http://www.felixonline.co.uk/archive/IC_1980/1980_0553_B

Imperial College Union Annual Reports 79/80 to be presented at the A G M on Tuesday 20th April, 1980 at 1:00pm in the U C H .

ICU PRESIDENT'S A N N U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 "Ah,

broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!"

Poe This report, my last, is not written as an abridged version of all my other reports as they are all on file elsewhere. This is intended as an 'overview'. Unlike its predecessors it contains many personal observations and comments. I apologise for its length, but not its contents.

R e l a t i o n s with C o l l e g e and Overlapping Services In general, the Union's relations with College have remained very good. The new College Secretary, ' Mr John Smith, has proved to be understanding and effective. Like any organisation which doesn't have to make a profit, and which in the past has had its sectional losses written off, College does have sections which suffer from inefficient organisation. If anything good can come from this current round of cuts I hope it is that the College organisation can tighten up and 'make a profit' in terms of money it saves without affecting the 'quality of the product'.

Two obvious examples of this are the refectory and residence accounts. 1 cannot understand why the refectory service is so bad (prices vs quality). However, I cannot offer a solution. Last year the 'solution' of refectory boycotts was offered. I supported them and the refectories were indeed boycotted. They proved the strength of public opinion but the problems were not solved. The new Chairman of the Refectory Committee, Dr Schroter, has approached his task tactfully and is genuinely trying to improve matters, but I believe, like me, he hasn't found the answers. It ' is interesting to note that the solution in a few colleges has been to call in external caters (eg, Trust House Forte), the time is coming when this must be considered a viable alternative.

The residence account presents no fewer problems. It is true, I think, that College rents have been maintained at a low level, however, using the 'how much would you pay in the private sector?' argument is not strictly relevant (two wrongs do not make a right). It is also not right that the majority of students who are not in College residence should suffer as a -result

of money being used to excessively subsidise the Halls. The rent levels for next year are yet ot be set, but these two factors must be balanced against each other. The third factor of services in Hall and House, eg, level of cleaning, standard of furniture, can, and have in the past, been used as a further regulator of rent levels. In the future I believe students would settle for a lower service in return for lower rents.

An accommodation seminar was organised last Easter, also a survey of about eight percent of IC students was obtained. The former succeeded in the sense that it had every section of College working together on an informal level. It did not produce concrete proposals but it was not asked to do so. The latter helped most of all to prove things we often thought were true, for example, that triple rooms are 'very unpopular, was shown as a percentage.

The Residence Committee has accepted the Union proposals calling for the curtailment of Wardens places. A l s o , (in an attempt to increase the number of studes who have one year in College residence), the Committee accepted proposals to reduce reapps to approximately seven percent, (but chosen as a set figure rather than a percentage), and to reduce Union places from twenty to fourteen.

Any talk of accommodation must include the Union Welfare Centre and M i c h a e l A r t h u r , who has continued his magnificent work in this field. His role has altered somewhat this year in that he is now employed by the College. To compensate for the times when he is out of the Centre a part-time Welfare Assistant, Sue Telling, has been added to the staff, and has settled down excellently since joining the Centre in January.

The problem of dwindling private sector accommodation is continuing to get worse and if any real h e a d w a y , in terms of the IC students lot, is to be made, a lot of money will have to be invested, both in advertising and in followups. In College we currently have three agencies dealing with accommodation: the College Residence Office, U L U Residence Office and the Union Welfare Centre. At a time of dwindling resources it is important that these three do not waste money in duplication and recrimination, the savings made

could then be used to invest in obtaining further accommodation.

It is pleasing to note that, at last, the College has recognised that accomodation is a problem and has begun to look for ways of surmounting it, but there is a long, long way to go yet.

The rest of the Welfare servie has remained much as in previous years, once again Michael bearing the majority of any credit due. It must also be noted that under Dr Haines, the Health Centre has taken on a more relaxed environment.

External Affairs This year the External Affairs Committee itself has worked more as a forum than an action committee, (due to a basic political schizm within it). There has, however, been quite a lot of activity organised in various fields, for which I claim no real credit. The session started and ends with the immediate threat of the government's cuts in public s p e n d i n g , in p a r t i c u l a r , the introduction of 'Full Cost Fees' (their words) for overseas students, which will seriously affect the d i s t r i b u t i o n a n d n u m b e r of overseas students and therefore the character of places like IC. At the first U G M a joint Cuts Action Committee was formed which supported a picket of the DES. At the next U G M I proposed a motion calling for an occupation.

This motion was passed and ICU went into what can only be described as a 'token' occupation.

This action was not intended to disrupt College adminstration but to concentrate peoples minds on the subject, draw attention to the situation and physically show that there were a significant number of IC students prepared to rise above the IC apathy and 'physically put themselves' into a protest. The occupation of the SDR finished with a funeral march and leafletting around the Albert Hall on Commemoration Day, and I believe it achieved its aims.

Subsequent, though less intense action was organised. Victoria Station was leafletted and a petition containing over 2,000 signatures was delivered to Edward Heath by myself. It would have been very naive at the time to believe that any action IC organised would reverse the political tide. That tide would not have ebbed even if the NUS had managed to organise anything like a campaign. I also believe that

future campaigns, whether they be 'broad based' or specific, will probably meet with the same degree of success as this year.

However, it is right that we should speak against this and, to paraphrase myself, 'if one has to piss, one does so, even if it happens to be into a wind'.

In U L U , IC has been well represented on the Executive by John Passmore and Chris Webb, (i failed to get elected Senator for Science and Engineering). Bernard Smith managed to get policy on student grants, which was rejected at an ICUGM, adopted as U L U SRC policy, and later incorporated into an NUS policy document. But of course it was ignored and grants are to rise by 14.9% next year, which is a cut in real terms when considered with the rise in V A T in the budget before last, and the rampant inflation rate.

Kings voted to disaffiliate from the NUS and we eventually ended up not discussing the matter. IC and Kings together form a large block of U L U SRC which should be used to ensure a realistic attitude. Lecturer training, Library facilities and Academic Reorganisation should concern it greatly in the year to come.

Jewish Society organised a petition against Soviet discrimation against Jewish students in Russia, which I delivered with them to the Russian Embassy. Though Embassy officials refused to accept it the petitions were left at the Embassy.

I attended a Presidents Informal at Bradford University, which was enlightening (it showed me ,how real political hacks act), and a number of meetings for Presidents at U L U .

It is certainly true that there are links between this College and South Africa, particularly those in the mining profession, and there has been indirect contact with South African sporting teams.

However, when I turn on my radio and hear advertisements for South African products I find it very difficult to support a sporting boycott. I believe sport should never be used as the sole weapon against a regime.

I still maintain that truly External Affairs, as opposed to those directly applicable, should be of peripheral concern to the Union as an institution, though of course I support the idea that people should show concern through societies and as individuals.

Reorganisation and Reshuffles I have always tried to avoid being a constitutional nit-picker, but I did carry out a study of the internal organisation of the Union. As a result of this the Internal Services Committee was formed, this is designed to monitor and develop the services that the Union and College offer. It is important that this Committee is used to develoD Union services. It is particularly important when the student standard of living is dropping that discounts and value for money are made available in every field possible.

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The effective use of resources also encouraged me to propose to R C C and A C C that the Union minibuses, vans and landrovers be centralised under the direction of the Deputy President. This Committee has already begun its difficult task of setting the transport account on its feet, a combination of bad management, bad luck, and particularly, a lack of future policy have left the Union a vehicle down over the year.

It is important that a forward plan is devised, stuck to and enacted and, if after, say, two years, the system is still losing money, the vans should be sold and the principle of Union transport scrapped.

A C C has decided to cuts its losses on Impetus, the U n i o n yacht, choosing instead to rely on chartering. Thi s is a sad but sensible decision and a lesson for the future.

At around October I began to investigate the possibility of per capita financing for the Union as a way of increasing its income and its sphere of influence on College services, it soon became clear, however, that the government was determined to stop this mode of financing. What has been provisionally agreed is a complicated compromise which should see the Union better off than it would have been next year if things had remained the same.

It, therefore, looks certain that the Union will be levying a per capita Union sub (like nearly every other student union) next year, but will return to U G C funding the year after (1981/2) when the government's new proposals are imposed on all student unions. I cannot foresee student unions being exempted from the government cuts over the next few years but the above deal should help stave off the inevitable. I prepared the annual estimates and I believe the Union claim for a £39 capitation fee to be most reasonable and expect it to be met.

I started off the year by being invited onto a working party instigated by the Rector after a request from the Boathouse Committee Chairman, and this devised a whole new set of constitutions.

Just as I finish the year all Athletic Committees and Sub-committees are under review so most of the changes will probably be reversed!

This year has also seen a concerted attempt to disband ICWA, the second reading not being heard due to a quorum challenge.Currently ICWA does utilise quite a lot

of Union resources (money and a room) which it will have to be in a position to fully justify if and when the financial situation gets tighter.

However, ICWA is not alone in this and some other institutions within IC must beware of falling foul of the same arguments which were so nearly successfully used to close ICWA!

UGMs This year saw the first complete year of having a U G M Chairman.

Mick Berry did a fine job and I think that they were generally very smoothly run. In terms of content, the sublime seems to have combined with the ridiculous in a few of the UGMs this year.

The second one, containing motions censuring the Exec over South A f r i c a n s in Stan's B a r ; banning the Rag Mag; and calling for an occupation, provided one of the best attended (over six hundred) and contentious UGMs since some of the NUS affiliation ones a few years ago. Others, namely the PWP election U G M descended to a level of pure farce.

One observation is the way in which some students blame me for motions that are submitted, expecting me to vet therh in some way. It is obviously vital in the interests of democracy that every member has the right to submit a motion. If you don't like the motions come along and vote them down!

Council I have chaired Council all this year.

It is not a committee I enjoy (are there any?), but this year's has been reasonably amicable and has done business without getting bogged down in wrangles over p r o c e d u r e . T h e true value of Council is the real mixture of people it produces and the hotchpotch of ideas that are thrown together.

