Big Event 13th of June

[eleftherios]

This is for discussion about the big event happening on the 13th of June.

[eleftherios]

Which Bands ? Any famous people you know?
Which Building ?
Food yes/no ?

[ellyrobson]

some thoughts for june 13th (a provisional date, but seems good so far!)

outsideness - garden party? but with a twist? Remember there are a lot a lot of garden parties in may week. If champagne and strawberries aren't our thing (expensive!) then lets do something different.

But what kind of event do we want this to be? Do we want it to have educational elements, or is it difficult to integrate heavy things about human life and suffering when we might raise more money if it is more of a feel-good may week event. There could be space for more educational and serious things at other points in the day?

seven jewish children performed?

bands and music in the evening?

some kind of fundraising parade through town. something like solidarity fundraising - visually punchy with buckets. Town will be busy, this is a really good way to raise money. We will need lisencing permits for this.

An important discussion to have is who we are using this opportunity to aim our fundraising at. Students? Academics? the very rich? in my opinion the university email is token. It may bring the events to the awareness of a much wider range of people, but we will still need to make posters, set up facebook groups etc.

[eleftherios]

It would be great if we could have a garden. But we should definitely need a lot of protected space as well as it is common to have rain during June here.

I don't think that we should do a lot of education stuff but we can add these in the Cultural event.

Maybe some theatre is cool.

Bands! Definitely Bands!

The bucket should somehow advertise as well our event.

The aim of fundraising is EVERYBODY. But with this priority. First the very rich, then the medium rich, then the poor and everybody. No, I changed my mind priority is not important. We should try to publish it to the Cambridge News.

We need to contact the Stop the War for nice Posters! They have someone who can make posters for us. Otherwise, we should find a cheap print house or use some of the university printers.

We need to invite all the UK occupations as well :-)

More ideas coming soon. Now time for sleep.

About the bands. Try to see which famous bands started from Cambridge or their members were students here. We should start from them. Lets e-mail them.

[beccy]

I really like the idea of a parade. We could work all sorts of street theatre, music, art and costumes into that to make it both educational and fun, and also, as Elly says, raise lots of money. How do we go about getting permission for this, or do we need concensus before we start on the practicalities? If that is the case, the first General Meeting of term should probably have fundraising at the top of its agenda.

We should definitely get it advertised in the Cambridge News and draw on other groups for advertising resources; it would indeed be foolish to rely just on the university advertising.

A Garden Party with a twist - hmm. Maybe we could make this Shalom-Salaam after all? So it's a garden party, but one with falafel and mango juice instead of champaigne and strawberries? This really appeals to me, because Israel Soc were going to do a garden party to try to show off the positive cultural aspects of Israel (two years ago, when I was on the committee - we didn't manage to get it off the ground), but sharing the positive cultural aspects of both sides would be a way of making that happen but better.

Seven Jewish Children, and maybe even the counter play as well, could be performed at the Garden Party? Or, an idea I had after Seven Jewish Children is that, instead of performing a scripted play, people who feel that they have a personal investment in the conflict or are personally represented by Seven Jewish Children could get together and devise a piece of drama of their own? At the end of the day, this conflict is made up of very personal feelings and stories, and maybe that would be a better approach?

We could ask Israel Soc and Pal Soc for poetry readings from their different cultures; maybe have an art competition on the theme of Israel-Palestine and display it at the garden party; sing traditional Jewish and Muslim songs; have an inter-faith prayer session.

Wow, I'm getting really excited about these two theoretical events now! We should maybe put together all of our collective ideas at the upcoming meeting and send them out on the list for jazz hands. Is this an education and events thing or a general meeting thing?

[ellyrobson]

just a point of clarification beccy.

i think education and events should definitely discuss these things, and are mandated to find out as much information and research as they want - eg. lisencing for buckets. But will probably have to wait till next general meeting before any concrete action, as we need to get consensus on what we are actually doing on the day.

really the day of fundraising is a bracket all of its own - although it falls a lot under the bracket of education and events, it is NOT just down to the ed and events working group to do this, EVERYONE needs to get involved. As such, this thread should probably be under fundraising, but it doesn't matter too much.

secondly, as far as i'm aware, at the last meeting where this was discussed
- see the minutes here: www.srcf.ucam.org/gazasol/wiki/index.php?title=General_meeting_2009-03-05 -
it was decided that the shalom-salaam cultural event would be set up for the start of next term. If we want to integrate it into the day of fundraising then that's something we need to discuss at the next open meeting. I will try to keep a list of some of these ideas that are coming up on the forum so they're not just lost to the world!

[beccy]

Cool, thank you, the crossover was getting a bit confusing.

NB, I'm not trying to turn the CGS fundraising day into an Israel Soc event: I'm saying it would be really cool to take up that old idea and transform it into a cross-cultural celebration.

I guess it depends on whether we think we can make lots of money that way, or make more money with some other kind of event.

Ideas so far, then, are a breakfast formal, a street parade, a garden party (potentially with Shalom-Salaam incorporated), a formal dinner, a posh drinks and snacks do with classical music, a counter formal and a gig: oui?

Concensus seemed to be that we wanted to have a full day of events, but then equally we didn't want to spread ourselves too thin. Hmm. I guess we'll have to wait until the next General Meeting. But it's good to note all these ideas down: we're lucky to have such a diligent secretary, even after you've broken your leg!

