Minutes—Wednesday 16th March 2011
MCR Committee Meeting and Handover
MCR members present: Hugh Wolgamot, Zoe Sullivan, Jenny LASTNAME, Virginia (Ginny) Dillon, Martin Gould, Zac Vermeer, Manavi Belgaumkar, James Herterich, Danna Gifford, Annie Demosthenous, Amanda Montgomery, Inga Pfeffer
Meeting beginning at 19:40 March 16, 2011 by Annie Demosthenous.
AD: Two purposes: handover and discussion of conference use of MFH by college
Agenda
1. Handover of Positions
a) Treasurer
Both absent from meeting at start—wait for handover.
b) Social Secretary
This position has been formally handed over to Zoe Sullivan by Hugh Wolgamot. HW to email ZS instructions for signing up to social secretary email lists and other important information.
c) House Chair
This position has been formally handed over to Hugh Wolgamot by Amanda Montgomery. A to email H relevant documents. AM handed over keys to HW at meeting.
; AD proposes president, social sec, and house chair to have keys for bar, liquor cabinet and tall
cupboards in MCR.
d) Secretary
This position has been formally handed over to Danna Gifford by Hannah Field (who absent).
; AD proposes possible merger of house chair and treasurer positions. Possible discussion of
doing this at a later date. Discussion of assignment of social sec. room to treasurer position
since social sec. might not want to live in. Don't give it up to a new person.
; GD: Split treasurer roles: intake of money and giving out of money. AD: you can appoint
people to attend meetings. GD: consistency is important. ZS: Merging of house chair and
treasurer are a big job.
; MG: possible merger of MCR and JCR coffee when new bar is built—possibility for free coffee.
AM: suggestion of switch from pod coffee to regular drip coffee.
; AD: Give the house chair the ability to sign cheques as well. MG: need two signatures for
cheques, president and treasurer.
; IP to get details from Ian Robertson re: treasurer responsibilities.
2. Budget
; AD: MCR budget surplus (unsure exact amount), less spent on social activities this term.
a) MCR Honesty Bar Deficit
; AD: Honesty bar deficit is short either ?100 or 100 beers. Those who feel they might have
forgotten to pay for a bar invited to put the amount they feel they haven't paid in a box in the
MCR kitchen. MG: ?100 is probably an underestimate. AD: potential to organize a for-profit
cocktail event to raise funds to replenish the loss. AD: the honesty bar isn't illegal, but we
shouldn't necessarily advertise it.
; AM: Coffee has been generally paid for.
Invite volunteers for Bar Rep
; AD: Bar rep: gets a key to bar cupboard to restock bar to assist social secretary. James
Herterich volunteers to be bar rep.
b) MCR Mugs, Plates and Assorted Kitchenware
; Jenny: Ask library if we can have unclaimed lost mugs. ZS: Has stuff disappeared? AD: Yes.
AM: we tend to get stuff back at the end of the year. ZS: email to return crockery and washing.
AD: volunteers to do email.
; AD: proposes to go to IKEA to purchase kitchenware with MCR funds.
; Vote on president and treasurer discretion to purchase kitchenware up to ?100 or the surplus in
the social budget, whichever is less. All in favour.
Budget for the purchase of new items.
c) Replacement of lost keys for the lockers in the Margery Fry lobby
; AD: Keys to storage cupboard (currently have 5/24, potential to get replacement keys).
General agreement that lockers would be useful for people who don't live in college. AD to look
into cost of replacement keys. Deposit would be required for individuals given a key for
lockers. Potential for those with a locker key to get a MFH key.
d) House Chair Budget
How much would people like to spend on tea, coffee and biscuits?
; AD: Should we spend more, less? More biscuits? Need for a more formal plan for what we
should spend on items. Biscuits being eaten and not donated for. AM: buy a lot of biscuits.
AD: Biscuits in bulk that don't spoil
; AD: wine for exchange dinners: cases at the start of term. AM: paper cups with a carbon
offset. AD: not a good idea, people can bring their own reusable travel mugs.