The high point of the year for me was when the subject of Union places in Hall was debated.

Facilities wot I have Dealin's wiv It is certainly true that indoor sports facilities are inadequate at iC but it does look as though a disused lab in Chemistry (which it took me three and a half years to discover), will solve most of the short-term problems by providing an adequate, through not ideal, sports hall that will house volleyball, basketball, five-a-side soccer, etc, by the beginning of next session.

For the long term, a purpose built gymnasium looks like 'holy grail' in the current financial situation. One chance, however, is the utilisation of gravel under the Harlington sports ground. Any mining of this must be carried out so that sport is not disrupted and economists are currently cogitating over the viability of the scheme. It is important to underline that the money will come from the sports g r o u n d , sports people will be^ inconvenienced by the mining of it and therefore they should receive at least some of the benefit from it.

The squash courts suffered a serious flood and though two survived, play has been seriously curtailed by the reduction. The repairs have taken their customary time, inertia once again proving too m u c h . O n a bright note; the provision of a ' M u l t i g y m ' has revolutioninsed weight training at IC. The Boathouse still doesn't provide adequate facilities for the women rowers, current plans involve a joint venture with the adjacent Thames Rowing C l u b .

This is reasonably cheap and therefore stands a chance of going through!

I have spent almost a whole year trying to find Islamic Society somewhere permanent to hold daily prayers. A room has finally been allocated, though the access has still to be sorted out.

The general standard of the Union Building is now quite high, for which Malcolm must be congratulated!

F E L I X and the Union Print Unit FELIX's year started badly, and, in my opinion, has not improved much since. The possibility of a legal loophole in the Union ByeLaws was, to me, secondary to the 'moral' situation. Common sense would have predicted that the ensuing battle in the High Court was doomed to fail, this proved to be the case and Colin Palmer's* appointment as A c t i n g F E L I X Editor was upheld against the application for a High C o u r t injunction by John Shuttleworth (who, though elected, had failed his Maths second year). The legal situation of the Blue Book has still not been totally clarified, as the Judge made his ruling on the basis of how U n i o n M e m b e r s h i p is defined rather than by weighing Bye-laws versus Governing Body Minutes. Perhaps in the future, s o m e o n e who is bit t erl y disappointed may be goaded by persons (who have personal axes to grind) into settling that little legal query!

John's failure therefore led to an election which Colin Palmer won (unopposed). It is my belief, however, that maximum use of the Union Print Unit has not been attained this year and that the standard of FELIX, both journalistically and artistically, does not measure well against the yardstick of previous years.

Next year both the finance and total administration of the Print Union comes under the Union. The FELIX Editor in conjunction with the Business Manager, Pub Board Chairman and the permanent staff, must organise the Unit in such a way that clubs and societies can rely on it and therefore use it.

W U S a n d the T h i r d W o r l d Scholarship IC/ICU/WUS ran a Third World Scholarship fund this year. The funds raised on the student side, £1,200 have far outweighed those raised from staff. This is both surprising and disappointing. I hope

that the situation can be changed before the end of term. We have also tried to draw attention to the other work that WUS participates in, through FELIX and displays.

John Whitehouse, Fiona Sinclair and Tim Hillyer deserve special credit in this section.

Rag Another form of collection is Rag, something which I believe to be extremely valuable as a PR exercise, for getting people involved and, of * course, helping people.

For the second successive year the Rag toted has taken a massive jump. This year the total will be around £16,000, a sum Rae Snee, Ruth Langford, Kirsten Pratt and the C C U VPs can be truly proud of. This year both Rag Week and the Rag Mag have made profits, which has not previously been the case. The latter, however, managed to achieve a level of notoriety which I feel was undeserved, (I am sure that the motion attempting to ban it helped sell it). The Fete, which suffered from an outbreak of urban terrorism successfully negotiated a change of venue.

Next January will see the national rag conference at IC. Odds and Socks The Union was lucky enough to stage two performances of BBC Radio 4's News Quiz which proved to be most successful in terms of audience response, and I hope that future occasions will occur.

Roger organised a most successful Environmental Week, and in conjunction with Industrial Society, a debate of Finniston. ConSoc lured Ted Heath to speak, which completed a trio of well attended and truly educational events.

The F i n n i s t o n Report is of fundamental importance to IC and hence I C U . What, if anything, emerges remains to be seen. I have a feeling that petty objections to the mechanics of implementing proposals may succeed in obscuring the more fundamental concepts of the report.

Silwood Park Committee has been successful in voicing its sometimes justified grievances about ICU. Next year I hope plans to run buses for the Freshers Fair will establish a more unified situation from the outset.

The University of L o n d o n is currently undergoing intense selfanalysis, the prospect of fundamental internal academic reorganisation seems high. ICU has been \ asked to present its view on the subject (this is currently in hand), but throughout next year we must retain an awareness of our surroundings.

More Odds and Socks Ents this year have continued their slow crawl back up to a reasonable level. The committee have worked hard, had their successes and, indeed, made their mistakes. Next year many of the committee will be carrying on and will, I hope, continue, what is proving to be, their difficult struggle towards a

viable Ents.

The major subcommittees have mostly enjoyed a good collection ot officers and have maintained a high standard of administrative control.

In answer to certain cri'icisms (cheers, Frank), I say that I have focused my abilities in the directions which I felt I could contribute most.

I have tried to maintain a keen interest in the C C U s , and kept my biases down to the mudthrowing sessions. I believe they have had a reasonable year. Jo, Bernie and Sean have all dispensed with the rank of Vice President of ICU with the grace befitting it, thanks. Consequently, I C U Executive has worked exrremely well, both as an interface and an actipn committee.

Southwell House Warden; Hamlet Gardens Warden; Tizard Hall Subwarden; Falmouth Hall Warden and Health Care Receptionist.

On the Union staff side, the past year saw Miss Pam Johnston leave, and because of changed requirements she was not replaced. Gil! Mc Conway left and, because the position will be Union controlled next year, we ran the interviews.

Maz Fellows was appointed at a time of maximum disruption in the FELIX Office and has settled into what must be a very difficult job.

The post of part-time assistant in the Welfare Centre was created to cover for Michael's commitments in College block, Sue Telling has taken the job in her stride.

Dr Ken Weale is retiring from the job of Senior Tutor this year Interviews and Personnel but will, I hope, continue as Senior Changes Treasurer of JCU for the foreseeable Over the last year I have taken future. Perhaps the measure of how part in the following non-Union interviews: Holbein House Warden; ' large his job as Senior Tutor became 1

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H O N S E C S A N N U A L REPORT, 1979/80 The Hon See's job, as a member of ICU Executive, is without doubt the most structured. One aspect of my role is as an administrator and coordinator. However, it has been possible to extend beyond these confines at most times. The Union must not afterall be for those who enjoy committees, but for those who have practical benefits to students as their main aim.

Administrator With three office sabbaticals the amount covered in committees and working parties has been greater than in past years. I have always tried to support these achievements by efficient servicing. I have been secretary of the following: Union General Meetings, Councils, Union Finance Committee, House Committee, Haldane Library Committee, Internal Services Committee, and Transport Committee.

Without a d o u b t , the most important of the above is the General Meeting. Yet, it has always been assumed that when a meeting is inquorate it is due to bad publicity — which is my responsibility. I would argue that this is not the case. Each U G M was advertised in FELIX and by posters. I should like to thank Lars Wernber-Meiller, who as Publicity Officer for most of the year, helped me out considerably.

Secondly, each U G M was preceded by an Executive News. Once, it was out only a day before the meeting, but only due to printing problems which were totally beyond control.

Where it is possible to print it by off-set litho, i believe it should, but three times I have had to print it myself, on my gestetner to ensure it came out. No, the reason why UGMs are badly attended (350 out of 4,500 is badly attended) is due to a lack of interest in the business. I believe it is significant that the best attended meetings discussed issues such as the Rag Mag, ICWA, an occupation and John Shuttleworth.

These are internal issues, so .the

meeting could make decisions of" substance not just of rhetoric. To sum up; perhaps it is a shame that more individuals do not submit motions, for it is only then that those with political axes to grind will not be heard. Despite the views above I believe that U G M s this year to have been an important part of the Union's year. Certainly, much has been reported to them by the Executive and we have not used our position at the front for personal gain.

Council has met seven times a l r e a d y this y e a r , with J o i n t Council still to come. Much has been discussed and d e c i d e d .

Perhaps it is worth noting that Council controls the management of the Union, and as its members are elected in many ways, from different groups at College, it is probably truly representational.

Personally, I have found Council to be supportive rather than critical and acceptors rather than initiators.

Individual Council Reps seem to have contributed less this year than usual.

Much, though, goes on outside Council. I have enjoyed contributing to House Committee, and have found a lot of satisfaction working on the Finance Committee. The initiation was the Internal Services Committee, which possess the ability to bring together all those working to improve the services (ie, refectories, libraries, bookshop, shop, etc), in College. So far we have met but once. Whilst it was an explorative meeting is nevertheless promised much. I will concentrate on such matters later in my report.

T h e U n i o n Office has seen c h a n g e this year w h i c h goes beyond the furniture moving. For instance, up to last year, Pam Johnstone had been the Union's Ground Floor Receptionist and sat in the small office to the right of the Union Building entrance. With her leaving it was necessary to sell the Rag sweat shirts and jumpers in the Office and to accommodate

is that it has now been split in two. Dr Robin Smith of Phsyics taking over the College Tutor part and Dr Don Monro as Senior Warden.

Whilst the vacant positions in the Union staff have beenfilledwith very capable persons, Jen, Annie, Pat, Michael and Ian have continued to maintain a level of commitment and achievement which is quite stunning.

Thanks very much for your tolerance and perserverance.

The End All that remains for me to do is to thank some of the many who have made my stay in this office happy, bearable, successful and less frustrating. And to make some of those inevitable personal comments.

Thanks must go to Roger and Malcolm, there have been many disagreements, but I still respect their dedication, congratulate them on their many successes and have enjoyed working with them.

more typing. Annie, the receptionist, has also begun to get more involved with the Transport Reet. Secondly, there has been a renewed effort to make information more accessible.

