2015-11-29

1. Objections to Minutes from the last meeting
 There were no objections to the minutes from the previous meeting.

2. Updates from Committee Members

•   JT & DW recently met with the governing body to discuss various different policies that college has. These topics ranged from bike parking to the Wyng Gardens construction.
•   BC indicated that the website was still up and running.
•   SM confirmed that weighing scales were now available at the Porter’s

  Lodges at both the Central Site and the Wychfield site. These can be used by international students who need make sure their bags are a certain weight before travel. He also said that there should be no issue with storage of bags for international students.

•   MC & KJ: A Christmas formal was removed from the hall bookings page earlier in the week. KJ had contacted the Kitchen and said that the hall would be going ahead as planned. Christmas viva would also be happening on Friday.
•   SPS: Various swaps had happened over the course of the term. They had varying degrees of attendance. There would be a Femfo LGBT intersectionality talk that Thursday which everyone would be welcomed at. He also read over the constitution of the JCR and saw nothing that wasn’t gender neutral.
•   LM: Mental Health Forum was a success. Welfare arrangements for next term needed to be discussed.

•   MS: Number of tours had decreased recently, but hopefully they would pick up in the coming term.
•   LB: The recycling trial ended in failure. F-Staircase wasn’t good enough at recycling. She has set up a food-box in the Central Site Porter’s Lodge where people would be able to give in food that they didn’t need for the homeless shelter. This would be running up to the end of the term. She added that there was another eco-film running this week after the history pub quiz. She talked about how the MCR rep had seemed enthusiastic on the idea of more collaborative eco-films, but had not got any reply. She said she would email again, a thought that IE echoed.

3. Introduction to the Freps

•   The three new Freps introduced themselves to the committee. They proceeded to tell them about any ideas that they had for the next few weeks of term.
•   They wanted to organize a college wide Secret Santa, but agreed that it might be a bit difficult as most people organized their own Secret Santas. The level of interest in the project did not seem to be very high. DW suggested making the maximum cost of purchase very low to encourage more people to attend.
•   On that note, Frepmas was something that they really wanted to do. They thought that using and decorating the Terrace Room would be ideal. It has had a historically good turnout in the past, so there was no reason that this shouldn’t happen.
•   They felt that there was a lot of division over staircases, they thought they could do a “Come Dine With Me” between staircases. This would facilitate people meeting and would generally be quite a good way for people to make more friends.
•   They wanted to have 2nd and 3rd years take freshers to the different college sites around Cambridge. This including BBC and Wychfield. This would be just to ensure that people know where they will be living in the coming years; it would also help people because they would know where certain facilities would be available. Students college parents had

varying amounts of interest in helping them, so it would be nice to

ensure everyone has the same level of knowledge about the college.

•   JT & DW suggested that they take a massive survey on how Fresher’s

  Week was handled this year. This would give them a lot of vital information on what the freshers enjoyed and what they thought could be improved on for next time. The Freps agreed that it was a good idea.

•   College Weddings were mentioned in passing, but more information on that will be coming soon.

4. Room Booking (specifically issues with yoga)

•   Conferencing have been quite pedantic with the JCR, even if there was no booking in certain rooms they would not allow the JCR to use it because it hadn’t been prebooked.
•   There has been the noticeable issue this term where the Yoga society had not been able to get access to a room. Anna Murray had discussed this with the Domus Tutor, who told her that there was no space. This was due to the fact that many academic events took priority. SPS brought up the point that Yoga is a welfare improvement activity, many people need it to keep healthy. He suggested that the JCR committee back it up as a welfare activity and LM agreed with him.
•   JT and DW agreed to meet up with conferencing to discuss more flexibility in their allowing of room usage.

5. Mental Health Workshop for Fresher’s Week

•   It was agreed that we need to discuss mental health and support other members in our college.
•   The idea was put forward that we should have some kind of workshop or something similar in Fresher’s Week. This would not be a discussion group or anything of the sort. Rather it would just discuss common

mental health issues and how to spot them. It would also inform people on how they should communicate and respond to someone who seems to be having problems. It would have to be designed in house by the welfare committee and training would have to be given to JCR committee members.

 Whilst awkward to timetable, JT agreed it should be essential to Fresher’s Week next year. The committee would need to discuss it with Dr. Claire Jackson, but it should be fine.

6. Welfare Provisions and arrangements for Lent Term
 Nothing was minuted for this section. More information will be coming

next term.

7. Aims of the committee for Lent term

•   DW: Organise the elections for week two for the roles of President, Treasurer and Ents Presidents.
•   CON: Get money back from the Ents committee.
•   IE: Promote the Mentoring scheme, an initiative where graduate

  students provide their knowledge to undergraduates thinking of furthering their education. Should be quite easy to organize, more information will be coming soon.

•   Freps: Wedding formals are at the end of January, so data needs to be collected on which Freshers are married and which are not. LB suggested pairing up people that are not already married to promote the spirit of it all.
•   SPS: Talk on intersectionality will be coming soon. He also plans to show a documentary called ‘Paris is Burning’ which places an emphasis on drag culture. He plans on going to some CUSU talks which he feels will be useful.

•   LM: Plans are in place to update the welfare portion of the website. People should also now be able to request products by simply putting a note in LM’s pigeon hole.
•   MS: Excited about the Shadowing Scheme. The Access team has been created and have been told what they need to do. Everything will be in place for the arrival of potential students in the Lent term.
•   LB: Plans are in place to continue the Green Films. She also plans to delegate ideas to people on the Green Team to start up more initiatives.

8. A.O.B.

•   Receipts for items bought over Fresher’s Week by committee members should go CON’s pigeon hole. He will sort out the details.
•   Queue jumping has always been something that was tolerated, but now we have the situation where whole hordes of people are jumping the line and this is simply not acceptable. Therefore, there will henceforth be no queue jumping. JCR committee members will try to set an example and hopefully students will follow suit.
•   JT brought up the point about how there were three male Freps. This means that the JCR has swung to being quite Male heavy, especially in the top roles of President and Vice-President. He therefore suggested that people encourage everyone to run for positions on the JCR.