ASNaC Society AGM – 28th February 2014 Present: all committee and many members of society. Apologies from Katie Olley, Carlotta Barbieri, and none from Eoghan Ahern. Consistency is a strength. Attempt to start with Presidential hustings aborted due to Sam Thompson(ST) being absent. This bodes well. Vice-President  Naomi Forward (NF): She loves organising and has experience within the department, such as the British Museum trip at the end of this term to the Viking exhibition. Knows exactly what she wants for the BTD, without giving too much away she wants to have it at Kings, as it is her home college and she knows most people haven’t eaten there before. She is also close to both pairs running for president, so she can work well with whoever is elected. Treasurer  Emilia Henderson (EH): Thinks the position should stay in Swedish hands. Anna Larsson (AL) has left us in a great position thanks to all her hard work (all applaud). Emilia likes organising, can construct budget spreadsheets and do internet banking. She will also have AL on speed dial, whether she likes it or not. Secretary   Jess Shales (JS): She’d like to be more involved in the society, and having read previous minutes would like to be part of a grand tradition of minute taking (the current secretary likes this sentiment). It is a role she’d enjoy and be good at. Holly Bee (HB): Outside of turning up in a rush to lectures, she’s generally organised. She’s a quick note taker and good listener and is good at compromising so would be a good member of the committee. She’d like to be part of the team and give something back. She also has experience working on a committee to organise Jubilee events in her home town Edale. Social Secretary  Sven Rossel (SV): KH is confused by the presence of a question mark next to his name on her sheet. Sven acknowledges we have our own opinions about his organisational skills, but when it comes to organising parties, pub etc he’s on the ball. He wants people to have a good time with him and feel included. KH asks what he has in mind, SV suggests Pembroke formals. Netwalda  Bret Cameron (BC): His name sounds like Bretwalda…which rhymes with Netwalda… In all seriousness, he worked last summer to create and moderate an online shop, so he has experience. Also, his neighbour is a compsci. Yule Play   SM wonders if Rhodri Hughes (RhH) would like to run? RhH would like to. He should be voted for because he is shy and retiring, and interested and experienced in drama. He also already has ideas for the Yule play, including a Gok Grendel character. He is good at getting angry and ordering people around, a vital element in running the play. Archepiscopus  Corey Pierce (CP): she would like to get involved with the committee, and has already spent most of first year spamming the freshers’ group to do social things. She’s friendly and has ideas for the first term to help newbies integrate.  Lydia Prosser (LP): thinks she has the right personality as she’s never really stressed and so can help calm down nervous freshers. She also has 8 different types of tea in her room. She aims to organise events in first term, such as a Lord of the Rings night with mead, and then be someone approachable in Lent and Easter. Axe-ss   Hannah Everett (HE): she cares about access because she wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Sutton Trust summer school two years ago. Access is an opportunity to show people that they can do what they want, or find out what’s right for them. It’s also important to tell people that some Cambridge people are normal and that asnac is a great department (which goes without saying). Ruby Keane (RK): The first thing she’d do is remove the negative comment about palaeography from the alternative prospectus. Coming from Homerton, and therefore running on a platform of underdog-ship, she would be present at open days, festival of ideas and open days. She is keen to get people from the more under-represented demographics considering asnac and Cambridge. Gesta Editor(s)    Lizzie Colville (LC): interested in having a career as an editor, so would approach the role with a certain degree of professionalism. Skills include good word processing, and the suitable sense of humour, incorporating bad puns and dirty jokes. The role has been shared in previous years; SM asks if anyone else is interested in running, or being LC’s minion. Michael Frost (MF) says very useful to have someone who can draw. LC will ask Angharad if she is willing to be minion. Mead and Cider officer   Emily Louise (EL): asnacs like alcohol, and she’s organised. She’d like to get involved with the running of the BTD and would endeavour for the society never to run out of alcohol, which would be a disaster. LC suggests getting an account with the Cambridge Wine Merchants, which would lower the price of large quantities of mead. However, AL says she looked into it last year and for the amount we drink it’s more viable to ask for the student discount instead. Catering Officer     KH understands why no-one might want to stand as it is hard work. She is content to leave it to the new presidents to decide a new system, perhaps with people taking different weeks or everyone bringing in foodstuffs. Maura McKeon (MM) says the way she has run it didn’t take up too much time so she’d be willing to continue providing lunch if she were made president. Vote of thanks and applause to MM for her amazing job this year. Vote of thanks from MM to everyone for eating her food. Grad Rep  No-one is standing, so perhaps an ex-third year might be persuaded when they begin M.Phil next year. Victims include MF and Katie Olley (especially as she’s not here to protest). Presidential  MM and Beth McKinlay (BM): MM as last year’s catering officer has demonstrated a wide range of skills, such as organisation, stamina to sustain the role throughout the year and workting to a budget. She is committed to asnac and has showed initiative by implementing Fudge Friday, and quite literally wears asnac on her legs. All pause to admire MM’s Bayeux-patterned leggings.    