|
Absent with apologies:
|
|
Absent without apologies:
|
|
Pete |
Get Housekeeping to approve a Bedders’
Contract, publicise JCR minutes and events in toilets/kitchens around
College, sort details of University Disciplinary Board representative out
with Cordelia, arrange to buy jukebox in the bar,
send out an email about the DPC |
|
Dave Kerr |
Replenish the Quiet Room board games and renegotiate the newspaper
contracts (and email the Bursar about this), get coffee machine repaired |
|
Ben Fisher |
Talk to College Office about PAT testing and try to get them to see
sense |
|
Sean |
Encourage undergraduates to tell the Maintenance Department about
faulty electrical equipment, publicise Open Meeting |
|
Jenny |
Ask Maintenance Dept. to replenish stock of energy-saving lightbulbs |
|
Paul |
Invite CUSU president to speak at Open Meeting, organise Academic
Affairs Officer elections |
|
Committee |
Solicit opinions for development of CUSU to be proposed at the DPC
meeting in the second week of November |
PAT
Testing
Pete
began the meeting by talking about the recent email from College about PAT
Testing. Basically, College wants to get a contractor to test and certify all
student-owned electrical equipment at a charge of £2.50 per
item, starting next week. This email was sent without any consultation with the
JCR and seems to be a rather knee-jerk reaction by College, considering that
most problems are caused by faulty College equipment rather than student
equipment (e.g. College kitchen appliances that have been around for the last
ten years) – such as the recent fire caused by a faulty extractor fan in
Pembroke.
It
was noted that the college never consulted the JCR before announcing this
course of action. Pete noted that there are three options: (i) let them go ahead, (ii) say no because we are
being ripped off – the cost is at most £1.50 per item commercially, (iii) say no because this is absolutely
pointless and a waste of money – there are other safety issues that are much
more important than this to look at.
The
committee voted unanimously for option (iii), also noting that most
students buy equipment after coming up to university and thus their electrical
equipment is at most a couple of years old (again compared to College
electrical appliances, some of which have been around for a long time). Sean
was asked to encourage students to complain to maintenance about faulty
electrical equipment. It was noted that the Maintenance Department is slow
at replying emails.
Pete
will be away from this Sunday to next Sunday, so Ben will talk to the College
Office about this on Monday. Most of the problems are due to College appliances
that are attached to the wall, and therefore do not qualify for “portable
appliance” testing (PAT) – it is these appliances that put people at risk. Pete
will send a copy of the legal requirements on PAT testing to Ben.
AMALS
Budget
There
is an 80% chance that the AMALS budget will be settled on Monday, as the Chief
Clerk is on sick leave. (Ben maintains that this chance is 85%, but Mark
insists that it is 80%.)
Ents
Programme for the term
Krzys and Nat are in absentia, so we
cannot discuss this.
General progress on other
issues
JCR amenities: thanks to Dave
Kerr, we now have a clock, a no-smoking sign and a DVD cleaner!
Coffee machine in the JCR: this is going
to be repaired at a cost of £90, and the existing stock
will be replaced with Fairtrade coffee. The charge
will be 25 p for a cup of coffee, and the profit will go to the JCR (for
replenishing of water filters, etc.). The coffee vending machine would probably need PAT testing; this will come out of the
Amenities budget.
Condom
vending machine: Emma wants one. It seems that the CUSU welfare officer
has found someone who can send us a condom machine. The cost of a machine
dispensing single condoms is £250, and the cost of a machine dispensing condoms
in packs of two is £300. We can decide what price to sell them; CUSU Durex condoms cost 10 p, and Emma sells them for 20 p.
Emma said she put some
condoms in the Quiet Room at the beginning of term and they all disappeared
instantly.
The matter was discussed and
the consensus was that the current situation is fine as it stands: there are
plenty of condoms in the CUSU survival packs in the JCR, which can be used if
needed.
Dave Kerr suggested putting a
bucket of condoms in the plodge, so that people will
have to ask the porters for condoms. This will deter anyone from taking the
whole stock for himself.
