JCSU COMMITTEE
Minutes of a meeting of the JCSU Committee held on Saturday 14th March at 1.00pm in the Library Court Seminar Room.
Present: the President (Amatey Doku), the Treasurer (Christina Lane), the Secretary (Freddie Valletta), the Communications Officer (Caroline Sharp), the Access Officer (Tom Hogg), the Green Officer (Tansy Branscombe), the Male Welfare Officer (Ben Simpson), the International Officer (Marina Mayer) and the LGBT+ Officer (Anthony Wheeler).
Absent: the Vice-President (Ruby Stewart-Liberty), the Services Officer (Aiden Goulden), the Ents Officers (Xanthe Fuller and Amelia Oakley), the Female Welfare Officer (Daisy Eyre), the Mental Health and Disabilities Officer (Harrison Packer), the Women’s Officer (Eleanor Kashouris) and the Racial Equalities Officer (Nadine Batchelor-Hunt).
- Committee reports of actions since last meeting
AD – attended a design meeting for West Court, rewriting the Constitution, sent out the Annual Survey.
CL – attended a design meeting for West Court, still signing cheques, met with the Finance Officer – see 4(c).
FV – attended a design meeting for West Court, organised JCSU meeting.
CS – met with the college’s new Communications Officer, general social media stuff, sat on the Communications Committee, put the Master on the JCSU mailing list.
TH – attended CUSU Access Forum – see 4(b), met with the college’s new Communications Officer (Helen Harris, not Helen Higgins as stated on the agenda, she was my blind date) about the JCSU videos – need to chat to AO.
TB – organised Fairtrade Fortnight – welfare bake, film night and Fairtrade promotion.
BS – usual welfare stuff – drop in, sexual health supplies, welfare cake.
MM – organised a return formal swap at Downing, promoted iCUSU elections.
AW – subsidised tickets for a group to see Rent, promoted CUSU LGBT+ elections, rewriting the Constitution. - Minutes from last meeting
No comments. - Suggestion form report by AG
AG reports that since the last meeting no progress has been made with the suggestion form as he and the Domestic Bursar have not had time to meet. - Matters arising
(a) Communication strategy and website review
CS – met with Communications Officer and she talked about crisis communications. She needs to know about actions that could cause potential slip up so she is able to put a strategy in place.
CS – attended Communications Committee, they’re updating Jesus College website first then JNet. They also found in their prospectus survey that people found accommodation and facilities most interesting when looking for a college and history and alumni the least interesting.
They had some questions. Do we want to keep access and prospective students on main website? Or could we move it to the JCSU website
TH – keep it on Jesus website as it has more traffic – easily Google-able. We’d have the new alternative prospectus on the JCSU website plus some college info. But we’d need a link to the JCSU website on the main Jesus site.
CS – what would we emphasise on the website to set us apart from other colleges?
Points that were raised: space, on site facilities, range of accommodation, mix of history and modernism, not too big a college – you know pretty much everyone.
TB – we have such a pretty college with an amazing space so it needs to be heavily picture based.
FV – just need to make sure they’re not staged.
TH – we should get a big range from the photo competition. Also they’re organising a photography day with a professional photographer. They would be able to train other amateur photographers. This wide range of photos could also be used in the new alternative prospectus.
CL – Churchill have a new website which they’re tempted to copy but it may seem a bit unfriendly.
CL – I felt as though it was too focussed on design rather than content.
TH – too corporate
BS – and it looked as though it was selling themselves a bit too much. Also they focus on stats like the position in the Tompkins Table, don’t know if it should be front page headline.
TH – we’re 4th, this is not too high that it looks like we’re not having fun.
AW – also Churchill have less aesthetic to sell but we have other things.
(b) CUSU Alternative prospectus
TH – attended CUSU access forum. It was interesting to hear from other colleges about access tours – some had never done them. We’re one of the best colleges at doing them. Gave some college’s Access Officers tips. We discussed the new CUSU alternative prospectus. The CUSU Access Officer (Helena Blair) expressed an interest to come to a JCSU meeting to discuss this as well. They’ve been given thousands of pounds from the university to update it. It would be online based which each college has their own page which can be updated regularly. We’d aim to keep it active, fresh and looking good and maybe allocate some Jesus Ambassadors to keep it updated. Just wanted to know what would be good for our page in the prospectus. My view is that we have a couple of large pictures with some text and links to the videos we do. Maybe mentioning prices (rent/food/pints). Could have a twitter feed on it as well.
CS – as well as an Instagram feed too.
TH – Helena Blair wanted to come to our meeting to discuss this. One of her aims to meet all the college’s JCR committees. However is it worth her coming? We’re doing a lot of this stuff already so could tell her that we’re updating website stuff so won’t be difficult to get this page done.
FV – a lot of the stuff we discuss at our meetings won’t be relevant to her.
AW – she could just meet with the Jesus Ambassadors as it is more relevant to them.
TH – she would be able to promote the CUSU Target Scheme too.
(c) Enterprise Account
CL – met with the Finance Officer about the Enterprise Account. He was initially worried about how easy it is to misuse. Operationally it’s working fine but the security needs to change. The options are either to keep the HSBC account but CL would need to show bank statements every month or take money out of Enterprise Account, put it into the JCSU account but not to use it so the college can keep tabs on it.
AD – would probably be better just move it all to Lloyds rather than splitting it up.
CL – all of this would need to tie in with the Constitution. Can’t make a payment without checking with the Finance Committee spendings over £500 would need to be mentioned at an OGM and spending reports at AGMs.
- Any other business
(a) JCSU videos
TH – I need to talk to AO about these videos. The best idea is for small videos with different committee members presenting different videos. We’ll get this rolling at the beginning of next term. Will message the JCSU during Easter and we can get filming in the first week of next term.
(b) Handovers
AD – just thinking we need to set a precedence for our handovers to the next committee members. Need to make the information given consistent from year to year.
MM – need to make sure that the new officer know what the role entails, what you have done this year as well as what you are still doing.
CL – also need to make them aware of stuff outlined in the Constitution and Standing Orders.
CS – could stick the documents in the JCSU Google Drive, will advertise it on the committee Facebook group again.
(c) Suggestion form and Annual Survey
AD – will email again about the survey to get more responses as only 80 or so people have done it.
CS – the suggestion form needs to be made more accessible too, will pin it on the Freshers’ Facebook page.
(d) Gender neutral toilets
AW – is there scope for there to be gender neutral toilets in the new bar in West Court. This could be law in ten or so years’ time would be good to stay ahead of the times. There is still a lot of scope to change the plans to incorporate this. I have spoken to AD and he said he was happy to float the idea to college. It is easy enough to take the urinals out of the men’s toilets and then just put WC on toilet doors rather than the gendered figures. Also I’ve spoken to the LGBT+ Officer at Pembroke as he’s trying to get gender neutral toilets there. Along with their Senior Tutor he will talk to other Senior Tutors and LGBT+ Officers about this idea and get back to me about how to implement it.
AD thanked the members of the Committee for a very helpful and successful meeting.
The meeting closed at 2:00pm