This includes past minutes, dates of meetings, publications and theatre guides. Whilst, the day to day running of the office is my responsibility, the matter always works well without any interference.

This year I have redesigned the headed notepaper, the presentation of Union and Council policy and Executive News. I have initiated the annual reports booklet, and the inclusion of the Council photograph in F E L I X . I have p r o d u c e d a directory, and a job descriptions book. The Blue Book is currently being revamped so that my predecessor can have it printed over the summer vacation. I have also updated the Union pages in the B o o k s h o p D i a r y , the internal telephone directory and the prospectus.

We have once again increased the number of reciprocal arrangements held with other student unions. There has been breakage, of arrangements, unlike last year when Chelsea College, broke off links due to our disaffiliation from N U S . It is worth noting in this respect that due to this the Executive have decided not to let Chelsea clubs book our rooms.

More important than our relations with other unions is our relationship with College, both the administrative part and the academic part. To my mind, the latter is often neglected.

Any sabbatical must get on well with those he is dealing with. Any President must get to know the Residence Officer, any Deputy President, the Estates Secretary.

The Hon Sec deals with many. A most successful sherry party and other such events were held this year to create a good relationship.

At the Annual General Meeting, Social colours will be awarded to those who have contributed to the social life of the Union. I have chaired the two committees which

Once again the permanent staff have performed far and beyond the call of duty, thereby enabling the Union to function at all.

Thanks Jen, Annie, Michael, Pat and latterly Sue. The sun, as they say, is setting, the desk is clearing and John is pounding on the door. After four years at IC, my brief sojourn into academia is all but over, the outside world awaits my 'services'.

A final thank you to all those who have helped make my stay here happy, drunken and insane and a final thumb to the nose to all those who didn't.

Good luck John, Liz and Rae! "We're going through! The Commanders mice was like thin ice breaking" Thurber Keep idiosyncratic Cheers

carefully considered all nominations.

The spring term was well occuppied by the drawing up of new election rules and the implementation of them during the sabbatical and other elections.

Most importantly the elections were publically conducted this year in a fair manner by the candidates which led to no complaints after the voting. A rare event in my three years at College.

The Section Committee, consisting of myself, John Anderson, Andy Cheyne, Tansy Hepton and Gary Nichols, did have some major decisions to take, and I thank them for their wise judgements (there was not one vote taken at a meeting). Free speech is an absolute requirement, but the Elections are fought here by the candidates' representatives putting views forward, not by ill-informed groups saturating College with leaflets which satisfy onlv their demand to interfere and obstruct the real issues. Long may ICU Elections remain free from politics and careerists. Mounting the elections was an exhaustive business, but well rewarded by the high turn-out.

I believe a major contribution of mine has been to the Union insurance polices, which has occuppied much more of my time than I expected.

At last the Union has been able to organise a centralised Union property insurance policy. This is no mean feat when one considers we have equipment by the lorry load, which ranges from Hang Gliders, to radio transmitters, to canoes to 'Go' sets. The policy is with Commercial Union who are offering us a 15% discount and a 1% premium. There are natural benefits. Firstly, there will be a cost saving. Secondly, much more of our property is now insured or fully insured. Lastly, updating the policy should be easier.

S e c o n d l y , I have had many dealings with Endsleigh and the College finance people over our Halls of Residence policy and

Personal Accident policy. In both cases the company seem to be paying little regard to what is in the written policy. The Halls of Residence policy has caused much consternation to Wardens, Subwardens and students. As far as it is possible to ascertain, goods should be left in a secure room over vacations and not in ones room which might always be booked out to a visitor. Yet it must be said the policy makes little reference to a locker room. The Accident Policy is fine on paper, but twice Endsleigh have said medical expenses are exempt (over a Solomon Islands claim and a sub aqua claim) when it clearly appears in the policy and seconldy "anywhere in the world" appears to exclude the UK! These problems are likely S to need future consideration.

For the first time the Union took an active interest in the academic appeals procedure. This allows someone who has failed exams for non-academic reasons (eg, personal or family problems) to seek mercy from the hatchet of College dismissal. To help, we mailed out, to all those who had been asked to withdraw, a handout detailing the existence of the procedure, and how the Union might help. For some this was indeed helpful.

Commemoration Day was on 25th October. The Union once again staged the Commemoration Day Ball, in the Sherfield Building, which passed off very successfully.

Nearly four hundred people attended, including Lord and Lady Flowers and John Smith and wife and they were entertained by the University of London Big Band and disco.

Another aspect of my job has been as a member of the Executive.

Executive Duties It has been a pleasure to sit on the Union Executive with Chris Fox, Malcolm Brain, Sean O'Boyle, Bernie Pryor and Jo Armitage. I believe part of its strength has been its diverse membership, for we did not act without much argument and debate. Weekly meetings were held. The most important decisions concerned Hall rents, Ents gigs, the occupation and the John Shuttleworth affair, staff matters and discipline. . . My involvement varied naturally enough from subject to subject.

The Executive members were forced together early on with the now infamous JS Affair. Whilst my moral attitude was clear, so was my understanding of the law, reinforced by my visit to the Union solicitor. I believed that to take office you must be a student and hence shown a willingness to play the academic game. J S was no different to anyone else who failed and was asked to withdraw — so it was right the judge told him he couldn't return.

The whole saga was due to confusion over the legal status of the bye-laws and hence the Union, In the end the court recognised the bye-law's membership requirement, and I reinforced the point by

putting "Academic Standing" into the bye-laws.

I was heavily involved in the interviewing of a new F E L I X typesetter. Maz Fellows was chosen and has been of great service to the Union during the year. I also interviewed for the Health Centre's Principal Nursing Officer and a Falmouth Sub-Warden.

As Hon Sec, I sat ex-offico on all U n i o n committees. Naturally enough it is impossible to attend all, but I made the decision to attend those when important decisions were being taken or when I knew I could contribute.

At other times I was duty officer at three Hall dinners, the student orator in the Albert Hall on 25th October, and organising JCR stalls by outside companies. It was also part of the job to get dressed up as a mum for the Smoking Concert, explain why the 'punch has gone out of Christmas' and suffer during Rag Week.

Secondly, four topics to be discussed in working groups have been chosen and studied. They are: Transport; the Information Explosion; the Role of Research; and Preparation for a Scientific or Technical Degree. It was encouraging to see sets of three p r e p a r e d to lead these groups and coordinate the arrangements. The other administrative things are being dealt with by a group of ten led by myself at the moment.

Extra Activity T h e role of the U n i o n within College is very often ill-considered.

The clubs and societies undoubtedly make immense contributions to our College life. As Hon Sec I was anxious to organise a venture with the same aim.

ICU's Environmental Week, in the autumn terms, was a success for three reasons. Firstly, a very high proportion of College got direct benefit from it (ie, 450 attended the 'Energy Future For Britain' discussion; 210 the 'Nuclear Power' debate; and some 450 walked amongst the stalls and displays at the Fair). Secondly, it united the College, for instance, we collaborated with Prof Sutton, the Centre for Environmental Technology, College block, academic and many clubs and societies.

Lastly, it gave a forum for the fight for the environment, in a nonbiased and rational manner Another successful collaboration was the 'Finniston and the Future' Day on 3rd March. Firstly, the need for a debate on the Finniston report, relating to future engineering education was put to us by the Rector. Secondly, our newly formed Industrial Society secured Monty Finniston presence for three hours.

The result was an address by the chairman of the committee of inquiry, to eight hundred staff and students and an open discussion between Lord Flowers, Mr Heard (STCL, Prof Brown and Sir James Menter later in the evening. Thanks must go to Steve Milner, Mark Brown and Rick Waldenburg.

So often academic staff see the Union as superficial. I tried to show that we were not, by encouraging them to attend these events.

Hopefully, they saw them in the same light as the Jubilee lecture.

Lastly, the Union is staging, in April 1981, the fifth International Conference of Students of Technology. This already appears on paper to be a mammoth exercise.

In this year the dates were arranged with reference to accommodation, rooms and catering requirements.

Sitting on College committees was nothing new to me, for I had sat on almost as many last year. If UGMs are the public face of ICU, most campaigning really goes on in these private meetings. Refectories are undoubtedly the most important service provided by College — after accommodation. I was keen to see new developments to ensure its preservation. The year began with news that the Rector would not tolerate the subsidising of nonacademic services. This put a real question mark over many refectory outlets. T h e Suggestions and Complaints Committee, chaired enthusiastically by Simon Perry, has begun to revitalise the shop and my target of doubling turnover has been reached. Now the shop is making a profit when last year it wasn't. The Suggestions Committee, with the help of complaints from the new boxes was able to work with Mr Mooney and his staff in other areas.

The Buttery in the J C R is now open until 11:45pm, vegetarian meals are being served in Sherfield, nosmoking signs have gone up, a new system of washing cutlery is carried out, the breakfast service in Southside is being advertised, dinner-in-halls have been studied and great annoyance has been generated by the dinners card serving of foreign coach parties. I have felt the committee worked at it was one of collaboration and cooperation Mr Mooney and his staff have taken up most of our points, overwork often causing unnecessary delays in the implementation. As a committee we looked to service, quality and marketing to increase turnover.

The Refectory Committee, under the Chairmanship of Dr Schroter, has been a nail in the head. To me, the Committee just existed to rubber-stamp price increases.

Whenever a discussion commenced we were told that "this was not the place for discussion". There is no doubt that Dr Schroter wants the Union on his side for good reasons: finance. He is against public debate on service, quality and marketing. He

College Work Chris and Malcolm have dealt at length with many points that I could raise here, so I shall restrict this section to only additional material and my own views.

I sat on the following College committees: Refectory Committee; Refectory Suggestions and Complaints; Parking and Traffic; T A S ; Bookshop; Lyon Playfair; Haldane Library; Associated Studies; Admissions P o l i c y ; and C o llege Disciplinary Committee.

warned me on one occasion not to put my views in FELIX for it would cause unrest amongst the students.

