Photos From Meeting 2012-01-17
January 17, 2012 in main by Rob Hallam
[flickr-gallery mode=”photoset” photoset=”72157628914858929″]
by Rob Hallam 
by Catherine Second Meeting of 2012 and Update!
January 16, 2012 in events, information, news by Catherine
Hi everyone!
Sorry this mailing is a day late!
Thanks to those who came to the pub quiz with Mary’s Meals last night – we had a great turnout! Hope you had fun! I’ll let you know how much money has been raised when it’s all counted up.
This week’s meeting
This week we are back in Qudos in the QMU, 5pm, Tuesday.
We’ll continue to focus on Guantanamo Bay, then for some encouragement take a look at some Amnesty success stories over the last few months! If you’re new this semester, we’ll have a table dedicated to introducing the charity and society.
As well as this, we’ll crack on with Secret Policeman’s Ball planning!
Coming up
THE SECRET POLICEMAN’S BALL 2012, Saturday 4th February: Our biggest event of the year is less than three weeks away! If you’ve not heard of it, this is a night of stand-up comedy and sketches all hosted by the brilliant Billy Kirkwood- keep your eyes peeled for posters up around campus and in the QMU. Tickets are only £5 and are available from the QMU box office and online at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/150821: snap ’em up!
Last week we had loads of people offering to help- thanks so much! We have thousands of fliers arriving this week so we need plenty more people to scatter them around Glasgow. Here’s the event page for more info: http://www.facebook.com/events/195138300581324/.
We also want to hold a bake sale to help promote The Secret Policeman’s Ball and a Guantanamo campaign on campus, but we’ll discuss that tomorrow and I’ll send you more details if you can’t make it to the meeting.
See you soon!
Catherine
Website: http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/guamnesty
Please join our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/guamnesty/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/guamnesty/
by Rob Hallam First Meeting of Second Term in 2012
January 6, 2012 in information by Rob Hallam
Hello lovely people of Amnesty!
I hope your Christmas and New Year was delightful! Our first meeting of the new semester is at 5pm in Qudos in the QMU on Tuesday (10th).
First semester round-up
Fundraising:
- Two cake stalls: in total raised £181.03
- The Big Fun Run (5k in Bellahouston Park): raised £42
- Protect the Human club night at Stereo: raised £600
- Christmas carolling: raised £61.64
So our fundraising total for first semester is an amazing £884.67!! Well done everyone! Same again (plus more) this semester!
Campaigning:
Our End the Death Penalty campaign took place on World Day Against the Death Penalty (10th Oct): we stood on the library hill holding signs labelled with methods of execution and with prisoners on death row, with a table of information and petitions outside the library.
‘I am Troy Davis’ march: members went to Edinburgh to take part in this march both in solidarity with the Davis family after the execution of Troy, and in opposition of the death penalty.
Our Stop Stoning campaign saw us on library hill again, standing with large cut-out letters spelling ‘stop stoning’. In two hours, we collected a brilliant 458 signatures opposing stoning in Iran.
Some of us joined the Reclaim the Night march with an Amnesty banner. ( http://glasgowwomensnetwork.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/reclaim-the-night-2011/)
As well as all this, we went to several film screenings including ’62 Years Later’, ‘Burma VJ’, ‘The Stoning of Soraya M’ and Christian Aid’s (in association with The Guardian) ‘Food and agriculture: Land ownership in Ethiopia’.
Thank you everyone for all your enthusiasm, commitment and hard work last semester- we did loads!
First meeting back (this Tuesday the 10th)
The first few weeks back are going to be extremely busy! In our first meeting we’ll talk about what campaigns we want to focus on this semester, allocate jobs that need doing for the pub quiz and the Secret Policeman’s Ball (see below), as well as eating buns and catching up.
Coming up
PUB QUIZ with Mary’s Meals, Sunday 15th January, Jim’s Bar, QMU, 8pm, £2: Our first event of 2012 is alongside the wonderful Mary’s Meals! To check out the charity follow this link: www.marysmeals.org . We’re hosting a pub quiz with PRIZES up for grabs and a raffle with MORE PRIZES to be won! Come along for a fun-filled evening of trivia, drinks and PRIZES all in aid of two great causes! Here’s the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/223220054422032/. Come along!
