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Minutes of JJCR meeting, 01-02-2007, 20:00
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Contents
Preamble
Opening Prayer
Read by Jeanna Shalkowski
Apologies
- Spud Thwaites
- Ian Kent
- Phil Wallbridge
Minutes and matters arising
The minutes were approved on a general aye; there were no matters
arising.
Reports
Reports of Executive Officers
Josh Heald, President
Since the last JCR Meeting I've been publicising St. Margaret's so please go and live there as it's amazing. As an Exec we've co-opted the Presidents of Cranmer Common Room and the MCR. I've finalised some sponsorship with Milkround which will bring some money. We've formalised a donation to Nightline.
Katie Wray, VP:Estates
Hello; it's been quite a quiet start to the term; there were two formals and there's a Valentine's Day formal coming up, with a £2 donation to DUCK. I've started clearing out the lockups. I had an informal house committee and will have catering committee on Monday.
Jeanna Shalkowski, VP:Welfare
Hey everybody; this term so far I ran Alcohol Awareness Week. There were posters around college. We advertised contact details for Student 2 Student supporters. We're trying to promote the DSU DO NOTHING campaign trying to stop students running into contracts early. We had a livers-out meeting. I met with my reps; updated the welfare board. Panic Alarms have finally arrived and you can get them from me or from my two assistants.
Felix Schubert, Treasurer
Hello everyone; from last term we had released some money for a Thank You party for the college staff who were around. This is something that Roddy started last year. Martin and I have written the Ethical Purchasing Policy to replace the Nestle policy which fell in the last meeting of last term. Two motions were approved at Finance Committee. Recently the budget and accounts have been my life, heart and soul.
Richard Kelly, Senior DSU Rep
I've taken part in the SOS campaign; there's been a good reply. If you have a postcard in your room drop it off in the post bag in the Bailey Room before Saturday. Sabbatical Elections at DSU are going on; you're paying them. Make sure you get in the best possible candidates for the job. I've worked on the DSU Board. There's a poster with all the ents that are going to be going on. I'm on a working group on the DSU Exec to sort out details within it. I've been to DSU Council and the General Meeting.
Becca Davies: Is there a Back 2 School this term?
James Evans: No
Martin Hodgetts, Services Manager
Hi everyone; just a couple of things; we've done a few shop orders;
if there's anything you particularly want in the shop ask me. There's
now a regular flow of Ginsters. The prices in the shop have gone up.
With regards to stash, if you're wanting anything, they won't collect
the forms until lunchtime tomorrow so if you can get it in by then then
do so. There are more forms in the Bailey Room now. There have been
problems with the Laundry. The same goes for Coke machines and stuff.
I'm looking into changing them. As Felix said with regards to the
Ethical policy you'll hear about that later on.
I'm about to tell you about my section of the budget. Services have
made a profit of over £5000. That is slightly more than what is
budgeted for. We could have made even more. There are lots of gowns
lying around that weren't sold. The JWS has made money but that goes to
charity. With Toastie Bar, we spent quite a lot on bringing it up to
Health and Safety standards. It's now up to scratch and we should start
making profits.
Tim Marshall, Comms. Officer
This Week is going out as usual, minutes are on the website and This Week is easier to get on the website.
Chris Leach: Why weren't reports in This Week?
Tim Marshall: The main purpose was to cut down on time in meetings, but
that wasn't really working, so we decided it would be better not to
waste money on printing them if they aren't of use.
Alice Manuel, Social Secretary
The first couple of weeks of term are mainly planning things. Friday 9th is the President's Formal; you have to buy tickets but I'm trying to see if Stephen Hampton can help subsidise it. We have to budget so I'm not quite sure how much it will be. There will be a bop afterwards. The Epiphany Ball is booked for the 23rd of February at the Three Tuns Hotel. Everything's in This Week, but if you need info email me. There will be a joint event with Cranmer from a guy called Andy... It's called Stand Up And Be Counted. It's going to be a comedy night, so if you want to come in with sketches it would be quite fun and it would be nice to do it with Cranmer. Everything will be organised nearer the time.
