JCR Email - Sunday 3rd week TT12
Sam HallHi guys,
Firstly, I have in item one of the Merton notices a really exciting volunteering opportunity specifically aimed at Mertonians. It offers the chance to get involved in an enterprise scheme with a primary school in Blackbird Lees. We have a fantastic record in raising money for charity – I’d love to see us giving up our time too. Please note the date down in your diary - there'll be more on this later!
We are looking for scenes of Merton to put on canvases in the JCR after the motion to replace them was passed at the last OGM of Hilary. If you have a good photo of the college, then please send it in to me as an attachment. We may not be able to use all the photos that are submitted if we get a lot of submissions, but we are really keen to see a good range and we’ll try to pick the best!
In other news, I can confirm that in the Bar spirits prices have not gone up in light of the rises on alcohol duties in the Budget. We’re also going to get a new colour paint on the walls over the summer. In the JCR, College has kindly agreed to find us some new chairs to replace the fairly awful ‘old-people’s-home’ arm chairs. They will also be painting the room over the summer. After much hassling, we are finally due to get Staff Profiles in time for Michaelmas, so there’ll be pictures and names of all the staff who work in College available online for students to utilise.
Finally, I am about to be told College’s proposal for rent rises. Usually, it increases in line with inflation (or, more specifically, the Oxford rate of inflation – the Van Noorden Index). This year, it’s going to be 5.07%, but I believe that the College are considering an offer of around 4%. I’d have liked to have taken this to a JCR meeting ideally, but, as the timing isn’t right, I wanted to know people’s thoughts on this and whether or not they felt that this was a reasonable rise. Please email me in with your opinions on this very important matter of how much you will be paying in battels next year!
Thanks and have a great week.
Sam
Merton
1. EXCITING VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY
University
1. English Summer Camp in China 2012
2. Isis presents... Top of the Pops, Babylove
3. The Future of Journalism
4. OXFORD IMPS pick up the slack for sunshine
5. OUP hosts ‘Party’ at the Old Fire Station
6. 'TAMINGS' - Keble O'Reilly Theatre
7. The Comedy Debate
8. **ALIVE IN MOVEMENT WORKSHOP**
9. OxTALENT Awards 2012
10. Court
11. Daniel Dennett in conversation with Richard Dawkins
12. Understanding the Rules of Disorder
13. FRANCES CROOK OBE
14. Energy in Developing Countries: A 3-part EnergySoc Seminar
1.
EXCITING VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY
Are you interested in enterprise? Do you want to volunteer with Primary school students and gain some classroom experience? Or perhaps you want an opportunity to get involved with the local community?
Enabling Enterprise are running a project with a primary school in Oxford, which you can support – groups of students are working on a project in school, allowing them to build on key ‘enterprise’ skills while further developing their work with the local community. This exciting project is supported by Oliver Wyman, who recognise the value to all involved.
Not only will it be a great volunteering opportunity for you, it will give the Primary pupils valuable experience of working alongside bright, enthusiastic young people.
What does it look like?
Primary students from Pegasus primary will be engaged in a project from mid- May to mid-June, with hour-long sessions running a couple of times a week. These sessions are led by teachers in class time, with students working in teams of 4 or 5 on their ideas. If you would like to support them, then you will join their sessions to work with a team of students – this could be every week, or just a couple of sessions.
What do you gain?
If you choose to take part you will:
· Receive a training session on working with young people from a member of EE staff, previously a Teach First teacher.
· Have a valuable volunteering experience, working alongside the classroom teacher to support the students in their endeavours, giving students the opportunity to develop skills, and raising their aspirations.
· Give back to the local community through a fun and enjoyable project.
What do you need to do next?
Come along on 212st May to the introductory session. The first part will give you a bit more information about the process, and following that you can stick around for the training session.
Date: Monday 21st May 2012
Time: 3 – 4.30pm
Venue: JCR
This is the only opportunity to sign up, so if you are interested then please do attend. This a Merton-specific volunteering project, so get involved with all your friends for a good cause!
We look forward to seeing you on 21st May!
1.
English Summer Camp in China 2012
If you are looking for a fun and challenging summer, with a real interest in China, this is the message for you.