THE SECRET POLICEMAN’S BALL 2012, Saturday 4th February, Qudos, QMU, 7:30pm, £5: Our fourth annual night (and our biggest event of the year) from some of the best Scottish comedians is only a month away! The ticket website and the Facebook group are set up, but we need decorators, posterers, leafleters, writers, photographers, raffle prize collectors, ticket sellers, PRs, Powerpoint makers, banner makers, people with lots of friends and a lot of enthusiasm! If you want to be involved- we need you! This night has been successful for the past three years and we want to make this the best yet and raise a lot of money and awareness. On Tuesday’s meeting we’ll get some committees set-up (raffle, publicity, etc). Here the Facebook event page- invite your friends and yourself! http://www.facebook.com/events/195138300581324/ , and here’s the link to the ticket website: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/150821.
If you’ve never been before, now is the perfect time to come along! Newcomers are more than welcome. Also looking forward to seeing some familiar faces, too!
See you on Tuesday at 5pm in Qudos, QMU!
Catherine
Website: http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/guamnesty
Please join our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/guamnesty/
Flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/guamnesty/
(Thanks to http://www.webdesignhot.com/free-vector-graphics/new-year-2012-made-of-snowflakes/ for the image CC BY 3.0)
by Rob Hallam Secret Policeman’s Ball!
January 5, 2012 in events, news by Rob Hallam
The Secret Policeman’s Ball is back! On Saturday the 4th of February Glasgow University Amnesty International are hosting their fourth annual SPB: an award winning night of the best comedy Scotland has to offer.
We’re delighted to announce that double Bafta Award winning comedian Billy Kirkwood is back to compere for the fourth year running. Also giving you a lot to laugh about this year are: Graham Mackie, Chris Forbes, Sian Bevan, Barry McDonald, Des O’Gorman, Keir McAlister, Scott Gibson, and Jay Lafferty.
With a line up comprised of some of the best comedy talent in Scotland you barely need another reason to attend. But of course we’ve got one. The Secret Policeman’s Ball is a student-run benefit show being held in aid of Amnesty International. The work that Amnesty International does is vital in the fight against human rights abuses, and the positive impact that their work has is felt by individuals all over the world.
So join us for a night of comedy, laughter and high-jinks that’ll give you something to feel good about long after the show is over!
The Secret Policeman’s Ball 2012 is being held on Saturday 4th February at the Queen Margaret Union, University Gardens. Doors open at 7:30pm. Tickets are £5 and are available from the QMU box office and online at www.wegottickets.com
by Catherine Last Meeting of Term Tomorrow!
December 5, 2011 in news, Pre 2012 Archive by Catherine
Hi everyone!
Sorry this update is a day late. Hope you’re all getting through exam season happily! The Protect the Human club night at Stereo was a great success! We made nearly £600! Amazing! Thanks to Owen for doing such a brilliant job and to all of you who went along.
This week’s meeting
This week we’re in Committee Room 1 at 5pm, Tuesday in the QMU.
It’ll be our last meeting of the term so we’ll have a nice relaxed one! We’ll start getting some decorations prepared for the Secret Policeman’s Ball, talk about plans for next semester and have a bit of a feedback session about what you enjoyed this term, didn’t enjoy so much, or want to do more of!
Coming up
– Same sex marriage consultation in Scotland: Action before the 9th Dec: The Scottish Government is currently seeking views on the introduction of religious ceremonies for civil partnerships, and the possible introduction of same sex marriage. Amnesty strongly supports the Scottish Government’s proposal which seeks to create a balanced relationship between same sex and mixed sex couples when it comes to civil partnerships and marriage. Our group is organising an awareness-raising event on campus. We’ll discuss it some more on Tuesday, but as ever the more people and the more ideas the merrier! Follow this link for more information about the consultation: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=325. We started to plan this last week- but because some of us are really bogged down with work we’re looking for some one who isn’t to take the reins on this one- but we’ll discuss tomorrow!