Dan Baxter, Senior Bar Officer
In the Bar over Christmas we did some decorations. I have been working on the Bar Constitution, which is a thrilling job...yeah. Coming up are the BEC elections, so get involved. This Tuesday, I'm doing a quiz.
Cranmer Exec Report
We're electing a new President in the coming weeks; manifestos go up
on Monday. We're thinking seriously about how to increase student
intake. Emphasising Alice's point about Stand Up And Be Counted... let
either Alice or James Evans know if you want to do something.
Alice: the deadline for entries is the 17th.
Ed McCarter, MCR President
Good evening. Things My MCR has been doing over the last passage of
time. We're having MCR stash. MCR Film Society is also on the cusp of
realisation. Exciting times for the MCR! We worked out a plan; we're
going to have periodicals for the MCR. Problems we've had; lots of MCR
members haven't got ASSA keys.
Josh Heald: I have a stash of ASSA keys to give away.
Reports of non-executive Officers
James Evans, Senior DUCK Rep.
OK; firstly I'm talking about money. We've got just shy of £3000 in
our bank account. That will go up. DUCK Week is happening; there will
be events here and in other colleges. Within John's, we are pushing the
Jailbreak. On the 11th we're having a Ceilidh. Tuesday is Mr. John's.
Wednesday will be the Valentine's Formal. Signup should be as normal.
We're getting Q-jump at Loveshack afterwards. We've got a Newcastle
night with free entry to Sea. There's going to be a Bathtime in the Bar
night. We're doing a Rag Raid in Durham. We've got Stars in their
Johnian Eyes. We've got a Boys v. Girls netball match.
After DUCK Week we have Miss John's on Shrove Tuesday and the Red Nose event with Cranmer.
Motions
MfS: Sports colours and arts honours
Motion text
Sarah Hogben explained the motion.
Sarah Hogben: I'm asking for £820; I'm going to break it down; I think
I'll need about £750 but I want a bit of room. Last year this motion
cost £950. At that meeting, the Sports Officer was commissioned to
reform sports colours. We've reduced the number we're awarding. It's
only £550 on Sports Colours this year.
The extra £250 or so covers a number of things. Firstly, at the Awards
Ball last year there was an award for contribution to college; I want
to buy a shield which will be engraved.
Last year we had a few people given awards for college arts. At the
time they were handed an IOU, so it's time we honoured the promise.
We're introducing college Arts honours to raise the profile of Arts and to recognise the contribution they've made.
Motion passed on a General Aye
Motion: Ethical Purchase Policy
Motion text
Felix Schubert: Martin and I were mandated to think about this.
Martin Hodgetts: We tackled Fairtrade, Ethical Investment, Animal
Welfare, and Local produce. We took those as the main areas and tried
to come up with some ideas to help us talk about those.
Felix: It's more of a general motion than the Nestle policy. We're
looking at the whole list of companies the JCR purchases products from,
and we're looking to purchase ethically where there is a choice.
Ethical money and investment are an issue; we're going to look further
into having our money invested with nicer banks.
Martin: There is a fairtrade college policy; we are in a Fairtrade university. This brings together a lot of underlying policy.
Ed McCarter: Projected impacts on profits?
Felix: Hopefully none; we only choose an alternative if it's financially viable.
Martin: It's a lot about balance; we want to go wherever possible to get ethical products but we need income from services.
Motion passed on a General Aye
Elections
Felix presented the Accounts.
Felix Schubert:
We start with the Part I budget (the bit we get from the University).
It's quite healthy as societies have not spent as much as they were
allocated.
I haven't this year transferred funds from Part II as we didn't need
it. Most things have been on budget. Officers' Expenses have gone
overbudget but that was unexpected and due to the JCR computer dying.
We're looking at a surplus of just over £1700.
Part II: Main income: BTC has not made as much money, but then I would
say that last year's budget was an overestimate; Dan didn't have any
way of knowing how much profit to expect.
Services made a profit. Social events; it looks like they made a lot of
money; we haven't paid for the Bailey Ball food bill yet. College has
been late in invoicing us.
We're running on a minor loss, but that's acceptable for SEC.
Just World Shop looks like it's made a lot; they're running on a
no-profit basis. All the profits go to charity. JCR Subscriptions are a
nice new income.