Emma spoke to a porter about
this matter once – it seems that Peterhouse used to have a condom machine. It
used to get robbed – not for the money, but for the products.
The committee decided not to
get a machine (at least for now) as the cost is prohibitive.
Jukebox: we are probably
going to buy the jukebox in the bar.
Election for a
representative on the University Disciplinary Board
This is a largely symbolic
position; the Board needs a representative from each college as a contact
point. The term of service is from January to December, so it can’t be a
finalist. Cordelia volunteered; Pete will sort the
details out with her.
Welfare Phoneline
Gonville and Caius
College recently bought a mobile phone for welfare and women-related issues.
Emma would like to do the same for Peterhouse. The idea is to have the mobile
number put on the back of the Camcab key rings which
undergraduates receive at the beginning of the year. The phone will be carried
by Emma. People could text the number and ask for condoms, which will be
delivered via the normal channels. It costs around £30 for a
cheap phone.
When asked
which other colleges have something like this, Emma says that Trinity and
Selwyn are looking into similar schemes.
Emma was
asked to work out the cost of the scheme and report back to the committee. It
was noted that undergraduates should be told not to expect any replies to a
call to that number (otherwise there will be budgeting problems – we would need
to include the costs of reply calls, which would increase the cost of the
scheme by quite a lot).
Energy Efficient Light bulbs
College has recently sent
out an email asking undergraduates to use energy-efficient light bulbs. This is
all well and good, but there are no such light bulbs in the plodge
at the moment, presumably because they have all been taken and are being
well-used! Jenny is to talk to the Maintenance Department about this.
Pete noted that we can get
energy saving ultraviolet light bulbs for the Halloween bop.
Glass bottles
Dave Kerr said that his bedder refused to take away three glass bottles from his
room, citing the reason that bedders are not allowed
to carry glass objects. Pete will get Housekeeping to approve a Bedders’ Contract as soon as possible, outlining the exact
duties of bedders.
Newspapers
Dave Kerr spoke to the
porters about newspapers; we are currently losing £4 a day due
to the inefficacy of the present arrangements. It would be much cheaper to get
newspapers from the shop across the road from the plodge.
Dave Kerr will sort this out. He will also email the Bursar about this (as it
may be useful for saving money for other newspaper schemes in college – e.g.
Fellows’ newspapers). Dave was also asked to get ‘Peterhouse JCR’ stamped at
the top of the newspapers rather than ‘Peterhouse’.
Laila arrives at
the meeting.
Amnesty
letters
Jenny says
that Douglas Dowell (representing Amnesty International) has got plenty of
letters from the letter-writing session on Monday, and needs to post them all
over the world. The cost is expected to be £50. Pete suggested that he
affiliate to AMALS; however, this initiative is not a new thing and it has been
going on in previous years, so it was also suggested that Douglas talk to Sam
Scott about how he managed to finance this last time.
Open meeting
It was decided that the Open
Meeting will be held at 8 pm on Friday 10th November (since there is
an engineers’ event on Monday, an orchestra rehearsal on Tuesday, a musicals
concert on Wednesday and the termly Corporate
Communion on Thursday)!
Paul was asked to invite the
CUSU president to come and speak at the meeting.
Sean is to send out an email
to advertise the open meeting at the start of next week, and twice nearer the
date – we really need people to come!
Meeting with CUSU
Development and Planning Committee
We will have this sometime
during the week of the open meeting. The committee was asked to get opinions
from undergraduates about suggestions for the development of CUSU.
Pete is to send out an email
about this to the undergraduates.
Elections for CUSU Academic
Affairs Officer
Paul will investigate this
and organise a rota.
Any other business
Paul asks if we can get the
College back gate open after 5 pm. College always says no, and the committee
thinks this is justified – the large back entrance is less secure than entry
via the garden gate or the plodge, and leaving it open
facilitates theft (as it is so close to accommodation). It is better to
sacrifice some convenience for the benefit of security.
The date of the next meeting will be arranged by email.