Some of you might have already heard of our project, and have sent us emails asking whether we will run another English camp in summer 2012. Yes, we confirm that our camp will start in mid-July this year, and we are still looking for 8-10 Oxford students/graduates to join us as our camp teachers for a two-week summer program in Guangzhou, southern China (near Hong Kong). The camp will start around July 15th and last for two weeks in Guangzhou Huamei International School. All camp
teachers are expected to be in China a week prior the camp to prepare and hence have to be available from the beginning of July. Regard to the school, Huamei International School has a strong emphasis on, and commitment to, providing a high standard of English teaching and it enjoys a very good reputation in the city. For more information about Huamei International School, here is the link to the website: http://www.hm163.com/englishvesion/
As a camp teacher, your responsibilities will be teaching Chinese students (at the age of 6 – 16) English in the mornings; playing games/doing sports activities with the kids in the afternoons; and
hosting different theme nights in the evenings. It is usually a lot of fun but please also expect that you will be required to work very hard. For those who are interested in China, there are also excellent opportunities for you to travel after the camp to explore everything the country has to offer.
Here is what we could offer…
- Flights will be reimbursed for up to 500GBP
- Accommodation and food will be fully covered
- Invitation to our celebration dinner after the camp
- Chance to explore China with 200pounds travel allowance
- An official certificate to approve your attendance as an
English summer camp teacher
- And last but not least, it will be an opportunity to develop extremely valuable team-working and communication skills; the ability to organize lessons and teaching plans, and execute them
effectively; leadership in the classroom; and of course teaching experience!
In addition, we are also looking for ONE camp director who has previous experience in leading a camp. Director’s main responsibility will be organizing all kinds of activities and hosting theme nights. Normally a camp director does not need to teach, but has to be proactive and with excellent organizational and problem solving skills. For instance, he/she might need to take up a teacher’s lesson if the teacher is sick. Hence, this role is only for those who are experienced.
If all of the above sounds really exciting and you are the type of person who is dedicated, good with children, speaks English as your NATIVE language, then please apply ASAP, with your CV, a brief
introduction about yourself and a recent photo sent to oxcampcn@googlemail.com.
We look forward to hearing from you very soon!
2.
Isis presents... Top of the Pops, Babylove, Wednesday 3rd week, 10pm, with our own resident entz rep Carmella DJing
This Wednesday Isis is taking over Babylove, playing all the decades from 1960 onwards. Everything from The Beatles to Beyonce. We'll be taking you through glam rock, though britpop, through late-90's disco. Anything goes.
A resident Isis photographer will be on hand to catch you at your best, and we will also be screening the 90’s classic Clueless.
Get your nostalgia kicks from: BEATLES/ THE CLASH/ NEW ORDER/ MADONNA/ MICHAEL JACKSON/ PULP/ KATE BUSH/ BLUR/ CYNDI LAUPER/ and more
Come down if you are interested in getting involved in next term’s Isis, have a pitch, or want to speak to the editors or creative team.
£3 before 11, £5 after.
See you there.
3.
The future of Journalism, 6:30pm, Monday 3rd week, Saskatchewan lecture theatre, Exeter College
Isis 120th Anniversary Speaker Series
In celebration of the 120th Anniversary of the Isis:
THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM
// Are newspapers viable in the 21st Century? // How can the media survive
the hacking scandal? // Will the internet destroy the quality of news reporting? //
with Isis alumni
TOBY YOUNG
Author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Associate Editor at The Spectator
STEPHEN GLOVER
Founder of The Independent
CARL WILKINSON
Writer for The Guardian and The Financial Times
MARK DAMAZER
Former Controller of BBC Radio 4
Sasketchawan Room, Exeter College // 6.30 pm Monday 7 May // £5 entry // Wine included
Look out for more Isis speaker events later in term.
Sponsored by the University of Melbourne
http://www.unimelb.edu.au/
4.
OXFORD IMPS pick up the slack for sunshine
Dear Oxonians,
Are your plans to punt, picnic and prance in port meadows not quite going to plan?
Fear not. Here at Imps HQ we know that Trinity should be a time of joy whatevertheweather, and after extensive consultation, we have decided to carry on doing our thing in the hope that it will contribute to said joy.
For those of you whose bulletin-reading has been lax, our thing is improvised comedy - we bring you "Whose line is it anyway?" style games, as well as scenes and longer narratives (musicals, shakespearean dramas, soap operas) which are created on the spot based on audience suggestions. Here are some nice things people have said:
***** "Devastatingly funny, lighthearted and thoroughly enjoyable, I didn't want it to end" - EdFringe Review
***** "The best improvised comedy I have ever had the pleasure to witness" - Three Weeks
"More reliable than the sun" - the met office.
HOORAH!
8.00 every Monday of term (doors 7.30)
The Wheatsheaf (129 High Street, between Northern Rock and Starbucks)
£3.50
Love, the Imps xxx
5.
OUP hosts ‘Party’ at the Old Fire Station
Oxford University Press’s Music and Drama Society (MADSoc) will perform Tom Basden’s Party as part of the Oxfringe festival this year.