Expenditure-wise, it's many motions for spending: the Gazebo, the
Linton Hallway Curtains, the SMG Common Room. We stayed just below what
was budgeted for last year.
There's a breakdown which shows expenditure. Some numbers: enjoy.
Sponsorship has picked up this year as we now have a committee.
We give money to sports teams. The big one to point out is the bar
loan, which is exceptional spending, but we will get it back eventually.
We have
in Part I: just under £4000 plus £2500 in a savings bond, giving a total of £6115.
in Part II: current account at £5000. We have a lot of people who owe
us money. We bought stash for the darts and pool team. The Prince
Bishop event; they went and cashed our cheque for the deposit. We have
JCR members who owe us money. There were about £3000 in uncashed
cheques.
The end figure brings us to about £10000.
Felix presented the Budget:
Felix Schubert:
It's quite difficult to predict things. This is it, according to the
best of my abilities. Not many changes since last year. We've increased
areas of sports team spending for those which don't have that much
money at the moment. We've introduced President's Expenses to make
spending more seethrough. I've increased the Newspaper budget as our
supplier went bust. If I didn't increase that budget we wouldn't be
able to have all the usual newspapers.
Next page, a breakdown of all the sports teams and societies. The
arrows indicate what has gone up and gone down. The only thing that has
gone down is the money we give to Cranmer, as we're not allowed to give
them money any more.
Right; Part II is basically brief as a lot of the stuff is unpredictable. So, I predict a certain amount of sponsorship income. Some surplus from the Bar... it's starting to pick up a lot more nicely. We assume that the bar will be able to pay back the entire loan by the end of 2007. I've reduced my prediction for BTC.
It's your chance now to tell me what you'd like to see done differently; feel free to do so. Take a copy away; it's also on the website. If you have questions/problems/queries, please have a look at it.
Dan Baxter:: round of applause for Felix as Accounts and Budgets are a big job.
Ashley Greenwood: thank you from the Bar.
Accepted on a General Aye.
Elections
Drum Kit Rep
No Candidates
Environment Rep:
Candidates:
- Stuart Morris
Proposed by Chris Leach
Result
Candidate elected on a General Aye
AOB for JJCR
Sabbatical President Working Group
item
Discussion about St. Margaret's Garth
Josh Heald stood up and spoke about Margaret's.
Josh Heald: I know some people were quite concerned about the
arrangements regarding the room ballot. I wanted to give a bit of
background. This is what College proposed this time last year. It's
crucial that they get the money from Margaret's. We managed to stall it
by building a Common Room. It hasn't been working, so college need to
go to extreme measures.
Chris Leach: What is the arrangement?
Josh Heald: If fewer than 75 people have signed up by the deadline, the room ballot will be changed to
people who lived in Margaret's in their second year. There will be each St. Margaret's person's name in the hat twice.
Esther James: Is that a decision that college has made or the JCR made?
Josh Heald: It was college officers and Resources Committee.
Esther James: Is that something we can fight?
Josh Heald: I don't know how much we could fight about it. I don't know
how productive that would be. I don't think College has been too
unreasonable. If they had said this time last year that this would
happen I'd have had a different tune. They have given this other chance.
Ed McCarter: You should also not forget that St. Margaret's is a good thing for college.
Becca Davies: Why wasn't it brought to the JCR?
Josh Heald: It's a matter of timing.
Katie Wray: All we can do is affect their decision. We negotiated.
Felix Schubert: We have done a lot; it might have been that it would be
compulsory to live in SMG to get a room in college in third year. If
you look at the finances of college, you'll see that they have reason
to take measures like this.
Ashley Greenwood: How much do they lose?
Josh Heald: We had 40-50 people there last year; it's not a big enough
profit to carry the hole in the budget. They let it privately this
year. This means letting flats out to families at vastly reduced rates.
It was a lot of work for college staff. There are 110 bed spaces, each
brings in around £3000. College is missing about £200,000. They pay for
a lot of stuff which we take for granted. Within the budget, they need
this money to come in. This is like us not getting money from the bar;
we couldn't spend money on anything without our budgeted profits. If
the income is missing, there will be a hole eaten into their accounts.
