There are a number of email addresses that bounce back the email every week, either because the 'user is unknown' or the 'mailbox is unavailable'. So to ensure everyone is kept in the know, the weekly email will be posted here from now on as well. If you do not receive the email, or know someone that does not, please email the society at luu.lgbt@leeds.ac.uk, and hopefully we will be able to rectify the issue.
We have some important news for you to start with this week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our International Officer has come to the decision that he can no longer be on the LGBT committee. This does leave us with the slight problem of being a committee member short, but I'm sure there is somebody out there willing to take on the challenge! Until this time we will be lacking an International officer but the rest of the committee will take over these duties. The mens, womens and trans officers (Scott, Sally and Kate) will be available to talk to any International students who need help or advice and we'll try to do our best!
We're going to hold a by-election in the first week of teaching next semester, allowing voting in each of the coffee hours to give people plenty of opportunity on deciding who becomes the new officer. This may sound a long way off but is the next best opportunity what with the holidays and stress of the exams.
First, however, we need people who want to be put forward for the position to send in a manifesto to the LGBT email luu.lgbt@leeds.ac.uk. These should be between 100-200 words saying why you want the position and why you will be the best person for this. The deadline for submitting these will be the Friday 8th December at which point they will be posted on the forum for everyone to view.
Hope to see a few manifestos soon! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now onto the fun stuff - events!
Tuesday 21st November, 7pm - LGBT Meal and Violater Disco Instead of splitting into two for men's and women's meals, we're going to have one big shindig this time at Spice Quarter on Millenium Square. We're eating at 7pm, so leaving Parkinson Steps at 6.30pm to get there in plenty of time. Basically, be at Parky Steps before half six! After eating we're going to dance the night away at Violater Disco at the New Penny. (The DJ is the ace guy we had at Curious, so if you liked that you better be there!)
Thursday 23rd November, 8.30pm - Pre-Mission drinkage at Mook Mook is a cool bar just behind Nando's on Lower Briggate and next to the club Space. If you remember to take your student card along, you can get 2 for 1 ****tails: the perfect set up to a night at Mission! We're just going to meet in there though, so here's a little map thing for you so you can see where it is:
And there's Suck My Left One on friday at Soul Circus, which I'm sure many people will once again go to, so go and check it out!
Colours of the world, spice up your life! Every boy and every girl, spice up your life! People of the world, spice up your life, aaaaaaahh.... hehe Spice Quarter is really nice
Have fun my friends
Emily Comms Officer
-- Leeds University Union LGBT Society e: luu.lgbt@leeds.ac.uk w: www.leeds.ac.uk/union/socs/lgb
Monday 27th November, 4-6pm - Stitch & Bitch We are running a "Stitch & Bitch" session through the union Give-It-A-Go scheme. It is a free event which will be held in ARC meeting room 3. The event is aimed to reach out to non-members of the society to come to an LGBT event, so bring some along! Members should come too though :) Bring along some knitting, sewing, cross-stitch or if you have any missing buttons maybe bring those along too! There will also be the... "Ultimate 2006 Celebrity Gossip Quiz" - so that we have people/things to bitch about. Dust off those back issues of Heat people! hehe Prizes for the "Fastest Knitter" and the quiz winner will also be handed out.
Friday 1st December 2006, World AIDS Day Coffee Hour on this day will be dedicated to raising money for AIDS/sexual health charities, therefore all that enter must wear some item of red clothing otherwise you will have to pay a fine! There will also be red treats on offer, but if you fancy bringing some along yourself to engage in community spirit, any contributions will be welcome =) Also, as it's getting to that time of year, and he wears red, we're going to have a very special visitor... SANTA! Come sit on his knee and get a pressie, all in the name of charity (not the peervy idea everyone sadly has now of sitting on some old man's knee) Twill be very Merry.
Furthermore, RAG is organising a huge red themed Otley Run to raise money for the day as well. It will begin at 5.30pm at Woodies and end in Fruity at 10pm, to which you can get in at the discounted price of £2.50 if you register with the RAG people. Sign up at their office or else call Nikki on 07890205942. This isn't an LGBT event, but just thought we'd let you know if you want to do a lot for the cause and have fun.
To the members of the LGBT society, This message is the official response compiled by the LGBT Societal committee in response to the problems, which have arisen over the Winter Conference.