It seems to me that the approach of the Suggestion Commitee is right. C o o p e r a t i o n s h o u l d be between customers and refectory managers, not newly imported diplomats and Union officers. It has been a shameful year of inaction over major policy decisions and if in years to come refectories close, this year will appear as the year of wasted opportunity. Apparently the 'financial situation' is good, but 'what of numbers of staff and students using the refectories, what of modern stock-control (the socalled computerised till js still not utilised nearly a year after being installed!), what of a new Stan's Bar, what of rationalisation, what of marketing, etc, etc. The fault lies not With Mr Mooney for whom I have respect and often sympathy.

The Union could award 180 parking permits for the 500 applicants we received in October. It was a long and soul-destroying task deciding who were the most needy cases. I chaired the executive meetings which awarded them in late October. Next year there will be 184 spaces.

On a College basis, 40 spaces will be gained behind Linstead (there were 50 spaces prior to the builders moving in and before the planting of trees), whilst five have been lost in Southside due to a new turning entrance and seven in Imperial College Road due to the planting of trees adding beauty to the view from the Sherfield Block.

Bicycle parking is at best, sparse around campus. In F E L I X we showed where the limited cycle racks were. College have also accepted the parking of bikes in Beit Quad, even though its been going on for years now. No bikes are insured under the U n i o n insurance polices, so I have outlined a few of the policies available in FELIX. Speed humps have been built in Ayrton Road with succesful results. For instance, as far as 'through traffic' is concerned, the average maximum speed attained has fallen from 17.27mphto 13.49mph. jl have joined Malcolm Brain representing our interests on the Haldane and Bookshop committees and I believe that student involvements on these has been very commendable and much credit must go to Malcolm.

Both may undergo much change.

A business machine is likely to be purchased for the Bookshop along with staff r e o r g a n i s a t i o n . T h e Haldane Library is facing financial problems, but I would argue that the best way of preserving this excellent asset is to keep the humanities books in the same place as those for general reading.

Associated Studies have continued to offer the best possible courses, although the lunch hour Glancing at a recent U L U survey of library facilities in London we are indeed fortunate to have here the tiered structure of libraries.

Once again at this committee there has been little to contribute.

5

programme was to me uninspiring.

O n 27th and 28th M a r c h , I attended the 'Meeting With Schools' along with Miss A Vitoria from Botany 3, as a student representative. We were able to answer any points from a student viewpoint and we also took the opportunity to distribute the Alternative Prospectuses. I do not question the benefit of having such an event, for I would state that there is a twoway benefit, but I am naturally pleased to see departments, including my own, holding their own open days with school students participating. Satisfying the conflicting demands of a student, a school, an institution and a society is not easy as we shall find out during INCOST. F E L I X — The End And The Beginning Finally, I should add that I edited FELIX for three weeks, at the time of the sabbatical campaigns, whilst Colin Palmer was in hospital, and it is one hell of a task. It's a fiting way to end my annual report as I first got involved in the Union through photographic and film reviewing work for FELIX in my first term at IC. I enjoyed my time then, last year as A A O and now as Hon Sec I have continued to love every moment.

I should like to thank all those who have given me encouragement, support, advise and help.

"Well, if you knows of a better 'ole, go to it" Bruce Brainsfather 1887-1959 Roger

Stotesburv

DEPUTY PRESIDENTS A N N U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 The Sabbatical This year I have regarded establishing and developing the post as a sabbatical and defining precisely what responsibilities it should involve as one of my main aims.

The main reasons for creating the fourth sabbatical were to take some of the workload (particularly finance) off the President to enable him to concentrate more on external affairs (an area which is particularly important at IC due to our nonaffiliation to NUS), and to ensure that various responsibilities which had previously been attended to (often, inadequately, or not at all) by non-sabbatical officers were properly looked after. I feel that this has been done successfully.

In addition to what is specified in the job description, I have undertaken two other major areas of responsibility; chairman of the College Bar Committee and a directorship with London Student Travel Ltd. I would not recommend future DPs to take on both of these added duties.

The Bookshop The function of the Bookshop is twofold; to provide a good service to members of College, and as a source of income to the Union (£6,000 this year).

The sales for the year ended 31st July 1979 were £226,000 (an 11% increase on the previous year), and I would expect to see a similar increase in this year's sales. Last term, Council decided that the Bookshop should continue to be run as a profit making venture for the Union (rather than purely as a service and the lost income being added to our capitation fee submission to College); I regard this as one of the most stupidly shortsighted financial decisions ever taken by Council and means that on the whole no price cuts will be possible.

The year started with some problems with the junior counter staff; these have since been resolved and I now feel that we have an excellent staff throughout, and would like to thank them for their hard work. In particular I would like to thank the Manager, Mr J o h n S a m w o r t h , who will be retiring this summer, and to wish him a happy retirement on behalf of the Union.

During the year I have mainly received complaints about two aspects of the Bookshop's service; availability of books and the price of stationery. The problem with the books appears to be largely with inadequate information having been received from certain academic departments with regard to the book requirements students taking their courses were likely to have; the solution to this problem (and also the lesser one of which books we stock too many of) must be through feedback from the Union's Departmental Representatives and I wish to thank those who have helped me with their comments in

this area this year.

The price of much stationery will be able to be reduced next year when our current stocks run out and we begin dealing with a supplier recommended by the Students Union Purchasing Consortium (which we are now a member of), but even our current prices are well below those of local shops for paper of comparable quality.

Greetings cards which are more orientated towards student tastes than those currently on sale will also be available (through another SUPC supplier) soon. I would like to stress that neither the problem with the availability of books or the price of stationery need have arisen if the Union representatives on the Bookshop Committee in previous years had done some work in these areas and given the Manager adequate feedback on current student opinion on these matters.

In addition to books and stationery we have continued to sell a wide range of College regalia at what I regard to be very reasonable prices. Other sundry items (eg, batteries, blank tape cassettes) are also sold, but it is impossible to expand our range of goods much further due to the severe physical limitations imposed by the size of the shop.

At the moment we are continuing to investigate the possibility of installing some kind of minicomputer or business machine to help deal with the very timeconsuming paperwork which is needed to deal with all the Bookshop's ordering, invoicing, and stocktaking.

Bar Committee The College Bar Committee is a sub-committee of the Refectory Committee which makes recomm e n d a t i o n s to the R e f e c t o r y Chairman who advises the Rector (who actually makes the decisions) and reports to College House Committee which reports to Governing Body, ie, our job is to have good ideas which get put into practice a year later if we're lucky.

Well, perhaps it's not really quite as silly as this sounds, we do act as the main source of feedback of consumer opinion to the people responsible for managing the bars.

There have been two price increases this year, one of around four pence per pint due to increase from brewers and the anticipated extra wage costs, and two pence per pint imposed by the Budget.

Despite these increases (which keep us rather more expensive than most student bars) we are still considerably cheaper than most local pubs. The profits from the bars this year is expected to be around £ 3 0 , 0 0 0 (compared to £22,000 last year) which effectively is used to subsidise losses made on the catering side of the College refectory account and to finance major items of capital expenditure.

Takings so far this year show a fairly substantial increase on last year (after price increases have been taken into account) showing that the college bars are being used more.

The Union Bar hoist (which has been under discussion for a number of years) is now nearly finished at a cost of around £17,000 — a lot of money, but this work was essential to provide the bar with extra storage space (in the old travel office) and to prevent further damage to the Union Building and danger to life and limb of the barmen and dragment from beer kegs being rolled down the steps at the back of the bar.

The major decision taken this year concerns the redevelopment of Stan's Bar and the eventual closure of the Real Ale Bar. At the moment both bars are often open when I feel that there is insufficient custom to justify the staff costs involved, and the Real Ale Bar is closed on. quiet nights resulting in many customers being unable to buy their favourite beer; Stan's Bar itself is basically just a corridor with oppressive lighting and badly chosen furniture thrown into alcoves — whoever designed the place deserves to be hung from the top of the Queen's Tower by their testicles. Our solution to this problem is to close the Real Ale Bar (which could be booked for private parties, etc, in the future), move the real ale pumps into the main lounge bar, completely change the lighting and decor (including scenes from the College Archives) in the lounge bar to create a more 'pubtype' atmosphere, place screens in front of the toilet doors, and install high bench-type seating and stools throughout together with suitably high tables to provide more seating space and a generally more convivial environment, and to have a 'bar games area' at the far end of the bar. The cost of this could be as much as £17,000, but I would expect some savings in staff costs and a considerable enhancement of the atmosphere of the oft- leading to an increase in trade over many years, which I feel is at present being lost to local pubs; even students like to drink in pleasant surroundings. Part of the cost will be met by the Bar Amenities Fund which derives income from the pool table and video games machine in Stan's Bar and at the moment stands at around £2,000. I hope to see this work completed over the summer.

I also feel that a certain amount of trade and a fairly large potential source of income is being lost due to the bars not serving good hot food, especially in the evenings when the refectories are not open.

I have stressed this point consistently at Refectory Committee meetings during the year; there are some practical problems such as lack of adequate ventilation in Southside and hygiene regulations, but plenty of pubs manage, and I expect to see this service started in the near future, probably initially in the form of toasted sandwiches.

At the beginning of the year a campaign was run to try and reduce the losses of cutlery and, more importantly, glasses, from the bars and refectories, which (to-

gether with losses due to breakage) had cost a r o u n d £ 1 0 , 0 0 0 the previous year. There appears to be little loss from the Union and Sherfield bars, and preventing people from taking glasses from Stan's to the various halls around Prince's Gardens is practically impossible, but we do seem to have been able to impress on people that in the end losses have to be paid for by higher bar prices and I hope that this may have had some effect — exactly how much will be difficult to tell until the end of the year. In any case, the outlets which are mainly responsible for the losses are impossible to identify due to inadequate central control of supplies.

I have felt that casual (student) labour wages this year (95p an hour) are adequate, but will be proposing that this be increased to £1.15 for next session.

At the moment lunchtime bar opening hours are restricted to 2:00, the argument being used by College in the past to support this being that longer hours would encourage students to miss lectures.