– Christmas caroling: We’re caroling at 12pm on Sunday 11th and Monday 12th December, from 12pm for an hour or so, starting on Byres Rd then moving to town; hopefully raising lots of money! Come along whether you can sing or not- we’ll hit the pub afterwards!
-Write for Rights Day, Sat December 10th: The anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is Amnesty’s biggest letter writing date. Check out this link for more info http://www.amnesty.ca/writeathon/.
– Pub quiz with Mary’s Meals, Sun 15th January, Jim’s Bar, QMU, 7pm: A lovely way to spend a Sunday evening; a quiz with prizes worth competing for! This is a joint event with GU’s Mary’s Meals group: if you want to learn more about the charity, here’s the link to its website:http://www.marysmeals.org.uk/
We’ll need a group of volunteers to help arrange this closer to the time; let me know if you’re particularly interested in helping out.
– The Secret Policeman’s Ball is confirmed for Saturday 4th February in Qudos- very exciting! Billy Kirkwood is confirmed as our compere. The posters are almost designed so we’ll start on a massive PR drive soon. There’s masses to organise so we need everyone to get involved. This annual night of comedy has been more and more successful over the last couple of years, raising thousands of pounds for Amnesty, and we want to make this one the biggest yet!
– If you have any fundraising/campaigning ideas, please share them!
If you’ve not been to meetings so far, please come along- newcomers are always welcome. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, 5pm in Committee Room 1 in the QMU.
See you on Tuesday (tomorrow!) at the meeting!
Catherine
Website: http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/guamnesty
Please join our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/guamnesty/
by guamnesty This Week’s News (27/11/11)
November 27, 2011 in news by guamnesty
Hello Amnestiers!
Hope you all had a lovely weekend! It’s exam and essay time for all of us, but there’s no better way to spend an hour’s break from the library than at Amnesty!
This week’s meeting
This week we’re in Qudos at 5pm on Tuesday. We’ll be continuing the greetings card campaign- there will be Christmassy snacks and music!
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10673.
We’re also making a “Love is a Human Right” banner to coincide with the campaigners who are planning action on marriage discrimination (see below), as well as starting to plan next year’s events before we all disappear for the Christmas hols.
Coming up
– Reclaim the Night, TOMORROW: November is upon us again and once again this year, Rape Crisis is marking the 16 Days of Action for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. We have a group of people joining the Reclaim the Night march tomorrow (complete with Amnesty banner we made last week). We’re meeting outside the QMU at 6pm; please join us!
– Protect the Human club night at Stereo, Thurs December 1st: This Thursday! Look out for the fab posters, and bring yourself and friends along for a boogie. Check out the Facebook page for more info: http://www.facebook.com/events/188669591217860/.
– Same sex marriage consultation in Scotland: Action before the 9th Dec: The Scottish Government is currently seeking views on the introduction of religious ceremonies for civil partnerships, and the possible introduction of same sex marriage. Amnesty strongly supports the Scottish Government’s proposal which seeks to create a balanced relationship between same sex and mixed sex couples when it comes to civil partnerships and marriage. Our group is organising an awareness-raising event on campus. We’ll discuss it some more on Tuesday, but as ever the more people and the more ideas the merrier! Follow this link for more information about the consultation: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=325
– Christmas caroling: The Amnesty choir is practising this Wednesday! More info to follow- but if you can’t make it, come along to sing anyway- whether you can sing or not! We’re planning on caroling at 12pm on Sunday 11th and Monday 12th December, from 12pm for an hour or so, starting on Byres Rd then moving to town; hopefully raising lots of money.
-Write for Rights Day, Sat December 10th: The anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is Amnesty’s biggest letter writing date. Check out this link for more info http://www.amnesty.ca/writeathon/. We’re still to confirm whether we’ll arrange anything for this with Glasgow’s Daytime Amnesty group.
– Pub quiz with Mary’s Meals, Sun 15th January, Jim’s Bar, QMU, 7pm: A lovely way to spend a Sunday evening; a quiz with prizes worth competing for! This is a joint event with GU’s Mary’s Meals group: if you want to learn more about the charity, here’s the link to its website: http://www.marysmeals.org.uk/
We’ll need a group of volunteers to help arrange this closer to the time; let me know if you’re particularly interested in helping out.