; Ginny: plastic wine glasses for exchange dinners. AD: can buy non-disposable plastic glasses. -->Appointment of new welfare rep moved to here.
; AD: how it has worked in the past, the welfare rep. has asked for permission re budget from
president and treasurer (amounts spent on events are small compared to social sec. events)
AD: AD to step down and appoint new welfare rep. for Trinity 2011. Zac Vermeer: “I can't ;
bake.” Manvi LASTNAE and Zac Vermeer agree to share the position. AD to provide baked
goods.
e) Welfare Budget
; Not discussed due to lack of attendance
3. Social
a) Fresher’s Week Sub-Committee
; AD: appoint a sub-committee to help with Fresher's week due to its importance. ZS: good to
have a range of people. Important to get out information before Fresher's week. AD: To see
who will be involved at a later date.
b) 4th Year JCR Integration
; AD: more integration is needed. Emphasize their invitation to Fresher's week. Possibility of thdedicated 4 year social event.
c) Proposals for Other Social Events
th; Sendoff for 4 years and master's students who are leaving.
; ZS: please send any ideas for social events to ZS. Possibly murder mystery.
4. Welfare
Appointment of a new Welfare Officer for Trinity Term
; Zac Vermeer and Manavi Belgaumkar have volunteered.
5. Other
MCR Storage Cupboards
; AD: College wants to destroy these, but they haven't told us waht they want to do with them.
Proposals: teaching room, bigger computer room, storage for college members not attached to a
room. They are being used as storage. ZS: could rent them from the MCR. AD: college
probably wouldn't allow that. AM: draw up plans to demolish exterior cupboards to build a
teaching room for graduates. Point of emphasis: doesn't reflect well on college that we don't
have anywhere to teach.
6. AD: We stand to gain a lot more by letting them use space under our conditions, rather than saying
“no” and having them use the space anyway.
First question: are we OK with empty rooms being used as conference rooms over the summer (Long Break).
; AD: proposes only allow rooms 1-8 on the basis of annoyance to regular MFH inhabitants.
Current inhabitants of 1-8 to have choice to move or not. AM: limit duration and age group of
rooms rented to. AD: college would be responsible to repair damage caused by conference
guests. AM: write it into the agreement that college should be able to seek damages from
conference guests. Manavi: it should cover any part of MFH. AD: should be covered by a
contract. JH: you can't pin it to a specific individual though.
; AD: college wants to rent MCR room for conference events (MG: “breakout sessions”). AM:
make the rental of MCR room to be annoying as possible, eg. sending reminders. AD: will
state that people are unhappy with this idea. ZS: grads shouldn't be restricted from using MCR.
Proposal for use of kitchen. Jenny: principal wants to improve graduate presence, and
restricting our use of the MCR does not contribute to that.
; Proposal to change MCR lock: key/card access or one-way lock.
; ZS: pre-term vacation residence for new MCR members.
; AD: priority to grad students for vacant MFH rooms and a deadline for request to inhabit the
rooms over the summer. ZS: make sure we get charged student prices.
; ZS: clause to review the agreement yearly AD: and when the new buildings are open. ; AD: MFH bedrooms and dining rooms should only be used as a last resort.
; HW: MCR could potentially be in use even if the entire building was unoccupied. ; AD: another point: raise the issue of double beds.
; AD: 1) say that they can have rooms, but grads get priority. 2) up to 8 rooms for conferences,
ideally clustered in rooms 1-8 (unless someone in 1-8 wants to stay in their room). 3) Can't use
MCR exclusively under any circumstances, but they can use the dining room if they will
renovate it (i.e. we will not pay for renovations out of our own budget). ; AM: 4) no use of MCR room by conference guests between 9-10PM and 6AM. th; AD: 5) No conference guests after September 15.
; AD: to be renegotiated for 2012-2013, ZV: the “sunset clause”
7. Other issues
; JH: the dryer doesn't work properly. HW: to contact college re broken dryer. 8. Closing of meeting. AD: meeting closed at 21:21.