BM does mostly history papers and feels that between her and MM the whole gamut of asnac subjects is covered. She worked with Sven to organise the Christmas party, so can work well with him in the future. She’s interested in implementing study sessions in the common room to provide quiet help for people ST and Tom Kearns (TK): ST wants to thank KH and SM, and indeed previous presidents Caitlin and Caroline, for all their work. They are a good example of what presidents should be like, and so the lads hope to run on a platform of continuity. ST has been axe-ss officer on the 2013 committee and also is recruitment, secretary and trainer for the Pythons American Football team. Thus, he has much experience of organising events such as their freshers’ fair stall. As part of ax-ess work he has been present on college open days, visited his old school and led talks about what Cambridge is like. TK has been active within college organising social stuff, for example, running activities at Homerton which were not bops. He meets deadlines, tries to push for things he feels are needed and would apply this to being president, making asnac a better place for all. He and ST would like to introduce an open element to committee meetings where any asnac can make suggestions or address issues in front of the whole committee instead of having to email, a medium in which a message can be lost. Also, introduce a suggestion box for library books.    AL asks if both sets of candidates are scared of EH. BM believes over the past 18 months they have established a strong relationship. ST is scared enough to respect her, but not too scared to be pushed around.   NF asks about the references to website changes on both manifestos and what these might be. TK would be in contact with the new netwalda to see what viable changes can be made and contact RT for experience. ST wants to set up a blogging platform and subcommittee for mini articles and funny things. RT says we already have a tumblr account, although this is mainly her reblogging pictures of swords. At Rachael Fletcher’s suggestion, she will add a submission box to the page, so anyone can contribute. BM thinks the website needs updating to avoid any compatibility issues from leaving it all too long. She also has a friend who does professional web design who would be happy to assess our site.     James McIntosh (JI) wonders what these study sessions will involve, since he practically lives in the common room anyway. BM says the common room is the hub of the department though it can be rowdy. She proposes a couple of hours a week to be designated study time. Hopefully older years would like to help the younger with any problems – acting as moral support, as well as academic, time. SM’s phone text alert goes off. She’s popular.      SM asks if the common room would be a purely social space the rest of the time? BM replies the room is always a study space. MM says while the library is more formal, in the common room you can work with others. The idea is to introduce a slightly more formal session to provide help for anyone seeking it. KH asks who would enforce the quietness? Usually there’s no formality but someone will shush others. JM says that as resident, around 80% of the time the room is ok, it’s just between popular lectures and after asnac lunch that noise increases. NF complains of when most people are quiet except for a couple having a loud conversation, she feels she has no authority to shut them up. AL notes that the common room is a department, not society, space, so anyone has the authority to ask people to be quiet. MM says enforcement based on mutual respect between users. Rob Howell (RH) asks how they would pick times for these sessions? BM would look at the timetable and see when many people would be free.  BM asks the lads about their desire to liaise with other faculties asnacs can borrow papers from.                ST says liaise is probably the wrong word, he plans to collate the online timetables of lectures asnacs might be interested in and make the information available. LC says it would be good to know when lectures for borrowed papers are! AL reminds us that this is a departmental problem, the committee are not necessarily responsible. The trip: SM is concerned that the lasses are aware how expensive it wold be to go to Dublin or the West of Scotland. MM would let the society vote on where they wish to go and is investigating prices and sample itineraries to give people an indication of price. Ideas include Trinity library, Tamworth. MM wants to cater for both Celticists and Germanicists, so a trip to Mercia could also include a hop across the border into Wales. The lads suggest a trip to Kent and Sussex as their initial idea. One can see the whole Anglo-Saxon period in Canterbury. Other places of interest include Dover Castle, Battle Abbey and nearby Romano-British sites to please the Celticists. Plans for May week: BM would be excited to organise a picnic this year. Last year was a great success! She would organise another party, such as going to Trinity Philosophy party last year. She’d be happy to assist groups of friends in organising other events, but wouldn’t want to have too many society events as may week is full on to begin with. TK would do the same as BM has suggested; he would want people to have the best experience with an eye to what isn’t too expensive. ST is also investigating the possibility of a joint party with Tolk Soc and the Ancient Literature Society, (at the suggestion of LC) although he doesn’t know how viable this is. Edward Gent (EG) volunteers RhH to organise the sports day, like he did last year. RhH says maybe, people should be prepared to be disappointed. With no further business, KH declared the meeting adjourned. SM said it was commenced, and all left in a state of confusion. The outgoing secretary (LW) would like to note that she has been delighted to serve the ‘unique’ 2013 committee, and is still amazed how fast the mead was finished at the first meeting. She is still looking for that trip to the fabled bar/ballpark place, though.