The Edinburgh award-winning political comedy at Oxford’s Old Fire Station from 2 to 5 June will be MADSOC’s first performance outside OUP’s Great Clarendon Street offices.
Party follows a crowd of students attempting to form a political party, and comes a year after MADSOC’s well-received promenade performance of The Importance of Being Earnest at OUP’s Printers House as part of Oxfringe 2011.
The one-act comedy takes place in a suburban garden shed, following a group of idealists struggling to find a way to achieve political domination and reinstate the space programme.
It was a Edinburgh Comedy Award winner in 2009 after selling out at the festival, and has since been adapted into a successful BBC Radio 4 series. It was written by Tom Basden, award-winning star and writer of a range of TV programmes including The Armstrong and Miller Show, Cowards, Comedy Lab, and Fresh Meat.
OUP MADSoc is made up entirely of OUP employees working in the publisher’s Oxford offices. It has been performing shows in OUP’s offices since the 1970s but this is the first time it has ventured beyond Jericho.
Director and OUP Music Hire Library Assistant Miriam Higgins said: “We had such a positive response to last year’s Oxfringe show that we felt the time was right to take MADSoc out into Oxford. Party combines some razor-sharp writing, fast-paced dialogue, and an unlikely scenario, to provide a lot of fun for everyone.”
The show will take place at the Old Fire Station on Saturday 2 June at 5.20pm, Sunday 3 June at 8.30pm, Monday 4 June at 5.20pm, and Tuesday 5 June at 5.20pm.
For tickets, go to http://www.wegottickets.com
6.
'TAMINGS' - Keble O'Reilly Theatre
Wednesday-Saturday 3rd Week
Set in the radical cultural shifts between the 50s and 60s, Tamings is a production in two halves. The first is Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, the second, in direct response, is John Fletcher’s The Tamer Tamed. The Taming of the Shrew, set in the 1950s, sees Katherina, a ‘shrewish’ woman, raucously subdued and oppressed by her husband Petruchio, in which Shakespeare raises questions about the duties of a wife, and the responsibilities of a husband. The Tamer Tamed, set ten years later in the revolutionary 1960s, sees Maria, Petruchio’s new wife, turn the tables upon her husband in which she decides to give him a taste of his own medicine.
Simultaneously hilarious and thought provoking, this innovative and modern production reveals that ultimately, for both men and women, it is never easy to negotiate the power balance in love and marriage, whatever era one is in. What does it mean to be a wife, or equally a husband? Who must submit to whom, and who has the power? All one can aim for is a sense of humour and, as Maria’s epilogue tells us, to achieve ‘due equality and …to love mutually.'
7.
The Comedy Debate
RAG and the Oxford Union Society are joining forces to bring you...
The Comedy Debate at 8.30pm on Thursday of 3rd week.
"This house would rather be mad than mediocre"
The Oxford Revue and The Oxford Imps take to the debate floor in an epic clash of Oxford's best comedy troupes. For this debate you will be voting with your wallets. Donations will be collected on the door, and whichever side raises the most money will be declared the winner. Make sure to order your exclusive RAG cocktail from the Union bar during and after the debate. What better way to give to charity
8.
**ALIVE IN MOVEMENT WORKSHOP**
**Sun 6/5/12, Wadham College
Get out of your head and into your body! A dance workshop by Duncan Alldridge based around Gabrielle Roth's 5 Rhythms. The class will focus you on being present in the dance within your body and to anchor in the here and now. Movement meditation encourages spontaneity and offers us the opportunity to dance with ourselves and others in a real and living way. In this fluid state, we are alive to new ways of being in the world.
As well as focus on Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms we will use simple movement technique to bring us into the present moment. Come and join this evening of freedom and fun in movement!
Absolutely no previous experience required, just a willingness to be present in your body.
Bring water and loose clothing to dance in.
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/events/229867647118474/
9.
OxTALENT Awards 2012
Do you make creative use of technology in your course or studies? Have
you developed games, mobile apps or software to enhance learning? OUCS
is looking for students who have come up with a great 'techie' solution
to enrich their own educational experience and those of others.
The Learning Technologies Group at OUCS is offering an OxTALENT Student
IT Innovation Award with a first prize of £150 and a runner-up prize of
£50. Winners will be profiled on OUCS and University websites,
interviewed by the University podcasting team and receive a prize at a
red-carpet awards ceremony in June.
Set yourself apart from the rest and enter the competition at:
http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/oxford/groups/oxtalent/awards.xml
Deadline: 21st May 2012.
The Student IT Innovation Award is part of the annual OxTALENT Awards.
Other award categories include Research Posters, Research Digital Image,
Research Infographic and Student Podcasting.
10.
