Amelia Giselle Nickols

johns.social@durham.ac.uk

Hello everybody, I’m Mimi and I’m Johns’ JHJCR Social Events Committee Chair.

Ana Walpole is Vice-Chair and together we organise and run all of Johns’ Social Events for you all. We love social stuff and we have the hectic, crazy, but ultimately incredibly fun job of running formals, mega-formals, balls, Johns Day and many other Social events throughout the year.

As Chair I am a member of Johns’ JCR exec, and so help exec make decisions about running our JCR and college. However my main role is to organise all the social events in college, and Ana and I (aka bubble and squeak) work as a team to do everything involved in running social events. We have to negotiate with companies from outside college and also do lots of liaising/arguing! with college staff to organise the running of events.

The social events committee consists of 11 members. Chair (Amelia Nickols), Vice-Chair (Ana Walpole), Treasurer (Charlotte Hansford), PUBS (James Lake), Food (Sam Trevelyan), DECS x 2 (Katherine Higgins and Lucy Middleton), ENTS x 2 (currently vacant), Tech (currently vacant) and Sponsorship (currently vacant). We really need a full SEC for social events to be the best they can possibly be. Being on SEC is a really fun and satisfying role (not to mention the fact that you get a free Bailey Ball ticket the next year!), and so if anybody fancies having a go at a hectic and hard-work, but really fun role in Johns, please consider standing for one of the free positions.

So what are the main wonderful social events that we organise?

• Formals every week. These run on a sign-up system via the Johns JCR website, on a first-come-first-serve basis, and are completely free. These lucky people eat super yummy food and usually bring some wine to enjoy with their meal. Dressing up in formal wear and wearing gowns (Harry Potter style!) is compulsory, and formals are generally acknowledged to be a great start to an awesome night.
• Mega-formals twice a term. The clue is in the name, mega-formals are like formals but mega! We have formal-style food, but they are set in Leech Hall instead of Haughton dining-room, and so can seat about 150 people. A champagne reception and wine on tables is also included, and mega-formals in Johns are really good value (usually only £5). Mega-formals are often to celebrate an event in college or an end-of-term celebration and we often have bops afterwards too.
• 3 Balls each year, one every term. The Bailey Ball (in November) is the biggest ball of the year, in which the college is transformed with amazing DECS, really fun ENTS, and the party lasts all night.
• Johns Day, the best (in our opinion anyway!) day of the year!!! Held after exams in June, Johns Day starts with the famous raft race, and is followed by a day full of the most fun we can possibly pack into the gardens (think inflatables, face-painting, live music, sunshine and masses of fun), not to mention the all-day bar.

Planning all these events is often hard-work and totally chaotic, and we’ll be looking for lovely volunteers, especially for the Bailey Ball, to help paint, glitterfy and generally be decorative and imaginative.

All the social events we organise are for YOU, so we really want to know all the ideas that you may have regarding events, any brilliant ENTS ideas, themes, or literally anything!! We are also always looking for connections people may have which could give us access to discounted ENTS, alcohol etc.. Or even sponsorship (anybody with sponsorship ideas/connections will be loved forever and ever!!!)

So if anyone has any ideas (whatsoever!) please drop us an e-mail (amelia.nickols@durham.ac.uk or ana.walpole@durham.ac.uk), or grab either of us when you see us around. You can usually find us by just following the squeaking around college!

We hope you enjoy the social events this year and we look forward to seeing you around college!

Social-love

From Mimi

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