beccy
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Posts: 42
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Post by beccy on Apr 5, 2009 16:37:47 GMT
Hmm. Provisionally booking venues wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but I really like the idea of a parade, and I think I will bring the idea of a cultural garden party to the general meeting since Farha's expressed enthusiasm (it was totally the Jews, btw, we didn't at ALL just adopt Middle Eastern food for Israel cos it's so great, or anything: in fact, why are we all divided over race and religion and land/resource disputes, when we could be united in knowing what good food tastes like??? Falafel is clearly the key to the solution - erm, that and Israel getting a leetle less heavy-handed and oppressive, but y'know). If anyone wants to start making provisional inquiries/bookings for any of their ideas, then great, but let's leave final decisions for the 22nd meeting.
Eleftherios, I really hope you know that we all massively appreciate all the passion and enthusiasm you bring to CGS, and it's no bad thing to have ambitious ideas, especially when we know you'll commit 900% to following them through. I think everyone just panicked a bit at the logistics, not at the fact that you were showing initiative and being proactive ;-)
Re your idea of symbolically rowing/cycling/running the distance to Gaza, it's my bad for never managing to circulate the minutes from that meeting, but I remember thinking at the time it was a really cool idea, and if we could pull it off, we definitely should. I'm sorry for screwing up so that it didn't get the consideration it deserved at the time.
If your ideas do ever end up getting sidelined, please don't take it personally, just remember that we're a group of fallible human beings doing our best to work together fairly, democratically and productively, and we will mess up from time to time. All of us have at times felt frustrated with process/other people not seeing our points etc, but that doesn't mean that any of our contributions aren't valued, and I for one am bloody impressed by your commitment and ideas/action generating power: it would only ever be due to a breakdown in communication that that stopped being apparent.
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Post by ellyrobson on Apr 7, 2009 10:53:11 GMT
I defintely agree about making sure the spaces we choose are culturally inclusive - including the need for non-alcoholic spaces. Our choice of venue may dictate our audience the most out of anything and should be considered carefully with town/gown/alcohol in mind.
I think any venue should let us hold our event for free or a very minimal charge. The Shop and Clare Cellars would make this possible, but KamBar, I think, might charge us - we would need to find out. I don't know about the pubs.
We could attempt to make different events particularly inclusive to different groups of people, rather than trying to make all events please everyone - i have a feeling this may be hard! For example, a parade through town would be targetted at townspeople (and students that happen to be around). A falafel/hummus event at the Cafe project or elsewhere would be perfect for cultural inclusion and fostering links between middle easterns, but might not involve many people who aren't already deeply involved in the issues of Israel/Palestine.
A musical event at the Shop would be non-alcoholic, put perhaps poorly attended by townspeople, a musical event at Clare Cellars would be alcoholic and student-based. One at a pub would bring in more townspeople and maybe less students (?). The choice of venue definitely has implications about the audience.
The value of a music event in a popular venue is that it can draw in people who might not normally be involved in such campaigns, but will give a fiver or something to attend, maximising profit and getting people involved might not otherwise.
Something I've been thinking about is the stress of organising a fully fleged garden party - but I know that a 'picnic for palestine' was put on by a friend of mine at another university and can find out more details about its success - this may be cheaper and more flexible?
Another thought is to approach the Cambridge Arts Theatre and ask them if they would put on a film dealing with issues around the conflict - such as waltz with bashir or something else (i'm not sure of the range of palestinian cinema, but I'm sure there is some great stuff) - on the day. That would be a really good event to get town and gown to, and would be minimal effort. All procedes to go to charity, hopefully.
Although I'm not sure about who we are targetting specifically (town/students/academics/the super-rich?) - it is important to bear in mind that what the weak university promise does is give us access to a wide range of university members who may not have heard about it otherwise. In other words, a majority who may not be deeply interested in the conflict, but would come along to 'humanitarian events' and give money. This also means that advertising to the town would have to come from us alone, but is important and I think we will have to advertise widely ourselves anyway. BUT, fundraising events for which the university email is absolutely no use (eg. the super-rich) could be done another time??
I think we do need to make sure this day has a space for education and involvement in cgs work - if it is going to be quite visible and awareness raising, it would be great to get more people involved. A flyer detailing what we do at the least, would be good.
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jacob
New Member
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Post by jacob on Apr 7, 2009 14:44:11 GMT
All sounding good. We need somewhere big enough that allows us to capitalise on any effects of a university-wide email; even if it doesn't tuen out to be very useful, I don't really want to go trying to organise an event merely the size of any other event we might put on it the year. Not to say we shouldn't be cautious, but we can fill Kambar by telling a few friends and leafletting a little, this is meant to be the biggy.
A few different things sounds like a good idea though, though harder to publicise. Kambar has shit sound, let's not do anything there. The King Blues would need £1000+PA+Rider+lights. This is a lot, I hoped they could do it for less, but their agent said that would cover costs - they have to pay a lot of people. I'm less sceptical than others that they've sold out, because I know they still live in a little house in Tottenham, and they just gave all the proceeds from their last tour to the Big Issue. Should we talk to smaller bands about playing, though we have no venue? I will get on a couple. J
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Post by bryony on Apr 12, 2009 14:18:19 GMT
As someone who has been rubbish at staying involved since the occupation, and struggles to persuade most of my friends to come along to e.g. political fundraisers at Kambar, I prefer the idea of the cultural garden party to an indoor band night.
I think it has the potential to be more unique, interesting, and less obviously the 'same crowd'. I think in May week, people are looking to do things which are more unusual/extravagant than normal term time nights out, so even if a gig is the final plan, it perhaps be good to add additional elements (such as food or cultural events) to it.
However, it's all to easy for me to offer these comments because I'm afraid I can't offer to help out much, so feel free to ignore what I'm saying!
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Post by eleftherios on Apr 22, 2009 9:48:16 GMT
I am summarizing here all the different ideas tell me if something is missing
1. Town Parade
2. Garden Party
3. Picnic
3. Sports Event
4. Music/Gig/Band Event
5. A Formal
6. Palestinian Films (Cambridge Arts)
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Post by eleftherios on Apr 22, 2009 9:48:59 GMT
Sorry you don't need to tell me just add more info. :-)
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Post by eleftherios on Apr 23, 2009 19:09:10 GMT
A very big event is happening in Parker's Piece on the 13 and 14 June 2009. It is the Cambridge 800 Town, Gown & Country Show. See www.oakleighfairs.co.uk/cambridge-town-and-country/ (last year they had 45000 attendance :-))) because of the 800 this year even more might come). I think we should try to have a stall or something going there. They entrance is free but we will probably have to pay to have a stall. Anyway there going to be thousands of people there. Lets use it. Could someone call the organisers and ask if we can have our stall there or some place for Palestinian awareness with no charge or a minimum charge. Don't set up anything just ask. I am sure that we could collaborate with other local communities as well e.g. stop the war & other palestinians societies & the pal. cafe project etc. Some other crowded events happening on the 13th are the last day of May Bumps and the second day of May Balls that ends on the 19th. I was talking today with the Events organizer of the Cambridge Cycling Campaign who told me that they have some other cycling events starting at the same week and she gave me lots of information on where to cycle and cycle paths. See for example this very nice route www.cycle-route.com/routes/Cambridge_Ring-Cycle-Route-539.htmlIs it possible for someone with very good English pronunciation (a lawyer would be the best for this) to call the Police and ask if we can cross the center of town with 200 bikes or 200 runners and probably stop at the guildhall for a short period of time? If you need more info please give me a call.
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