Court
Dead time is resurrected as we enter the psyches of those waiting for a trial.
Two lawyers implicated in a horrific past act of injustice catch up with their guilty selves as they confront one another; meanwhile, a murderer toys with their minds as he narrates the scene with relish.
Court squares up to a fast-moving, intense, and darkly humorous world of real suffering, exploring the recent extradition quandries faced by the UK.
19:30, Tuesday-Saturday, 3rd Week
Burton Taylor Studio
Book tickets now at http://www.courtplay.co.uk
11.
Daniel Dennett in conversation with Richard Dawkins - Oxford Exams School
At 8pm on Wednesday, 9th May, Professor Richard Dawkins will be interviewing Professor Daniel Dennett. As two of the most preeminent contributors to contemporary discussions concerning atheism and secularism- and between them comprising half of the "Four Horsemen of Atheism"- Professors Dennett and Dawkins should need no introduction. Some tickets have sold out already but keep an eye on (http://store.richarddawkins.net/products/copy-of-think-week-2012-richard-dawkins-event-ticket) for more information.
12.
Understanding the Rules of Disorder: Groups, violence and bystander behaviour in public places
Tuesday 8th May, 1pm.
Weiskrantz Room, Department of Experimental Psychology (you'll need your bod card to get in!)
From the events of the Arab Spring, to last summer's riots across England, we are surrounded by reminders of the power of collective action in public places. In this talk, Professor Mark Levine will explore what social psychology can contribute to understanding how such collective action emerges and how it is regulated.
In particular, this talk will consider both how aggressive behaviour becomes violent, and how violent behaviour is brought under control. Through use of CCTV footage, he will demonstrate that group psychology is integral to the control of public violence - both in escalating and preventing it. Mark will then be discussing how these patterns of behaviour can be tested empirically, including his work carried out in immersive virtual reality environments. Finally, he will consider the importance of understanding the psychology of group processes, as a key to producing pro-social (vs. anti-social) behaviour.
This talk is being hosted by the Oxford University Psychology Society.
All welcome - free to members, £3 for non-members.
(Any questions, email emma.james@stcatz.ox.ac.uk)
13.
***** FRANCES CROOK OBE - WEDNESDAY 9TH MAY, 7.30 PM, SUTRO ROOM, TRINITY COLLEGE OXFORD *****
Hosted jointly by The Oxford Howard League Society and the University Labour Club
Frances Crook is the Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform - the oldest penal reform charity in the UK. Frances was the campaigns co-coordinator at the British Section of Amnesty International in the 1980s, and was twice elected as Labour Councillor for East Finchley.
Appointed at the Howard League in 1986, she has been responsible for the Howard League's research programmes and campaigns to raise public concern about issues including suicides in prison, the over-use of custody, poor conditions in prison, young people in trouble and mothers in prison. Under her direction the number of staff and turnover of the charity has grown twenty-fold. The charity has secured a contract with the Legal Services Commission to provide legal advice to children in custody and has taken a number of successful judicial reviews that have improved the treatment of children and young people in custody and on release.
Come along if you are interested in criminology, sentencing or prison reform, or have an interest in how a small but punchy pressure group works to influence government policy. Frances is well placed to assess the impact of the coalition’s austerity measures on crime rates, incarceration figures and prison conditions. As a member of the Labour Party and one-time councillor, Frances can provide her thoughts about where the party should be on issues of criminal
justice and prison reform.
For more information email lois.aspinall@wolfson.ox.ac.uk
14.
Energy in Developing Countries: A 3-part EnergySoc Seminar
The Oxford Energy Society’s second launch event is taking place at 5-6pm on Tuesday the 8th May (3rd week) at the Lindemann Lecture Theatre (Physics Department, Clarendon Lab, Parks Road).
This event is a seminar of three short talks on three different energy-related topics, and the line-up is as follows:
- “ The next wave of growth” - Leo Johnson (PwC Sustainability, Host of BBC World News “World Challenge”)
- “The Economics of Energy in India: A Counterintuitive Perspective” – Anupama Sen (Oxford Institute for Energy Studies).
- “A systems perspective on sustainable energy access” – Justin Henriques (Environmental Change Institute)
After the seminar we will be gathering in the Kings Arms for a drink, to give anyone who wants to get involved with EnergySoc an opportunity to find out more about it. We hope to see you there!
Visit http://www.energysoc.org for more info on the society other events we are organising for this term.
Email subscribe@energysoc.org to join our mailing list.
**YouTube Corner** (variety of stand-up clips)
Simon Amstell - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYakr-Un7to
Josie Long - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLbbxhXt1Ns
Sam Hall
JCR President
Merton College, Oxford
07756824409