Firstly let us begin with the back-story; on the 16th of September an email was sent from the assembly to the society account, which stated the following:
“…after the fiasco that was Summer Conference (whilst I consider that particular example water under the bridge, LETS NOT HAVE A REPEAT OF THIS WITH WINTER CONFERENCE; I KNOW HOW TO RUN IT, AND I WONT STAND FOR ANY INTERFERENCE!”
It was also voted at our last AGM that the running of all NUS conferences would fall to the responsibility of the Assembly. As i'm sure you are now aware, in our eyes any organisation towards conference was not in our domain.
The Assembly informed our committee on the 25th October that the Union was now running the elections, as it would be a university wide election and not just for LGBT students. Again confirming our previous conceptions.
The next anyone within our committee heard from assembly was on the 8th of November when we were informed that manifestos needed to be published by the 10th of November and this information was asked to be distributed to the members. This two-day period in our opinion is a very small window of opportunity to not only check the email, but to action anything. Said email also apologised for its lateness.
Our next correspondence came at 20:30 on the 12th of November, which informed us about the delegation process. This email did again ask to be forwarded to our members, to yourselves.
The consequent email on the 15th of November at 10:00am informed us that the ballot was opening on that day, and would run until the Wednesday.
As im sure you are aware all of the people on this committee are students, and their full time responsibility is to their degree. It is not unreasonable to assume therefore that the communications officer, who has the biggest workload of any committee member, should only have the responsibility of checking the society email account at a minimum of once a week, certainly not everyday. It should be noted at this point that only, and only, the communications officer has access to the members list and therefore they are the only person who can email the members of the society.
In this instance the society weekly email was sent out at 13:00 on the 12th of November. This is of course the period where the account will have been checked, missing the email from the Assembly.
Ultimately we were asked to distribute information to yourselves, however therefore are also numerous ways the LGBT Assembly chair could have communicated with us; he has everyone's contact number, he could have posted on the forum, he could have come to coffee hour, he could have even left us a post-it note in the office which we share, yet this is the only way we have heard from him.
Our only error is not to have checked the emails frequently enough, however they are checked somewhat periodically, at the very least once a week. Therefore due to the situation in this case we feel it is somewhat out of our hands.
However in reference to the working relationships between the society and the assembly, they are at best a little strained. We are all in meetings at the minute with the Democracy and Support advisors and are all working together to ensure that such mistakes do not occur again in the future; we pledge that in the future motions will be put forward again for your discretion at the AGM regarding such matters.
The only event running this week is Coffee Hour with the usual drill - in the ARC, 12-2pm, Monday to Friday, as deadlines are looming and people want to dash off home to prepare for Crimbo (or any other festivities you may partake in)!
Thanks to everyone who came along to our World AIDS Day Coffee Hour last week and sat on Santa's lap (a massive thank you and hug goes out to Hannah Bithell) - we raised £24 for the Terrance Higgins Trust/Stop AIDS campaign, which was pretty great for a small gathering and two hours!
We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year Emily Communications Officer
It's finally time to vote for the new International officer that we have been missing for the past month or so. Attached are the manifestos of the three candidates that have applied for the task.
To vote we simply require you to put the name of the candidate you wish to vote for in the subject box and reply to this email. You dont need to say anything in the email though!
The names of the candidates are: Carl Onwochei Dominic Sefton Drew Jerrison
We will then be counting the replies on Friday at 5pm and will announce the new International officer in the weekly email on Sunday.
Its important that you have your say on who goes into the committee so please vote! It only takes a minute!
Thanks, Chris
And a message from our Events Officers... (Please note, the previous events calendar was wrong. See the website or forum for the correct list)
THURSDAY 25th Jan --> Pre Mission Drinks at Xhibit Meet at Xhibit at 8pm. Warm up for Mission with some drinks at Xhibit! Always a good way to start the evening!
SATURDAY 27th Jan --> Manchester Trip Meet at 7.30pm at Leeds Station (outside Burger King) to get the train just after 8pm. We will go to a few bars on Canal Street and then Poptastic (which btw is far more established than the Leeds version!) for some indie and pop fun! Contact David (07973 596557) if you are going to be late/get lost.
Coffee Hour has started again. It has been in the lounge as there were no rooms available, but for the rest of term it is in the ARC as usual.
Also, remember to order an LGBT hoodie. Some arrived today and they are really nice. Visit www.uni-kit.co.uk/leeds/lgbt to order now!!
Finally, Wed 7th Feb sees the return of CURIOUS. This time it is at Mook bar - cheap ****tails, lgbt students and guaranteed scandal! What more could to want!
