use the TV room most; John said they had expressed a desire for a mirror on the wall over the TV, so that they could see who walked through the room without having to turn around, and tinted windows so that you could see who was in the room from outside more easily. Matt Lynch clarified that the initial £550 was more of a short-term sum, and that over the long term they were looking at painting the room, refitting the lights or other improvements. Kat asked whether we could get combination lockers, which would be easier. John said that from his point of view, passing both short-term and long-term money at once would be easier because they could take the money out of the reserves as a single lump sum.
  5. Richard May said that there was nobody officially in charge of the JCR as a room, and asked what people thought. D&M expressed a desire to look after the room. Duncan called a vote to split responsibility between D&M and the VP, and it passed unanimously.
  6. Duncan asked whether people were in favour of a meet-up with the MCR. People seemed generally appreciative of the idea.
  7. Richard Ware said that they keep running out of ping-pong balls and requested £50 to buy hundreds of ping-pong balls. Molly asked if it would be worth getting a better box to store the balls in, to which he expressed a belief that the current box was not the issue. It was requested that Richard Ware also buy better bats. £50 was passed.
  8. This item was skipped, as it has been resolved outside of Committee.
  9. The D&Ms wanted money for WD40. We decided that this was ordinary expenditure, and passed the requested sum.
  10. Richard May highlighted an issue with CL timing from James Kavanagh, who found that sports made it difficult to attend. He also explained that other days of the week were difficult for scientists, since lab work takes place on either the first two or the last two weekdays. Molly mentioned that the reason behind having Committee on Wednesday was to put it on the only afternoon that had sport so that work wasn’t interfered with. Charlotte expressed a concern that sports players felt marginalised within the JCR, and that this probably didn't help. Duncan said that Dan Turner was bringing a motion to add Sports Reps to Committee, that College sports were on Tuesday and Thursday, and that sports probably don’t start this early anyway. Kat suggested that we ask the sports reps their opinion. Aisha said that there’d never be a perfect time, and that the current time worked very well on the whole (as evident from the high turnout). Duncan wanted to be mandated to talk to James about his issues with the timing, but it was decided he should just do it and that he didn't need to be mandated. 

AOB

  • Molly had an item from Daisy Porter, about formally drafting a document for the giving of trigger warnings.
  • Tom Posa and Aisha asked about the freshers’ page, and problematic comments that were being made. It was asked whether there should be a set of guidelines for use, whether things should be deleted if they were potentially offensive, and whether the individuals in question should be contacted. Richard May mentioned that over the last year a policy of deletion had been followed. John argued that the problematic posts were a response to strict deletions last year, that a policy of reconciliation would be better, and that we should bring this to a GM to have a strong mandate for any action we take. Charlotte suggested that a pinned post including guidelines or recommendations for content notices would be a good approach. Annie Williamson and Sam Joyce argued that waiting until someone was offended was too late, and Tom said that he felt otherwise. 

Due to time constraints, the meeting ended at this point.