However, lectures do not start until 2:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays and not at all on Saturdays, and I feel that 2:30 closing these days will be both beneficial to the refectory account financially and will sa've a number of our patrons a walk to the Queens (and an extra eight pence for a pint!) and I will therefore be proposing this change at the next Refectory Committee.

Any change, however, would also have to be approved by the College House Committee, which does not sit again until next term.

Last summer holidays, for the first time, the Union Bar was closed on Sundays. I am recommending that this be repeated this year since it is clearly uneconomical to do so and only a handful of students are in any way inconvenienced. The Union Bar was also closed for some weeks during the summer due to badly needed maintenance work being done to the floor and the rest of the bar beind redecorated and thoroughly cleaned.

Finally, my thanks to all the barmen and the various people who have contributed to discussions on the committee, particularly the secretary, Roy Francis, for all the work he has done and the encouragement (and pints of Bass!) he has provided me with throughout the year.

Haldane Library This year the Union has continued to provide the fiction section of the library and the pop, folk, and (after some discussion) jazz sections of the music library. We also provide a large number of the periodicals available.

The library did not open until after a week into the first term due to extension building work which was running behind schedule; this extension has proved most valuable, particularly for having provided extra space in the music library for an excellent listening facility.

There was considerable dispute early in the year over three records which the Union had bought which the music librarian, Miss Cedric, considered to be "unsuitable" for inclusion in the library, and refused to handle. Many people have asked me why a person with such a sensitive attitude to this type of material was ever employed to work in a student-orientated enviornment in the first place; I regret that I have been unable to give a satisfactory answer. The records in question are currently available direct from the Haldane Librarian, Mr Richard Williams.

The libraries' statistics show that usage of the library (except for the recordings) has d r o p p e d over recent years; I find this most surprising since I consider it to be an excellent service and certainly rather superior to similar libraries in other colleges.

Thanks are due to Mr Williams who has not had the easiest of years to start his job as librarian and to Rick Kirman and Sarah Talbot, the Union book and record buyers respectively.

Finance The most important decision taken this year was for the Union to change from the subvention system of financing to the 'per capita' system (as done by nearly all other unions) for the next session only (since the Government intends to make the subvention system compulsory for all student unions by the 1981/82 session). The effect of this will be that a certain sum, which is negotiated between the Union and college, is added to all students' tuition fees and paid to the Union through College. In effect this means that it will be paid for by the local education authority in the case of'home UGs or by the appropriate grant-awarding in many other cases. Self-supporting students are mostly from overseas, and I feel that anyone able to apy £3,000 to take a course here next year will also be able to afford the £40 or so capitation fee. The main advantage of the capitation system is that it avoids the situation arising where the Union has to compete with academic departments for a limited amount of money available, and is thus mutually beneficial to the Union and College. Exactly how the U n i o n will be financed in subsequent years is uncertain as yet.

At various times during the year I have had cause to investigate in detail how different Union major sub-committees and other bodies organise their finances and am glad to report that I have been generally impressed by their efficiency and stringency in organising their internal financial matters.

O n e of the extra items the Union will befinanciallyresponsible for next year will be the print unit and other facilities in the FELIX complex, including the staff (who are paid by College at the moment)., At the moment I feel that this is being run highly inefficiently and

much potential income, both from societies and individual members of College, is being lost due to FELIX having fully justified a reputation for being very unreliable, despite the fact that very little material for FELIX itself is printed on Mondays and Tuesdays. This situation must be rectified. A l s o , the general standard of FELIX has declined this year, which can do no good for the amount of advertising revenue which we are likely to receive (although I suspect that we received an artificially high amount of advertising income earlier this year as a s i d e - p r o d u c t of the I T V strike).

During the year, it has been made clear to Ents on a number of occasions that the Union would be willing to underwrite any major Great Hall concert which they would like to stage and could show to be reasonably economically feasible; I would be quite prepared to see us make a modest loss on a few big concerts if it would help put us back 'on the map' as a venue for well-known bands (as we were, not so many years ago).

Despite this all we saw was John Miles in the first term (a highly successful concert) and vague hopes and rumours of other bands which never came to fruition.

The great bulk of the work involved in preparing the Union's estimates for next year and their submission to College was done by Chris Fox; my sincere thanks to him for undertaking this onerous task which I quite simply would not have had the time to do properly.

House Committee Main items of work and expenditure this year: Lower Lounge (carpeted); ICWA Lounge (carpeted, decorated and refurnished); Bot/Zoo Common Room (floor sanded and re-sealed); Refectory (floor sanded and resealed, decorated); U D H (floor sanded and re-sealed); SCR (floor sanded and re-sealed); Concert Hall (floor sanded and re-sealed); JCR (floor sanded and re-sealed).

Also, many parts of the building were washed by Rugby Club last term.

There are still a large number of Union keys which I have been unable to trace due to past Union and society officers not returning them at the end of their term of office; I hope that the system introduced this year involving people having to pay a deposjt before they receive any Union key will help to solve this problem in the future. The locks to the FELIX Office, Union outer office, Rag Office, Jazz Club and Ents rooms have been changed to non-mastered locks during the year to improve security.

At the last House Committee it was decided that a television room is no longer needed in the Union, and that this room should be converted into another committee room.

Our rooms have been more heavily booked than ever this year; we simply haven't got enough

rooms. Despite the very high level of use (and frequent abuse) of Union rooms, I feel reasonably satisfied with the standard maintained. There have been a number of occasions when people booking a room have been fined for damage and/or the mess they have left behind them — notably one outside booking for the JCR which sustained a £140 fine.

External Affairs During the year I have attended "various meetings and d em o n strations concerning the Government's cutbacks in spending on education and proposals to charge the 'full economic cost' of course to overseas students. O n the whole, the NUS was conspicuous in its absence early in the campaigns, and -when it eventually got round to doing anything (too late) its token efforts appeared to be national demonstration/lobby of Parliament.

Many individual SUs attempted to organise campaigns themselves, but these never stood much chance without good organisation nationally.

We can only hope that the protests made may have some effect on future government thinking in these areas.

Our own main protest was the occupation of the Sherfield SDR, which I feel was done successfully without damage to College property or disruption to work, and gained us some Dublicity.

Despite the NUS' appalling lack of action this year, I am glad to see that most unions have very sensibly decided that whatever its faults, we need a national union and it's the only one there is. Due to inquorate union meetings last term we were unable to discuss reaffiliation, and since we have been unable to take advantage of claiming NUS subscriptions as part of our capitation fee submission I can see little prospect of our being able to afford membership in the future. Our involvement in external affairs will therefore have to continue to be through U L U .

London Student Travel T h i s year the company has continued to establish itself as a viable economic enterprise, whilst maintaining the view that we exist to provide a good service for students in London (this being ensured by having a majority of students on the Board of Directors). I feel that increasing confidence in the company has been demonstrated by the number of new colleges who have taken shareholdings this year, and some unions which have increased their number of shares.

Sales this year are projected to be about £930,000, and we have taken on a n o t h e r b r a n c h o f f i c e , at Kingston Polytechnic.

We have been able to sell Railcards for the first time this year, and are currently selling both Eurotrain and Transalpino rail products to European destinations.

Our flights to New York are well below those of any others available for confirmed seats from London, and we hope to be able to announce budget-priced flights to various

7 4

European destinations in the near future.

This year we have been involved in surveys done by British Rail (concerning academic group travel) and London Transport (about the possibility of some form of discount for students using LT), and are still awaiting proposals resulting from these surveys. Next year the BR Railcard will be £10.

We acted as hosts to the National Association of Student Travel Offices (NASTO) conference last term, at which it was agreed that the British delegation to the International Student Travel Conferenced should consist of representatives from N A S T O , NUS and LST (who should represent Britain at the ISTC has been confused since the collapse of NUS Travel three years ago).

Our own branch sales this year (to the end of March) were £17,300 an increase of about 1000% on last year; this is largely due to increased sales due to railcards being available but also represents a considerable increase in sales for travel abroad.

Unfortunately the office had to be closed for a couple of weeks at the beginning of last term due to it being moved from the Union to its new site in Sherfield, which I consider to be a far better position. I still feel that Jiere is a lot more potential trade available from staff at IC who do not realise that many of our products are also available to non-students, and from staff and students at nearby colleges. One of the problems with this year's increase in trade is that our opening times (11:00—2:00 and closed on Wednesdays) are becoming inadequate, and general discussions have started on the possibility of increased staffing; this would be particularly important if proposals for our office to^begin acting as a BR domestic agency can be carried through.

Safety The annual fire audit was carried out earlier this year, and was generally satisfactory with only a few minor matters needing attention.

The union fire hoses were tested on Shrove Tuesday as usual to coincide with the annual ICWA vs IC Exec Pancake Race.

The fire and rape alarms have all been tested and accidentally set off at regular intervals; the rape alarm system did need attention, but is now working properly, and will be extended to include an alarm in the Union Office. On one occasion the prowler who has given us so much trouble over recent years was seen and followed, but got away before the police could arrive.

My thanks to the Red Cross for being present at many of the events organised by the Union next year; I strongly recommend future DPs to take some sort of First Aid course during the summer — you must expect to be called out to deal'with any type of emergency in the Union at any time of night.

Noise Complaints from our neighboursi

8

behind the Union Building and students in Beit Hall have continued, and the police were called in on one occasion. This is a perpetual problem which always has to be stressed to people booking rooms — particulary the Jazz Club Room.

Security Always a problem in such a large building being used by students late at night; the security of many rooms has been improved by having non-mastered locks put on them. Due to the current cutbacks in College spending the possibility of there being only one security man to cover Beit Quad at night has been discussed — an idea which I am strongly opposing.

Beit Quad The Beit Quad redevelopment started at the beginning of the year, including the creation of a barbecue area — the only useful part of the whole scheme. The grass areas are now seeded and shrubs planted — very pretty, but I have doubts c o n c e r n i n g their practicality.