I have a slight bombardment of information for you today. Let's start with the fun stuff - this week's events:
Coffee Hour as usual, in the ARC, upstairs in the Union. Monday-Friday, 12-2pm
Men's/Women's events - Wednesday, 31st January Women: 8 Pm, 23a Cliff Road Gardens (Gemma's House - near Hydpe Park, can be found on Multimap.com) Film and ****tails night - bring whatever you want to put in drinks and whatever you want to watch (it doesn't have to be lesbian). There's plenty of room at Gemma's house, so you can bring along friends too if you like. Men: 7.30pm, The Light cinema (Vue) Meeting at the box office, you'll decide what to watch then. It's on to Bourbon afterwards for drinks.
Hi there, I am interested in researching issues around homosexuality and sport, as part of my dissertation. I need for female volunteers to take part in a really quick project, lasting about half an hour. This would really help me out if you could do it. I am free all day mondays, most of tuesday and some of wednesdays if you could help.
Here's my email: psc4rks@leeds.ac.uk.
Cheers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's all folks! Thanks for reading if you're still there
Here’s what’s up and coming in the world of the LGBT:
ALL THIS WEEK is LGBT Awareness Week.
This means all things LGBT will be hitting the uni media outlets and we’ll be providing lots of fun awareness-inducing activities in Coffee Hour. If you want to know more about our collective culture/history, whilst having lots of fun, make sure you’re a pink triangle, not a square!
N.B. If you’re a new member, or haven’t had the confidence to make it to an event yet, then one of our welfare officers (Sally, Kate, Scott and Dom) will meet you before Coffee Hour, so you don’t have to go in alone. Just email the society at the address below, or put in a request on the forum, which is accessible through the website below.
WEDNESDAY 7TH FEBRUARY, 9PM - CURIOUS?????
As part of Awareness Week, the LGBT’s own club night Curious is returning. For those of you who didn’t make it to the last one (shame on you), it provides a bit of an alternative to the usual Leeds gay scene, but still delivers a wide enough range of music to please pretty much everyone. It’s being held at Mook this time round (next to Space/behind Nando’s on Lower Briggate) with their fantastic 2 for 1 ****tails offer running all night, so you can have plenty of fun for less money. It’s £3 for members and £4 for your non-member friends. So really, you have no excuse for not coming!
FRIDAY 9TH FEBRUARY, 8PM – TERRACE WIND DOWN
A chilled out way to end Awareness Week, we’ll be gathering in the union bar for a few bevies. Come for a chat about the meaning of life, or a good old gossip and reminiscence about the events of Curious.
Info about upcoming events
The Otley Run theme (Saturday 17th Feb) has now been decided. Get out your history books, because Timeline is the winner! This basically means you can dress up as any famous person from history, so should be broad enough for you to find someone to suit your taste.
Leeds LGBT’s first Art event will be held on Wednesday 21st Feb at the Faversham, so if any of you out there have a creative flair you’re dying to show off, find your muse and get inspired to make this a wonderful night to remember. Also, if you’re feeling extra talented and generous, you can allow your piece to be entered into a charity auction at the end of the night. The deadline for submissions for the event is Monday 19th Feb.
Society politics
Last, but by no means least, is the announcement that we are now accepting manifestos for the next generation of LGBT Society Committee Members. These are to be approximately 100-200 words long, describing why you are applying for the position you’re interested in (Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Events, Men’s, Women’s, Trans’, International and Communications) and why you would be the best candidate for the role. Please note, manifestos will be published on the forum at a later date so everyone in the society can read them before the AGM (Annual General Meeting), so bear this in mind if you are unwilling to have your name unequivocally associated with the LGBT Society. Send Manifestos to the Society email address with ‘Manifesto’ and the position you’re applying for as the subject title (e.g. ‘Communications Officer Manifesto’).
And that’s that for now
In keeping with the Awareness theme - Knowledge is power
There's not much to tell you in this email. The only event is the
Otley Run - Saturday 17th Feb, 3pm The usual for Otley Runs - meet at Woodies at 3 in your lovely costumes for drinking fun. The theme is TIMELINE, so basically come as any historical figure. This is very broad people, so there's no excuse for not making the effort! Think outside the box if you like - you could come as someone from the 90s if you don't like history too much!
The only other business is a reminder for Manifestos (100-200 words stating why you want to do a particular job on the committee). We need to receive them to the society inbox by the 24th February, so don't leave it too much longer to get them in!
So long and thanks for all the fish! (Please say at least some of you know Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy..?) Emily Communications Officer