– The Secret Policeman’s Ball is confirmed for Saturday 4th February in Qudos- very exciting! Billy Kirkwood is confirmed as our compere. The posters are almost designed so we’ll start on a massive PR drive soon. There’s masses to organise so we need everyone to get involved. This annual night of comedy has been more and more successful over the last couple of years, raising thousands of pounds for Amnesty, and we want to make this one the biggest yet!
– If you have any fundraising/campaigning ideas, please share them!
If you’ve not been to meetings so far, please come along- newcomers are always welcome. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, 5pm in Qudos in the QMU.
See you on Tuesday at the meeting!
Catherine
Website: http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/guamnesty
Please join our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/guamnesty/
by Catherine This Week’s News (14/11/2011)
November 14, 2011 in news by Catherine
Hello Amnesty people!
I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! This is a roundup of the coming meeting and events, but please scroll down further to check out what our brilliant sister society, STAR (Student Action For Refugees) have coming up, too.
This week’s meeting
We’re in Committee Room 1 in the QMU, Tuesday at 5pm.
This week’s meeting is an exciting one as we have a guest speaker, Alieu Ceesay, coming to speak to us about the human rights situation in Gambia. He’s our first speaker of the year so be sure to come along! Along with Alieu there’ll be some members of the Glasgow-based Gambia group who will be more than happy to answer any questions we may have. After the talk we’ll do some actions, as well as continuing to make plans for the carol singing and PRing for the club night at Stereo.
Coming up
– Protect the Human club night at Stereo, Thurs December 1st: This is creeping up on us! The flyers have been printed so we’ll get together a PR team to distribute them everywhere! As well as PRing we need people to come and have a drink and a dance all in aid of Amnesty.
– Christmas caroling: We have a good amount of names down for this, as well as singers from the Choral Society (thank goodness). So Elena and Jessie will make some announcements on Tuesday about what happens next!
-Write for Rights Day, Sat December 10th: The anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is Amnesty’s biggest letter writing date. Check out this link for more info http://www.amnesty.ca/writeathon/. A couple of us are going to the Glasgow Daytime Amnesty Group to brainstorm some ideas for a bigger event we could hold on this date. Throw any ideas this way!
– The Secret Policeman’s Ball is confirmed for Saturday 4th February in Qudos- very exciting! Billy Kirkwood is confirmed as our compere and in the next month we’ll get going on a big publicity drive- there’s lot’s to do! Our posters are being prepared right now. This annual night of comedy has been more and more successful over the last couple of years, raising thousands of pounds for Amnesty, and we want to make this one the biggest yet!
– If you have any fundraising/campaigning ideas, please share them!
If you’ve not been to meetings so far, please come along- newcomers are always welcome. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, 5pm in Qudos in the QMU.
See you on Tuesday at the meeting!
Catherine
Website: http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/guamnesty
Please join our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/guamnesty/
A wee bit of information from STAR (Student Action for Refugees) Glasgow
Recent changes in legislation have meant that the UK Border Agency is now able to forcibly remove families from their homes in order to deport them. This led to the dawn raiding of two families last week and then the detaining of a mother and her 5 year old son who. Dawn raiding was stopped a few years ago and the coalition promised when they took power to stop child detention, shortly before opening a ‘family removals centre’ however both of these things appear to be with us again. These actions breach human rights and are likely to be more frequent unless something is changed so a mass protest is being held next Monday (the 21st of November) at the Glasgow Home Office on Brand Street, 2 minutes from Cessnock Underground to call for them to be stopped.
Also coming up: A ceilidh this Thursday at 8pm in Qudos to raise money for John Oguchukwu, a student of our university who was deported and a Sleep Out this Friday to raise awareness for destitute asylum seekers in Glasgow.
More information on all of these events at www.starglasgow.wordpress.com
by Catherine More News!
November 8, 2011 in news by Catherine
Hello Amnestiers!
Firstly, a biiiig well done to all the campaigners who stood on library hill last Wednesday for our End Stoning campaign. We were there for just over two hours and collected an amazing 458 names! Thanks to everyone for your time and enthusiasm!