Freshers' Fair This year'a Fair had to be split between the Union and Sherfield Building due to the redevelopment of Beit Quad. This resulted in there being more room available for stallholders and made it possible for people to circulate more easily; there just isn't enough room in the Union for this event and I hope that Sherfield can be used again in future years.

Crash Pad .

Before the beginning of the first term, rooms in Southside were made available at 50p per night for a week for people coming to London to look for accommodation; after this the Union SCR was used (for which no charge was made) and was able to be closed at the end of the second week of term (a great improvement on last year). A crash pad was also made available for students who would be unable to get into College on May 14th, due to the T U C Day of Action against the government.

Vandalism Very little damage done so far this year, notable exceptions being the breakage of a pin-table, a break-in to the cash box on the pool table, and an attempted break-in to a phone box.

Duty Officers The Duty officer scheme (by which members of Council were responsible for maintaining a certain level of d e c o r u m in the U n i o n and Stan's Bars on a rota basis) was in operation at the beginning of the year, but was eventually abandoned, mainly due to people not turning up on the night, and partly because there was no longer so much need for the system after the first month or so. Myself or another Executive officer have normally been present at all large social events in Union

areas or have been easily contactable by Security or the barmen in case of trouble.

Athletic Facilities The squash courts were flooded d u r i n g the s u m m e r h o l i d a y s ; temporary repairs enabled two courts to be available for most of the year, but College Estates claim that other repair work had to be held up due to some dispute over the insurance claim.

The Union has bought a multigym (now in the Sports Centre) which I consider to be an excellent facility which anyone can use. The A C C yacht, Impetus, has continued to cause problems and at present is under repair; it has been decided to sell it, and Yacht Club will operate on a charter basis in future.

At present a Sports Hall is being developed in the old Chemistry building, which should be ready by next year and will provide a badly needed facility.

Southside Shop Providing a much better service now than last year, largely due to the efforts of Roger Stotesbury and Simon Perry.

Refectories The introduction of the cook-freeze system has resulted in some improvement in quality, but the usage of refectories has continued to fall and prices rise. Students tastes have definitely changed over recent years due to the lower 'real' vaue of student grants, but I feel that the refectory management have been slow to act accordingly; the refectories pose a very substantial, problem to which no one has yet been able to find an acceptable solution.

Transport At the beginning of this term it was brought to my attention that the R C C transport system was in severe financial difficulties — so much so that I had tb assume responsibility for the transport finances myself. This situation was not helped by a crash to the A C C van soon afterwards, which for a vehicle of this age meant an effective write-off. In future all union transport will be organised centrally (rather than through the sub-committees) and administered by the DP. I hope that this will result in it being run more efficiently and commericially than in previous years — this facility must prove that it is capable of being selffinancing (there is certainly no reason why it shouldn't be).

In order to overcome the immediate financial problem, one of the vehicles (a landrover) will have to be sold and not replaced, leaving us with three crewbuses, a van and a landrover, which I feel constitutes just sufficient to satisfy our requirements and befinanciallyviable. It is hoped to replace vans when they are two years old, but this is dependent on sufficient income coming from bookings.

It still seems ridiculous to me that a number of departments have vans which are seldom used at weekends whilst ours aren't used much during the week, but this problem can only be solved by adequate central organisation within College.

Student Discounts The idea of a local student discount scheme really hasn't got off the g r o u n d ; I've c o n c e n t r a t e d on improving our own facilities already available in College since an extensive scheme locally isn't feasible — it may be possible to get some sort of discount from some of the more expensive local shops on some items, but it wouldn't end up any cheaper than buying the same product from cheaper outlets. For people who are willing to travel to buy things, NUS Marketing will sell Discount Cards to anyone with a U L U card. I would suggest that the first FELIX next year (or possibly the Handbook in future years?) could contain a special supplement recommending where different items can be bought cheapest.

Vending and Amusement Machines This year a coffee machine and two video games machines have been installed in the Lower Lounge. At present the coffee machine isn't taking enough to cover the rental charge, and we may have to consider removing it. The video games are very popular and are providing us with a useful source of income (although I have been keeping all games charges down to a minimum) and I hope there will be one installed in the JCR next year; I don't think it would be wise to put any more in the Lounge — it isn't meant to be an amusement arcade.

Mascotry We've still got Mike, and he's attended the Freshers' Reception and all U G M s this year. Unfortunately he still doesn't actually work — a matter which should be attended to sometime Union

Committees

I have attended each Union committee at least once during the year and am satisfied that most are running well. Two new committees are currently being set up under my chairmanship — Transport and Services.

College Committees I have sat on the following College committees this year; Governing Body; Finance and Executive; House, Refectory; Refectory Complaints a n d Suggestions; B a r (Chairman); Bookings; Athletics; Athletics Ground; Haldane Library; Safety Council; Technical Advisory Safety. I also sit on two external' committees: U L U Students' Representative C o u n c i l and L S T Shareholders.

Conclusion Sorry this reports is so long, but it all had to be mentioned (and it's

the best way of making sure nobody reads it anyway). Hope I haven't missed anything out!

It's been a very interesting year for me, but one which I wouldn't like to repeat for a while. I've too many memories of High Court actions, arguing with South Africa rugby teams who decide to invade Stan's Bar, and a thousand and one financial headaches.

Sabbatical or not, I still reckon that* this is easily the toughest job in th° Union — my best wishes to

IC C AG CHAIRMAN'S REPORT The activities of I C C A G have increased a lot this year. We have a few more regular activities and quite a lot more one-off ones. We also have a lot more active members.

We have had soup runs almost every Tuesday and Friday night of term, which have usually been very well attended. During the first term we often had to turn people away, because there was not enough room in the van.

We have volunteers who regularly visit lonely old-age pensioners and some who help at a playgroup at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. We have recently become involved with a club for handicapped children, which needs volunteers on Saturdays. We are hoping to do a lot more with these children next year.

We did the WUS collection at registration and the Freshers' Fair, and also organised a collected for the Cambodians in November. We have also provided collectors (and badge sellers) on other occasions.

The Blood Doning in November was slightly upset by the activities of Real Ale S o c , but so many people wanteto give blood that the Transfusion Service came back in December and took a total of 443 pints. We have another session coming up at the end of May. We received a lot of food and clothing for the ' C r i s i s At C h r i s t m a s ' appeal, and four or five volunteers went to work in the shelter at Christmas. We provided most of the workers who built the Holly Street Adventure Playground, and one vounteer worked there over Easter. We are hoping to do some more building this term. At the end of February, we had thirty deprived eight-year-olds down from Birkenhead for a day. They were shown round London, and enjoyed themselves immensely (probably more than our volunteers did, trying to keep track of them).

We would like to have more Saturday activities (eg, with Task Force — helping old age pensioners), but we can not usually get hold of drivers.

The Short Life Housing Group was set up as a sub-committee of I C C A G , but they have not been able to do much yet, as they had a lot of trouble getting set up as a company.

Fiona

Sinclair

Kae for next year; I'm sure she's going to do a good job.

Finally, my to everyone involved in the Union this year who has helped me (especially Annie) or just contributed towards it being such an interesting year, and also my thanks to a large numbers of personal friends without whose constant encouragement and moral support I doubt if I'd have seen the year through.

I hate writing annual reports!

Malcolm Brain

ICWA A N N U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 ICWA, as most of you will know, has had a difficult year, with people trying to close it down. However, it has nevertheless been reasonably successful in trying out new events and putting forward different approaches. Next year's committee will continue to build on what we have learnt.

ICWA has two basic roles: at a social level and a representative one.

In the former case, this year's calendar has been filled with: 1. Freshers' Reception. This was well attended, albeit few postgraduate freshers, and should continue in future years with possible changes to the actual structure of the event, eg, holding it in the ICWA Lounge.

2. The ICWA Ball. This was held in the first term rather than at the end of the spring term. We had hoped this would increase the attendance, but this was not the case. The future of this event will be questioned. The evening, however, was enjoyed by all concerned; the meal was good; the entertainment was provided by Frankie Armstrong (an unaccompanied singer) and the Mekkers (a band and disco).

OSC

CHAIRMAN'S A N N U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 As originally conceived, O S C was an organisation which looked after the welfare of overseas students, represented their views and kept an eye on the national societies. In the past two years however, it has been forced to take an active part in politics. The fee increases by Labour and Conservative governments have led to protest action being organised by students. ICU this year organised a campaign against education cuts in which O S C took some part.

At the beginning of the session a reception desk was organised by Mr C N Swapraksm. This was to provide advice and information to overseas students coming to this country for the first time. Some events were also organised such as talks by union officials, British Council, an informal supper and trips.

One of the main objectives of the committee at the start of this year was to improve relations between overseas and home students and promote a better understanding of each other's different cultures and problems. For this purpose, O S C

OTHER OFFICERS REPORTS Un the representative level, we 3. We held a gig/disco in early spent a lot of the first term involved in December. The group, the Mixdix, the campaign against John Corrie's providing the music. The usual JCR parties held by ICWA in the Abortion Bill (Amendment) including motions to Union meetings, etc. previous year did not come about We sent two delegates to the (through lack of planing on our Young Women's Conference held part) but should be returned to the in December. I have sat on Council social calendar next year. and from there on three College 4. A t C h r i s t m a s we held a committees: Welfare. This deals Balloon Debate which proved very with the student councellor, Welenjoyable. fare Centre, creche and Nightline; 5. We have initiated Staff Cheese Residence; Admissions Policy. and Cider Lunches where both women students and staff are From a meeting with schools the invited to lunch in the I C W A E O C have floated the idea of Lounge. These have proved to be conversion courses for women with popular with both staff and students Arts A levels to be able to take a and we hope next year to make one year A level science course them a regular fixture. and then be offered a place at IC if 6. We have arranged several they meet the required standard. I trips to see the London Contemporary Ballet, Teresa, and Les Cage 'think this is an idea that the Union should pursue so that it isn't just aux Folles. shelved and forgotten about.

