Minutes of the Committee Meeting of the LGBT Students Association

Held on Monday 6th August 2003 in Seminar Room, Florentine House

Contents
Those Present and Apologies Events in Freshers Week and Subsequent Weeks Freshers Fair Stall Other Events in Term One Publicity Other Business

1.

Those Present and Apologies

Persons present: Robert McLaggan, Emma, Geneveive Curran, Brian Matthews, John Wallace, John-Andrew Murray, Craig Milne Committee Members not present and no apologies received from: Bob Peacock, Craig Muir, Ruth Lloyd, Paul Jordan, Bebba Vaughan

2.

Events in Freshers Week and Subsequent Weeks

We were told that the university have merged the orientation and freshers weeks and so now, freshers week shall be called the Freshers Orientation Programme After suitable comments, we moved on to discuss the events planned for the first few weeks of term Freshers week is from the 15th to the 25th of September with the fair on 24th and 25th The view was that our presence at freshers week should be limited to that of a stall at the fair itself and a chill out room based on last years model It was seem that events in the evening would be counter productive since it is far more important for freshers to meet other people in their halls in the freshers week Chill Out Room It was decided that this would be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of the second week i.e. 23rd, 24th and 25th of September in the afternoons The venue was discussed with options in the GU and QM considered before it was decided that the venue in the Boyd Orr Building which was used last year would suffice An important point was raised by Geneveive that something should be happening in the room. She suggested some sort of activity akin to patchwork quilts at womens events While all agreed that this sort of activity was wholly inappropriate for such a chill out room, Craig Milne pointed out that last years chill out room seemed to have the problem that people came in to an awkward silence and then there were introductions So, it was decided to ask for ideas as to what sort of activity could be done in the chill out room to make it less awkward to come into Freshers Fair Stall See Below Launch Night Cheese and Wine, Vodka and Crisps, Launch Night etc Craig Milne is trying to sort out the date and time of this at present Hopefully it will be on Wednesday 1st October at 19:30

Week Two Event A scene tour was agreed to for the 8th of October The consensus of the meeting was that we should gather in committee room 2, but have someone standing outside with a blue folder or something else that makes them stand out In any case, it was agreed that meet and greet people should be outside to show people to the committee room also AGM It was agreed that the AGM will take place on Wednesday 15th October Robert will organise a room for this purpose N.B. The purpose of this discussion was to get an agreement for the events being held and to allow their planning in the next few weeks

3.

Freshers Fair Stall

A criticism that was voiced about last years stall was that it was not particularly approachable The concern was voiced by John Wallace that the people on the stall should be approachable. This was agreed by all It was suggested that someone would stand infront of the stall and hand out flyers to as many people as possible so that if they are not confident about coming up to the stall, they at least have a flyer giving information Geneveive said that she might be able to get old of some sisters of mercy packs and some gay sex things for the boys Leaflets generally were seen as being important for the stall Ruth Kaplan would be asked if the she would mind whether her gay pubs guide could be used in a slightly amended form as a scene guide leaflet Craig Milne would see to this Phase Scotland are to be asked for Condoms and Lube for the stall after one of the initial points of contact the Steve Retson Project said that the best people to get in touch with were Phase and Craig Milne would see to this As many magazines as possible would be good Also vouchers if that was possible for venues on the scene A raffle was mentioned The committee agreed that it was not unconstitutional to take names of people at the stall provided that each individual person write their email address on a separate piece of paper and not in a long list Big posters and the flag for the backboard were also seen as being desirable Details of this would be sorted out at a meeting nearer to the time

4.

Other Events in Term One

Beyond the AGM, planning events will be the responsibility of the new committee There is a strong possibility of a night in the Postgraduates Club this is being negotiated at present If it happens, it will be aimed at postgraduates and staff It will be advertised to undergraduates also if they wish to come along In any case, we are uncertain as to how many people may be interested, since it hasnt been done before, but thought that it may be worth a try

Women only events were also discussed after last years successful events organised by Geneveive There is a Festival for Women on the 14th of September which Geneveive is involved in, but this is clearly too early for being plugged at the freshers fair etc Daytime events were also discussed Bingo was mentioned by John Wallace A Pool competition was also suggested as an idea Robert mentioned debate style events, but ones where there is a suitably large polarisation of opinion amongst those present. Several people remarked that a suitably contentious area could be disabled access or Brian Matthews mentioned that he may be able to get in touch with Patrick Harvie, the Green List MSP for Glasgow Trips were mentioned

5.

Publicity

This is a central part of the freshers week programme Robert read out a few quotes and spending in accordance with those quotes was agreed by the committee 500 or 1000 posters were seen as being a good number to have possibly even in colour Getting round the halls of residence was also seen as being necessary and would be done for students arriving 2000 flyers were also agreed to with two specific drops around campus in freshers week and a lot on the stall

The befriendment scheme guidelines in a very slightly amended form from the committee email of 18th March have been adopted by the committee Fundraising is currently ongoing Letters have been written to drinks companies within the last week and we await hopefully at least one response Further letters may be written soon Many thanks are given to those who made it possible to hold this committee meeting on campus in the early evening.

6.

Other Business

As compiled by, Craig Milne 07/08/2003