The Alumni Debate

[TC]

The provisional date for the Alumni Debate is Friday the 14th of December. The date is provisional because reservations still have to get back to me regarding booking LPH. However provided we can book it then the debate will occur on that evening. There will be a dinner after the debate and I hope that it will prove a fun evening for everyone.

The motion currently is "THB that St Andrews was better in my day." However other suggestions are welcome. Suggestions for where to hold the dinner would also be helpful. Currently I think that it is likely that we will hold it in the Balaka.

If you are interested in speaking in the debate please email me on tprc@st-andrews.ac.uk

Tom Cahn, Convenor

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Per Ardua ad Astra

[Mr Comedy]

Tom,

It's great that you've listened to the alumni here and not only invited us back to speak/rant but also managed to schedule it for a Friday.

Well done.

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"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung

[exnihilo]

Sadly, I think I shan't be able to make it, it being my birthday the following day. However, may I suggest that if that's the broad motion you want you cast it more positively as something more like "THB St Andrews Has Never Been Better"? To my mind that's more likely to draw a crowd among current students than the prospect of being told how rubbish things are now by a bunch of elderly people.

[RJ Covino]

I think that's an excellent suggestion - but, of course, it's coming from somebody extremely unlikely to attend, even despite alumnus rank.

Of course, should you want to go in another direction, I do believe that several of the old boys could work wonders with "TH would buy some pegs."

[exnihilo]

Also, can I make one last plea for it to be the 'Alumnus Debate'? Alumni Debate is just wrong.

[Eliot Wilson]

Quoting RJ Covino from 22:07, 31st May 2007
Of course, should you want to go in another direction, I do believe that several of the old boys could work wonders with "TH would buy some pegs."

You're my wife now.

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."

[RJ Covino]

Quoting Eliot Wilson from 11:14, 1st Jun 2007
You're my wife now.

It's nice to see you all back, Dave. All grown up.

[Dickie]

Since there is only a week or so to go I thought it might be an idea to bring this thread back to the fore.

I hope it is a fine debate, have cancled my works X'mas party for it!

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http://facebook.com/p.php?id=37106107&l=217e435e0a

[Eliot Wilson]

It will be a pleasure to see you again, Mr Douglas. And I gather Mr Pugh is also speaking.

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."

[Dave the Explosive Newt]

Unfortunately, I won't be able to be there - lives to save and so forth. I hope it goes well though, sounds like it should be great fun.

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Mmmmmmm, cake.
http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37102114

[Dickie]

Quoting Eliot Wilson from 18:34, 7th Dec 2007
It will be a pleasure to see you again, Mr Douglas. And I gather Mr Pugh is also speaking.

The pleasure is all mine

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http://facebook.com/p.php?id=37106107&l=217e435e0a

[RJ Covino]

Quoting exnihilo from 10:23, 1st Jun 2007
Also, can I make one last plea for it to be the 'Alumnus Debate'? Alumni Debate is just wrong.

Unless, of course, they advertise it as being "The alumni debate." which would be just fine.

Calling things "The Israel Debate" or "The N. Ireland Debate" has attained a certain popularity in recent years. Advertised that way, people come in with opinions pro or con based on their feelings on the issue, not on the presentations made which pertain to the motion. The focus on the motion should be key, not the overall subject. Oh well, perhaps things were just better in my day?

On that note, is there a confirmed speaker line-up yet? Given this, those of us who are unable to attend will probably be able to construct for ourselves the manner in which the debate will run...

[Jamie potton]

Ralph, just read the minutes on the internet.
Are any of the details final?

[RJ Covino]

That's a laugh - I, and others, spoke in dozens upon dozens of debates, the minutes for which have never appeared online or even been lodged in the official accounts. The online minutes presently date back to Miss Wilson's term as Convenor - unless new ones are lodged in some bizarre sub-folder of the much vaunted, brilliantly executed, and exquisitely presented Union-based webpage that I can't find, of course.

Regarding minutes, I note that, despite non-production of the minutes, the Clerk directly responsible for the loss of several years' worth was recently given a Society HLM - presumably so that she can continue working on hers and her predecessors' for life? I, for one, will not stand on one leg waiting.

[Eliot Wilson]

I know I've said this before, but, Hell, I'll keep saying it until someone listens: the gap in the minutes, which begins, I think, some time in 1999, is an absolute disgrace. I've heard so much piss-and-wind about how it's going to be solved, but it is, first and foremost, a disservice to the Society, and, as an after-thought, a slap in the face to anyone who spoke for a five-year period or so. Just not good enough.

But what do I know? I was never Clerk of the House. Arf.

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."

[Cain]

Quoting Eliot Wilson from 22:46, 11th Dec 2007
I know I've said this before, but, Hell, I'll keep saying it until someone listens: the gap in the minutes, which begins, I think, some time in 1999, is an absolute disgrace.

I've set a timer to see how long it takes for a former Convenor to leap to the defence of some clerks for their sterling work in producing wonderful, eloquent, etc etc minutes, which is much more than had been done by clerks prior.

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I hold an element of surprise

[Mr Comedy]

Aah, the minutes. The constant election pledge of the Clerk is that they'll put the old minutes online for all to see - this of course is never delivered on. The only pleasing point from my perspective is that the only minutes online. seem to all include varying levels of innuendo from myself.

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"I am in no way interested in immortality, but only in the taste of tea. " -Lu Tung

[David Bean]

I think that'd be a bit difficult, given they date back to the 1810s (and presumably earlier if the Literary Society minutes are in Special Collections too). As I recall the pledge is usually to put one's own minutes online; I don't know what Stephen Burge, Tom Jamieson and Alan Paterson (my three predecessors in order) said about it, but unfortunately their own minutes were a bit patchy.

Since then, we've had me (produced all minutes and put them online, though for some reason they weren't transferred over when the web site was changed - they're in the book, anyway), Jon Roberts (produced bugger all), Alex Jennings (produced some of her own, I think, but said she was working on Jon's notes but to my knowledge hasn't produced the rest yet), Victoria Westwood (made a good start but was later derailed by ill health), Beth Conner (did really well, and as far as I know, produced everything) and then our present incumbent, whose performance I can't comment on. So it's not correct that there's been a total absence since 1999 - there should have been at least two years in there where full minutes were produced.

If we want actually to do something about this instead of just moaning, why don't we concentrate on the most likely years? I can talk to Victoria about hers - if she still has notes, for example, I could probably help by typing them up - and if someone who's close to Alex could take responsibility for approaching her about hers and Jon's, we might get somewhere.

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Psalm 91:7

[Eliot Wilson]

Now, David. I, for one, didn't say there was a total absence since 1999, I said the gap started around that time. And in part, you're right; people should do something about it. But I fear I may be too far distant in time and space to assist, so I will have to look to others.

And the Clerk had better be in top minute-taking form on Friday night, too.

[hr]

Bill and Ted beat the Grim Reaper at Twister

Bill: "You played very well, Death, especially with your totally heavy Death robes."

Death: "Don't patronise me."

[Tweedle-Dum]

24 hours and 19 minutes.

Quoting cain from 23:47, 11th Dec 2007

Quoting Eliot Wilson from 22:46, 11th Dec 2007
I know I've said this before, but, Hell, I'll keep saying it until someone listens: the gap in the minutes, which begins, I think, some time in 1999, is an absolute disgrace.

I've set a timer to see how long it takes for a former Convenor to leap to the defence of some clerks for their sterling work in producing wonderful, eloquent, etc etc minutes, which is much more than had been done by clerks prior.

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I hold an element of surprise

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Tetragrammaton is a four letter word.