7. A group of us spent a wonderful weekend in Oaklands Women's ICWA's greatest problem is the Centre, Glasbury-on-Wye. reputation it has acquired whether 8. A course of self-defence as a women's institute or a feminist classes were organised at the refuge. For these images to have a Women's Arts Alliance and a group chance of changing help is needed from IC attended it. The year from everyone. Don't label ICWA; before we had a teacher come to allow women to make their own IC but this year we could not find a minds about how and if they want teacher prepared to take on the ICWA; give it a real chance esperesponsibility. cially in early October.

9. Pancake Race.

Merche Clark organised an International Week.

The events included: a debate with Trevor Phillips and Martin Stevens, MP; a fair with films, music and stalls (food, posters, pamphlets and wine); an International Dinner and D i s c o a t t e n d e d by over four hundred (organised with the help of KCFFOS).

An attempt to organise a sports tournament and a series of films (one from a society per week) failed due to lack of enthusiasm.

Most of the societies did an excellent iob tackling the problems of International Week and taking their normal activities. Some events worth mentioning are: Chinese Society New Year; India Society Diwali; and Latin American Week.

O S C as a major sub-committee has been in existence for only four years and there are still several difficulties to iron out before it can take a fuller part in Union activities.

For example, we need to make .more students (both home and overseas) aware of the kind of work it does and to persuade them . to take an active interest in it. This year we collaborated with various S C C clubs, and very closely with

national societies to bring the O S C closer to students and hope this can be continued in future. A lot more publicity is needed. O S C and national societies do not make full use of IC media. IC Radio have suggested a half-hour programme for overseas students. This will be taken on by next year's committee.

A n o t h e r p r o b l e m to tackle is making the committee more representative; societies and students (especially western students) have to be persuaded to take an active part.

From October 1980 onwards a standard membership card and headed paper will be used by societies and the subscription fee will be set at a minimum level of fifty pence.

The C o m m i t t e and national (societies must provide a strong, initiative in years to come, so thai |OSC can take its rightful place in •the Union. The future for overseas students looks bleak and we do need strong committees to look after their interests.

Aftab Cujral OSC Chairman

RAG

CHAIRMAN'S A N N U A L R E P O R T 1979/80 The Rag year started, as usual, to the resounding chants of the C C U s , assembled around Marble Arch before the traditional Tiddlywinks Rag stunt. This was the first of many, varied and consistently successful stunts from R C S and Guilds, and even Mines, though remaining fairly insular as usual, have made a significant contribution to a street collections total which exceeds even last year's record.

T h e year also opened with controversy over the Rag Mag, which was first withdrawn due to illegality, but then was allowed to be sold on campus, after a motion was put to a U G M to withdraw it.

Despite some oWts contents, it was somewhat of a triumph, being regarded as the best in the country by many other universities producing technically far inferior mags. Its high quality was partly responsible, rogether with the provision of regular Rag Mag trips, in the high sales, which mean we liave made a profit on the venture for the first time in many years.

Rag Week was its usual chaotic enjoyable and exhausting self, and this year was one day longer than usual, including some new events, such as the highly successful Beer Festival, and first major event staged by Mines in Rag Week — the Ragarama. I think that events were varied enough to cater for

SCAB CHAIRMAN'S A N N U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 A usually reliable source has informed me that brevity is the order of the day; therefore I will give no detailed account of the activities of the S C A B societies, nor of the proceedings of the bureaucracy within an.d without the meetings of the Board. Rather I will give a somewhat personal outline of current trends likely to affect the p r o v i s i o n of entertainment at Imperial College in the foreseeable future.

First, inn rnosl difficult. The rock 'industry' has undergone a fundamental change in structure over the time since I first darkened the doors of IC. The big acts have got bigger and more 'showbiz', and the roster of 'college bands' appears to have disappeared The few acts' who are of the stature to headline a big College gig are often survivors horn the system of five years ago and are inevitably such an anachron,sm to be unattractive to the audience. The only way that I can see the Great Hall being used (this is no comment on the internal College politics; merely upon the availability of suitable acts) is to build up very good relationships with promoters and agents and to attempt to become a regular venue for 'warm up' gigs.

For this reason, and because their activity is always an emotive issue within the Union, Ents are

10

most tastes, and all the prices were kept low enough to be reasonable, yet every event still paid its way.

This led to record profits of about £2,500 over the week, including £1,230 from the procession which went immediately to the National Deaf Children's Society.

This money was used to buy equipment for various children, and some of this was presented at a special event, the Caber Tossing, which was organised jointly with the Society. Such close liason with the charities has not to my knowledge been carried out before, and it has certainly been very encouraging and highly successful. The Caber Tossing was a great party for the fifty or so deaf children who attended, attracted wide coverage in the local press, raised about £130 to be added to our donation, and certainly changed some of the parents and teachers present, in their attitude to 'students', as those involved were superb in their handling of the children.

Another attempt to do something new was made in holding two Rag Discos. Unfortunately, though enjoyed by those attending, and making a small profit, they were not as successful as we hoped, for some reason lacking the magnetic draw of a C C U party.

Over Christmas we sent two delegates to the National Rag C o n f e r e n c e , and c o n t r i b u t e d significantly to the proceedings

suffering from a great deal of discouragement and frustration. It is vitally important to keep the committee active so that people may be encouraged to spend several years building the sort of relationship outlined above with the professionals in the business.

H o w e v e r , whilst ideas of new activity are a necessary factor, the fact that most students are willing to proffer advice of the 'why don't you book Led Zeppelin?' genre, makes it difficult to convince Ents that the outsider has a genuine viable scheme; a lot of work must be done to make the workings of Ents less inward-looking.

The folk scene is generally in something of a recession. This is probably explained very ably by John Peel: "Whatever it was that attracted me . . . four or five years ago isn't there — there's no bite there. It's all rather comfortable and even smug." Obviously this is the image the (potential) student audience shares and rejects.

Equally obviously, positive action must be taken to change this. I am not certain what this action is, but I think that the change of direction of Folk Club to a more participatory society next year is a step towards this end.

I suspect the time might be nigh to consider splitting Jazz Club into two sections: the Jazz Club as it stands does not seem to contribute

especially with regard to the Rag Mags, and they also suceeded in obtaining the Conference for us to host this year. Recently we were invited by Charing Cross Hospital to take part in the Fulham Carnival Street Procession, which they were hoping would be a prototype for an all-London Rag Procession. However it seems we were the only College to stick to its guns and produce a float, as the others all backed out at short notice, but there was a lot of interest and I hope this can be worked on at this year's Rag Conference.

The year had its traditional finale with the Summer Fete, and despite the problems of moving it to the Queens Lawn because of the Iranian Embassy seige (not to mention the lack of celebrities!) I feel it was a great success, highly enjoyed by stallholders and visitors alike, and with profits heading for the £1,000 mark.

To sum up, I think we have had a very successful year, combining money-making and fun well, and introducing several new ideas. This is due to the hard work and enthusiasm of the C C U s , Clubs and Societies and many dedicated individuals, and I know they will allfindit as worthwhile as I do to know that most of our contributions will be used directly to buy equipment for schools and individual deaf children, who would not otherwise be able to obtain such vital aid from any other source.

Rae

Snee

anything other than the room to the rock groups who practise there. I imagine that concerts by College groups would become less rare if they had their own organisation, and they would possibly have a greater respect for club equipment were the club that they belong to more in touch with their needs and ideas.

Of the other societies, Dramsoc will continue to flourish and will probably expand in coming years. I would not be surprised to see a production from ICDS at Edinburgh within a year or two. Filmsoc will continue to grow thanks to the very strong roots put down this year provided that current internal difficulties can be resolved. Opsoc will continue as it always has.

Music Society will thrive, and I expect the current increase in activity of the instrumental side to continue; there will be an increasing number of small ensembles to be heard. I do feel, however, that more effort should be made to go to the audience, rather than let the audience come to the Society.

Finally, Debating Society needs an injection of prestige to awaken the student body to its existence and possibilities.

Any questions?

Andy Cheyne SCAB

PUBLICATIONS BOARD C H A I R M A N ' S R E P O R T , 1979/80 Pub Board has run reasonably efficiently this year with no major controversies. I am happy to report that we will be able to completely pay off the typesetter loan granted last year by College, after paying off half last year. There has been good inter-media co-operation especially over news coverage — although individual editorial independence has remained strong.

It is also good to note that most publications have increased their membership this year. The equipment fund that I proposed setting up has not been possible due to the very small amount of outside work done on the Print Unit (maybe next year?).

The Phoenix — must be given first mention.

This year's edition, coming after an absence of two years, was a real credit to the Editor and his very enthusiastic staff. It is an excellent production and I hope that the admirable quality can be maintained in future years.

FELIX FELIX started off the year in a controversial manner (remember JS?), but settled down to a regular schedule, although I can't say I am terribly excited about this year's standard. It is however encouraging to see quite a few freshers actively involved and next year promises well.

STOIC STOIC have tried new ideas and been pretty successful in their tenth year. Producing television programmes is a difficult process, especially for untrained operators, and because the results are not of the high technical standard the BBC/TTV produce, STOIC seem to be written off too readily. This year the results have been good and the list ot programme guests and features impressive.

IC Radio IC Radio, although suffering the loss of its Station Manager in midsession has consolidated its position this year. The new 'Northside' Studios were operational from the beginning of the autumn term and have been used throughout the year.

The news-coverage side has been commendable but, I feel, new programme ideas have been somewhat lacking. The active membership has been higher than ever, AP The AP has maintained the high standard set last year; the presentation is original, the articles informative and where necessary critical.

I C U Handbook The ICU Handbook was efficiently produced and sent out as usual.

Chairman Publications

Board

Jon Firth Chairman

SCC

CHAIRMAN'S A N N U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 Due to the fact that I was given very short notice for this report it can only give a very brief account of the activities of the societies and the committee. Once again the clubs and societies proved to be the most active element within the College. In the case of S C C societies this was reflected in the fact that several new societies — Industrial, P A T A , Vegetarian, Pimlico, FFF and Badge Society were formed each with a large body of active members. Societies already existing continued to grow and increase their activities.