Ashley Greenwood: What about other things they could do? It seems a
little like blackmail. Could they have done a lot more to publicise it?
Josh Heald: The price has been cut to way below Viaduct rates.
Felix Schubert: The electricity system has been changed.
Katie Wray: You now get a rebate if you don't use as much.
Josh Heald: There have been problems with getting stuff started up
there, but at the end of the day it's not like it hasn't been
publicised.
Chris Leach: Do we and/or college know why people are not going into Margaret's?
Josh Heald: We surveyed the issues: the issue of breeze blocks is about
£15000 per flat for 22 flats. College doesn't see it as viable, but
it's continuing its ongoing refurb. Another complaint was the
electricity system, so college has addressed that. Addressing the cost
of electricity is difficult; in other houses you have gas, whereas
everything is electric in Margaret's so electricity will cost more.
Luke Wells: The problem was that when it was announced freshers had
decided groups. It was an annoying shock that we should have been told
later.
Josh Heald: I take your point. There's been a big push back in the
housing release date this year. I personally was looking for houses in
the first week back of Epiphany Term last year. I hear things have
worked better in other colleges. We went on the assumption it would
work out as that was what we were advised.
James Evans: How does this affect other policies such as 4th-years.
Josh Heald: The guarantees are still remaining. We still run the room
ballot; it's just that people in Margaret's will be given double the
chance.
Martin Hodgetts: It's a good resource; the problem with using the
common room to market it is that you need people to keep it going. We
need people living there to keep the shop staffed and so on. It's just
so easy to start up when there are more people up there.
Ana: What you're saying about the walls; everyone lives together in
first year; it's exciting finding a house, living in a house, and it's
cruel to take something away for third year.
Josh Heald: there used to be a waiting list to get into Margaret's;
it's a new thing for it to be empty. In terms of taking choice away
from people, only 75 need to sign up to live in and then this won't
happen. It's 75 out of 200 people; in the past it's never taken the
choice away from people.
Richard Kelly: On top of all of this, people are concerned about being
'forced' to live in Margaret's. I wish I had lived there. College are
very nice landlords; they won't evict you if you have hardships. It's
not like living in college again; it's a flat. People shouldn't be
being forced into Margaret's.
James Rainer: proposed an extension to the time limit
Accepted on General Aye
Felix Schubert: I wanted to pick up on the point that people have
already picked up on groups. When you've lived in Margaret's, you
happen to live in different flats, but you consider yourselves as a
block. You still have people living around you. You grow together as a
community, but you still have the independence.
Ed McCarter: You shouldn't glamorise houses; you may end up with a
rotten one. It was designed for all second years to go to. It was very
popular. It's great.
Ben Jarvis: I don't think it's a case of people not wanting Margaret's, it's more that people want to live in a house.
Josh Heald: Nobody went on the Margaret's tour. It's a shame that
people aren't even looking at Margaret's. Halfway through my second
year I was at the other end of the spectrum.
David Lorimer: I think people have heard all of this and chosen to live
in a house anyway. Margaret's isn't appealing to people. We're being
punished.
Josh Heald: It's meant to be an incentive. If enough people live there,
there won't be a problem. This is more about the easy things that will
be cut when college doesn't have the money to do nice things, like free
formals.
Katie Wray: The Senior Tutor said that if Margaret's fills up he will put on more formals.
Josh Heald: I'd rather have my money come back to me, but if you're giving money to a private landlord it's not coming back.
Martin Hodgetts: It's more of a weighting on it than an absolute rule.
Ashley Greenwood: People do not want to live in flats. Can we change it so that other people can live in Margaret's too.
Josh Heald: College did that as a last resort. There are issues in
having students of other colleges in your own property. The Senior
Tutor can't enforce discipline if people aren't from John's.
Felix Schubert: College built Margaret's so that students would get a better deal.
Josh Heald: College doesn't want to be a landlord to other students.
End of JJCR Meeting
JHJCR Meeting
Elections
Yearbook Editor
No Candidates
Yearbook Sub-editor
No Candidates
Yearbook Art and Design
No Candidates
AOB for JJCR
None
End of JHJCR Meeting; the Presidential Hustings are detailed in a separate document.