(End Stoning: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=12139)
This week’s meeting
We’re in Qudos in the QMU on Tuesday at 5pm and we’ll be focusing on human rights in Burma, as well as planning publicity for upcoming fundraising events (see below!).
Coming up
– Protect the Human club night at Stereo, Thurs December 1st: In the coming weeks we need to people to PR for this, but the most important thing to is to come and have a drink and a dance with all proceeds going towards Amnesty!
– Christmas caroling: This week we’ll start organising this properly and get an Amnesty choir together in preparation for caroling in December. Join in whether you can sing or not!
– The Secret Policeman’s Ball is confirmed for Saturday 4th February in Qudos- very exciting! Billy Kirkwood is confirmed as our compere and in the next month we’ll get going on a big publicity drive- there’s lot’s to do! Our posters are being prepared right now. This annual night of comedy has been more and more successful over the last couple of years, raising thousands of pounds for Amnesty, and we want to make this one the biggest yet!
– If you have any fundraising/campaigning ideas, please share them!
If you’ve not been to meetings so far, please come along- newcomers are always welcome. Our next meeting is on Tuesday, 5pm in Qudos in the QMU.
See you on Tuesday at the meeting!
Catherine
Website: http://www.guamnesty.org.uk/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/guamnesty
Please join our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/guamnesty/
by Catherine News And Updates!
October 30, 2011 in main by Catherine
Hello GU Amnesty!
Hope you’ve all had a good weekend! Those of us who ran the 5k on Saturday are alive a well (just about) and are still waiting for the last bits of sponsor money to come through- well done runners!
This week’s meeting
We’re having a film screening in the BOYD ORR this week in room 412, Level 4 at 5pm. There’ll be people standing in the foyer to direct you if you’re not sure where to go. Here’s
by Keleigh Week 6: Weekly News and Updates!
October 23, 2011 in main by Keleigh
Hello lovely people of GU Amnesty!
Hope you’ve all had a good weekend.  We’re back in Qudos, 5pm on Tuesday in the QMU!
This week’s meeting:
This week we’ll finish the gorgeous cut-out letters we started last week for our End Stoning campaign:
http://www.amnesty.org.uk/cont
Coming up:Â Â
– The Big Fun Run: (http://www.bigfunrun.com/
-Â Weekend away: Â 4th-6th Nov, Isle of Arran. Â We’re going for two nights, arriving on the Friday to do our sponsored walk up Goat Fell on the Saturday, followed by dinner and wine! Â On Sunday, people can leave in the morning or afternoon, but I personally will be leaving in the afternoon to leave time to head to the chocolate shop and the Cheese Experience! Price wise, accommodation will be £25 for the two nights, and return transport will be around £18. It’ll be a great fundraiser and a brilliant way to get to know each other more. An easy way to donate or for people to sponsor you is through our Just Giving page:Â www.justgiving.com/Amnes
-Â Hot-dog stand outside Cheesy Pop: Â This is a fundraising idea we’ve wanted to try for a while- selling hot dogs outside Cheesy Pop (the QMU’s Friday club night) as people are leaving at the end. Â Other societies have done this successfully and so we’re keen to give it a go, so will discuss it more in meetings.
-Â Protect the Human club night at Stereo, Thurs December 1st:Â Owen in the group is running a club night in aid of Amnesty- he spoke to us about it at last week’s meeting and is wanting volunteers to give up a couple of hours to PR the event around campus. Â It will be a great night- dancing in aid of Amnesty!
-Â Christmas caroling: Â We are determined to make this happen this year! Whether you can sing or not we’ll muddle through lots of carols in a public place and raise tons of money!
- The Secret Policeman’s Ball is confirmed for Saturday 4th February in Qudos- very exciting!  Billy Kirkwood is confirmed as our compere and in the next couple of months we’ll get going on a big publicity drive- there’s lot’s to do!  This annual night of comedy has been more and more successful over the last couple of years, raising thousands of pounds for Amnesty, and we want to make this one the biggest yet!
– Please tell us if you’re keen to organise something, or have a fundraising or campaigning idea.
If you’ve not been to meetings so far, please come along- newcomers are always welcome. Our next meeting is in QUDOS at 5pm in the QMU.
See you on Tuesday at the meeting!
Catherine