[ellyrobson]

broken leg gives me more time, not less... as soon as this cast is off, i'm gone.

[ellyrobson]

Following on from discussion on the lists...

Eleftherios and others in cambridge have been meeting and working hard and that is really appreciated - I don't think anyone is trying to blame or undermine and Eleftherios, we know you are not an elephant! Don't be sad!

The suggestions that they have come up with from that meeting should be considered and explored for feasibility. But equally, other suggestions are really important, so please post them to the forum, and we can then discuss whether they are the best way to fundraise.

Ultimately, however, while we are short of time, our plan for our day of fundraising must be made in a general meeting. We all want to raise as much money as possible, but we must do it together, after having reached a consensus about the best thing to do.

SO, discuss this on the FORUM, get ideas, discuss feasibility/desirability, come to the next general meeting full of well thought-out proposals, and we will start to ACT once we have reached consensus.

Eleftherios, the day of fundraising is not just under the mandate of the events team, it will require the help of everyone. Also, the events team only acts to book rooms etc. when it has consensus from a general meeting that such an event should take place.

Yes, we have agreed to a day of fundraising, but not the nature of the fundraising. A music festival is your idea, but there are many others. I know we are short of time, but we really can only research ideas until we have consensus on a proposal to implement them. This is the system of democracy that cgs uses.

See above for some other suggestions.

[anarchistluke]

All I was trying to say with my emails was "there is no way this is ever going to be possible or work as proposed - the proposal needs a radical overhaul"
I wasn't trying to personally criticise anyone. I don't blame Eleftherios for putting the suggestion forward to us, I was just commenting on its feasibility.
On which point, I think the idea of splitting the day up into 2 hr chunks or whatever is also nigh-on impossible to implement for various reasons - how do we know we will run to time? Can we feasibly charge people a decent ticket price for such a short gig? Will people actually turn up to the oddly-timed gigs? Is this multiplying the effort required without proportionately multipling the money raised? I think so.

[eleftherios]

Hi Elly,

The next general meeting I think is on the 22nd of April. Lets prepare some concrete proposals.

Please read the last events meeting minutes to see what was discussed there.
www.srcf.ucam.org/gazasol/wiki/index.php?title=Act:Events
For example the cultural event was suggested be a different day.

Beccy has moved most of her suggestions here to the Cultural Event.

So, is a parade your main other suggestion for the 13th of June?

[ellyrobson]

hi eleftherios,

a bucket-shaking dress-up music-making visually punchy parade through town was one idea. Mainly, we would need to think of a cohesive theme (possibly around our charity of choice) and apply for bucket licenses. This can raise a lot of money - it is actually a very effective way of fundraising.

with regards to the music idea, I am worried about the feasibility of the large event you have suggested. I think we would have needed to be planning it for far longer. Many of the big names you have suggested are booked up far in advance.

Instead, I would suggest a smaller musical evening, with slightly less internationally famous musicians, in a smaller indoor venue. I think this would be possible and we could raise a decent amount of money. Somewhere like clare cellars, or one of the pubs in cambridge, or the shop on jesus lane, would be appropriate.

We do need to recognise our limits sometimes, and i worry that organising the a musical event on the scale you have suggested would be near impossible - most people have exams next term, i don't think the bands will be available at short notice, i think finding a large venue will be a logistical nightmare.

then there is the idea of a garden party. Can we make more money than we spend setting it up? Has anyone ever put on a garden party - are they profitable?

The same goes for any formal dinner or champagne reception. Anyone with experience of putting on such events - it would be useful to know about logisitics and costs.

I think we should put on the play Seven Jewish Children to raise money, if all those involved in the production are happy with this.

Beccy also had the idea of a posh breakfast in queens - is this profitable beccy?

We could also run an event aimed at academics and university staff, but we are likely to already have the email addresses of those interested, so don't necessarily need to do it on the day of fundraising. The good thing about music/play/parade is that we can reach towns people, students and university staff with them all - they are not exclusive to one group, in my opinion.

Do we want educational events on the day of fundraising? They may not be very profitable, but would be in line with our ethos of actually making people think about the long-term issues, rather than just taking their money for short-term aid... or is this day about raising as much money as possible?

Those are some of my thoughts.

E x

[farha]

Having the event in a pub/bar would probably alienate the muslim contingent, who, I'm hopeful will turn up to this sort of thing even if they weren't up for the occupation. Just something to bear in mind.

F

[farha]

Garden party with falafels and mango juice is a wicked idea!!

Then Arabs and Jews can argue about something much less heated: who invented falafels and houmous?

[kathrynmaude]

I think that Farha makes a very good point - we need to make sure that this is culturally inclusive and so we need to make sure that we have events in places where alcohol is not being served. The Shop is good for this, as is the cafe.

The only thing is, this might attract less people. And I'm concerned about the Shop as a venue because I don't think that there's any way we can get people from the town in, because it's not a well-known venue.

I think that we need to get in touch with the Portland Arms ASAP, or The Man in the Moon, or the KamBar and see if they will let us put something on. I would suggest the first two if we're looking to attract people from town, just because they already have a music scene with local bands involved and I think that we could attract more people. Though then there's the problem that people from the university wouldn't come, which I think is much less of a problem at the KamBar.

What do you guys think?