In the religious societies the turn away from belief in materialism (dialectric or otherwise) has been reflected in the increased membership a n d a c t i v i t i e s of all the religious societies. Further new growth towards ecumenism in which I noted in my last report has continued unabated.

On the political front the main item of interest has been the sudden re-emergence of the Con-

E X T E R N A L AFFAIRS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN'S A N N U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 Education cuts, I suppose, was the most commonly used phrase thi year a n d that r e m a i n s as an. 'ongoing situation'. External Affairs spent much of the first term working/making a noise about the cuts and about the 'full cost' but it does not seem so far that overseas students numbers will fall.

We produced a paper on grants in London which, however, was not passed by U G M , but somehow finished up as part of the Exec main motion at an NUS conference and was passed.

U L U has seen a dramatic improvement over the past year and the input by IC students whether in sports, societies or SRC has been

servative Society as a political force within the Union — mainly due to an increase in membership. The Liberals have kept up their ususal amount of involvement in College life.

Of the miscellaneous societies, Amnesty has been very successful in releasing the prisoners whom they have adopted; Vegetarian has been a successful pressure group in obtaining vegetarian food in the College and so on for each society.

One would have thought that the S C C societies being so active and containing large societies with memberships such as Chaplaincy of more than three hundred, the Union Executive would be interested in what is after all student involvement in Union activities. Unfortunately I am compelled to report otherwise. Of the five meetings held so far this year, Mr Fox has deemed it wise to attend none of these; Mr Stotesbury, one and Mr Brain, two. I leave you to draw your own inferences.

James Frank SCC Chairman

very great. At SRC we have been very active, with full delegations to all meetings and active participation by most.

External Affairs still gets mailings from Compassion in World Farming; National Council of Civil Liberties; Chile Solidarity Campaign; W U S and some others. However, we are only affiliated to N C C L and WUS. Various members of the Committee have been generally active and have attended conferences. Various other members have done very little.

Overall External Affairs remains a subject in which few are very interested but I feel that if such External Affairs as U L U and W U S are promoted more then general interest can be increased.

John Passmore External Affairs Officer

this will improve soon.

WELFARE OFFICER'S The Day Nursery is all our own A N N U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 once again as Chelsea College now Most of what follows occurred have their own. The year has seen before I took over, so please typically heavy use of the facility. excuse any omissions in detail.

The opening times and situation of The Welfare Centre continues to the Malet Street nursery seem to be an asset to the Union, especially make it unsuitable for an over flow. now that Michael Arthur has a Finally, I would like to offer part-time assistant, Sue Telling. thanks to Shona Ward as her year Accommodation has been the issue as Nightline Director draws to a of the year with the Centre negoclose. She has given a superb tiating head-tenancies, compiling year's work and her influence will questionnaires and providing an remain for a few years yet. efficient flat 'agency' service to In March a one-day seminar was name but a few areas of work. held on accommodation, combining The Health Centre 'ticks over' admin, staff and students. This nicely as ever. discussed the running of present Don Adlington, the Student (and halls and possible new initiatives on staff?) Councillor is situated in an the problems of housing in the city. office in the rear of the Health It is still too early to see any Centre. This is not fully satisfactory results. A short life housing group as his visitors have to walk past the with members from IC is now waiting room for the doctors and •almost operational. follow a winding but signposted Pete Stevens route. So nerves aren't calmed and Welfare Officer anonymity is endangered. Hopefully

RECREATIONAL CLUBS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN'S ANN U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 Club Activities Two clubs were newly formed this year, and one last.

Hang Gliding Club reached twice its projected membership, and is now training members to fly its two 'kites'.

Microcomputer Club was accepted as an R C C Club at the February meeting and is now doing very well with a system up and working donated by I C C C .

Pottery G r o u p is the most recently formed and is in the process of organising its facilities, to be provided by the RCA. They are expected to be active from the beginning of next year.

Two clubs have had problems: Go Club are now running well after a false start with no committee to begin the year.

Croquet Club are still inactive, but this is typical since the season has not yet begun. I wait in trepidation to see how thev fare.

Major claims were granted to the folowing clubs: Canoe (canoes); Billiards and Snooker (both tables re-covered); Electronic Music Group (string synthesisers); Hang Gliding (two gliders); Caving (new ropes and lamps); Amateur Radio (microwave project); Audio (joint use with IC Radio of a Revox tape machine).

Christmas tours were undertaken

by Caving, Mountaineering, and Scouts and Guild Clubs.

Easter tours by Canoe, S & G , and Underwater Clubs and Youth Hostelling Association. Everything was satisfactory, to my knowledge during each tour, and around nine clubs are planning summer tours.

General Demands for copies of insurance policies held helped unearth a few cases of under insurance which are now being remedied by the new comprehensive Union policy (thanks A C A D E M I C AFFAIRS OFFICER'S A N N U A L REPORT, 1979/80 The 'Academic Scene' has been fairly quiet this year, either because there hasn't been a lot for the Academic Affairs Committee to deal with or because we haven't been doing our jobs as well as we might; I think it is mainly the former.

We spent a lot of committee time discussing the structure of the committee and the mechanism for electing Academic Reps; in both cases the well established systems were favoured. Investigations into the setting up of committees along the lines of Engineering Board in R C S and R S M met with firm opposition from the senior staff in the department concerned. I think we all agree that more committees of this nature just mean more bureaucracy.

One of our few real achievements this year has been to persuade some departments to have Open Days for school students, which is an

to R Stotesbury).

Our working party on personal equipment sorted out an age old problem (at least for the time being). There is now no grey area about what R C C should be expected to pay for in cases like Underwater Clubs' wet suits or Mountaineering Club's safety helmets.

Regretfully, due to financial limitations the rate of travel subsidy for supplementary grants had to be halved in February.

A brief look at the rate of subscription paid by the clubs members immediately showed that, generally, the big spending clubs are getting a very good deal. If for no other reason, 1 shall be satisfied with my year of office if I can ensure that this unfair financial imbalance is discontinued, thus averting any reaction by the small cftlbs against the interest of the larger ones, and R C C as a whole.

The aim of myself and of my executive is to work towards a total income per capita from each club in subscriptions of approximately 25%, although of course, this will vary slightly from club to club.

Hopefully, this reduction will allow summer tours to be subscribed at a rate of around 20%.

Transport I am most pleased, and not a little relieved to report that the responsibility for the Union transport service now falls upon the IC Union Transport Committee.

As the details of this will undoubtedly be reported elsewhere, I shall refrain from doing so here except to say that I would hope that there will be adequate representation of R C C clubs' interests on their transport committee.

Finally I would like to express my thanks publicly for the invaluable assistance given by my V i c e chairman Roger Brugge, without whom my job would have been made impossibly difficult.

John Tidy RCC Chairman

encouraging sign. The A P has been successfully produced; my thanks to everyone who c o n t r i b u ' e d articles or helped with the pasteups — I hone you all like it!

I will admit to devoting more time and effort to producing the Alternative Prospectus than doing the job of ICU A A O , but I make no apologies for it. I think it is too much to ask anyone to do both jobs to the abest of their ability. (It is worth noting that in some other colleges the AP is produced by a sabbatical officer). However, I do feel that the A P should be produced by a senior union officer who sits on C o u n c i l , because it is an important and responsible job and I don't think it would be a good idea to set up a new post of AP Editor.

In order to all to alleviate the workload o n the A A O so that he/she can devote more time and effort to the A P I have put forward a proposal to Council.

Gary Nichols ICU AAO

11

ATHLETICS CLUBS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN'S A N N U A L R E P O R T , 1979/80 So another year passes by and more Union hack faces bite the dust. What's happened this year?

Not a lot, apart from things going up in smoke and people being shot all around us. With 'entertainment' like this, who needs sport you may ask — well you can carry on asking because I'm not going to answer stupid questions like that.

Anyway a brief resume: At the beginning of the year Basketball Club had nowhere to play and the situation l o o k e d hopeless; but a mere two weeks, of my summer, spent in intensive and top secret negotiations soon fixed this. A glace was found and the

Club had an OK season.

Sporting Motor Cycle Club were able to recover their stolen bikes, via the police, and in fact gained 1/2 others — sounds like a good return on investment!

All the squash courts should be ready for complete use in the next few weeks — this is a long awaited development.

The biggest development in the 'new' is the fact that a rather large old chemistry lab is to be converted into a sports hall and should be ready for use next term. It took a lot of pressure to persuade College, but it will be well worth all the effort.

Coaches — running better and more organised than any year I can remember; but I can see big financial fosses in this field when the final

figures come through and looking forward (you didn't know I was clairvoyent) I think that this is where our biggest increase in expenditure will be next year.

Multigym is going great Gunns (sorry Steve) and every day hordes of people seem to be busy growing muscles — John Stocks has been seen in there looking all macho and rumour has it that a Certain Fox has also made visits.

What about the sports front?

Mens hockey won the U L Cup. Boat Club won the Southern Universities Championships (surprise, surprise) and a few of them managed to get a 'free trip' to South Africa — and back.

On the individual front: Purples (Univ of London Sports

This special edition of Exec News has been typesetfayMaz Fellows and printed by Ian Morse on the Union premises. Production by Roger Stotesbuty.

colours) were awarded to at least thirteen IC students — 9 full purples and four half purples.

Dave Derby came first in the World Mirror Dinghy Sailing Championships.

Also one of our volleyball players (modesty forbids me from naming him!) was selected and subsequently played for British Universities.

All in all it has been a good year with: it is a picture, from Roger, flashes of inspiration from Tim, flashes of teeth from Johnson and just straightforward flashes from Jo. Anyway happy Moutong folks.

Suki Kalirai ACC Chairman

with the compliments of

B L I O L I C L Da-Mias IMPERIAL COLLEGE UNION Prince Consort Road.

London. SW7 2BB Tel: 01-589-5111 ext. 1040 1042 1043.

P r e s i d e n t , Chris Fox, D e p u t y P r e s i d e n t . Malcolm Brain, H o n . S e c r e t a r y , Roger Stotesbury,

THE HON. SEC.