Starting 6pm | 11th Oct | Level 2

Our First LGBT and Friends event of the year! This is a large gathering to break tensions, so we hope you will lose any nervousness that you have, and find the confidence to have a great time at Essex Uni. We aim to make this a fun social event, were you will have fun making new friends, and hopefully not embarrass yourself too much.

We won Best Society of the Year last year, and we’re proud of that! The first part of the night will have us explaining some of the things we did to get that award, as well as some of the things we aim to do this year. We will explain a few things which brought us to winning that, and what you can do to help us make this an even better Society. The Society is nothing without its members, and we want you to feel a part of it as much as possible.

Meeting in LTB at 6.45pm | 20th Oct

It’s like paintballing, but with lazers instead of paint!

We’ll be meeting in the LTB Foyer at 6.45pm, leaving their at 7pm sharpish.

All you need to bring with you for this event are:

For more information, you can check out the Quasar’s website at http://www.rollerworld.co.uk/index.html

21st October | 7am

A Trip to London, showcasing over 100 of the UK’s most influential recruiters.

This trip will provide free transport to London, there and back, and also includes the chance to network with representatives from leading organisations. You will have the chance to interact with corporations and organisations who are looking to recruit talented undergraduates, graduates and other jobseekers.

After all the seminars, training sessions, and the main exhibition, there will be an OPEN BAR for all attending

To top this off, there will be free entry to a famous gay nightclub in London. Travel will be provided back to Essex after the night-time festivities.

Please bear in mind that this trip will start with us meeting at approximate 7am the Friday morning, and coming back to Essex Uni at 3am Saturday Morning.

Meeting at 6.30pm in LTB (Actual film room TBC) | 25th October

I’m sure this film needs no explanation, but to whoever has not seen this film before; expect raving songs that won’t leave your head, characters so weird and yet so wonderful, and sexual innuendos that you could never possibly use in real life.

Visit this site to learn more about the storyline: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073629/

Bring a friend if you wish! The more the merrier.

Meeting at 9pm in Square 3 | 28th October

Sky Rooms’ monthly Gay Night Out in Colchester Town will have the LGBT and Friends Society dressed to gravely impress. We will meet in the SU bar at 9pm, dressed as clinically as you desire – a gory doctor or a deathly nurse.

For this night the Society will have its own exclusive room at Outhouse East ( Colchester’s Gay Switchboard) to ‘pre-drink’and meet some of the people who run this charity. This is a first for the Society. It will be and excellent place to start the night, before heading off for the main event: Enigma’s Halloween Hospital Horror is the theme for the night.

Bring drinks of your choice (cups will be provided)

LTB 1 | 6pm |  2nd November

Our first Society General Meeting, where your Executive Committee will be on hand to listening to any queries or concerns that you may have.

The GM will include an Election where you will have the chance to go for two available positions within the Exec.

We definitely would recommend going for a position in the Society, as you will learn so much from it and be involved in this year’s Society of the Year.

You do not need to be qualified in anything or be super experienced in it. As long as you have the energy and commitment for it, we feel that is all you need

After the GM, we will all head down to SU Bar for a Big Chill.

On 7th June 2011 the LGBT society will be holding its main event of the year in order to celebrate its 40th Anniversary.

From 7pm that evening the society has arranged for a panel of academics, alumni and current members as well as members of Colchester outhouse to talk at moot hall on the changes that have happened with regards to Gay rights specifically in Colchester and at The University of Essex.

It will look at how the univ…ersity had one of the first LGBT societies in the country, providing a safe place for the LGBT & friends community to make its mark and help to make it a safe and equal place for all regardless of their sexuality.

We will be looking at how far things have come since then, by talking about the differences between now and then and looking at some of the things the society here at Essex University has helped to achieve. Examples of this include the setting up of Colchester Outhouse and the gay switchboard, which are still in use today and do some fantastic work within our community.

After the members of the panel have had their chance to talk we will have an open floor, where the audience and guest will have a chance to ask out panel any questions they like, and this will be a general discussion around the topics of the evening.

Once questions have been answered and knowledge and experiences shared, the guests will be invited to enjoy refreshments that will be provided and chat to each other in a slightly less formal manner. During the evening the Big raffle will be drawn and the great prizes that were so kindly and generously donated will be given to those lucky winners.

This promises to be a really great event with a chance for everyone to get involved. So bring your questions and your views, we look forward to a great night from 7-9pm where everyone will be valued and able to explore the great work that has already been done. As with all the events throughout this year, the aim has been to raise money for the Colchester outhouse and help them in their mission to provide a safe place and listening ear for all the LGBT community in Colchester. We look forward to seeing you there.

UPDATE:

The University of Essex’s LGBT and Friends Society has been holding events throughout the year to celebrate its 40^th Birthday. The latest of the events was the panel event held in Colchester Town Hall, ’40 Years Of Queer In Colchester’. The event was a huge success with over 50 people joining the panel in Moot Hall for a discussion followed by refreshments and the draw of the big raffle, which sold around 400 tickets to raise money for the local charity Colchester Outhouse.

The panel was made up of six people. The first was Alice Wilson, a current member of the society and LGBT Officer, she talked about her experiences and her role in the society today. Next on the panel was John Grice, who has lived through the past 40 years as an openly happy gay man who gave an invaluable insight into how life has changed over the last four decades. Then there was Julian Smith, an original member of the society from the 1970’s, offering information and stories about the society back in its early days. Robert Wayman was the chair, and as president of the society, he played the biggest role in organizing and hosting all the year’s events as well as offering his own insight to the discussion. Next was Dan Bunker, who came down from Colchester outhouse to talk to the audience and panel about the outhouse and switchboard and the work they have done and continue to do in the community. Finally was Freyja Cope, an LGBT member as well as the societies frontrunner, she talked about the research that had been done and a little about her own experiences as well as outlining a brief history of the society.

The audience participated in the discussion, raising topics such as what the ‘most important issue’  is now in regards to what needs to be done to progress further to win full equality for the LGBT community, throwing out answers such as equality in adoption and the need for much more support of the Trans community. Other topics covered included life in the community now and then, name changes and education in regards to homophobia and bullying.

Following this discussion the panel joined the audience and the discussions carried on over wine and nibbles as everyone had a chance to talk. This discussion carried on well past the planned ending of nine o’clock, demonstrating just how successful the evening really was!

THANK YOU ALL FOR COMING!!!!

Adult Go bananas Party for 20 People (Worth £190) – Colchester’s biggest indoor play area with evening adult parties www.go-bananas.co.uk

We would like to say a MASSIVE Thank You to all those who provded prizes

Mansion Students, Go Bananas, Alive Hair Salon, University of Essex, Beach Break Live, University of Essex Students’ Union

♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒♒
♒▲▼Queer – be wh♂ you want t♀ be▼▲Disco Mash-Up ♒
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The LGBT Society will be holding its second General Meeting. These are for the members, you guys, to hold the Executive Committee account for what we have been doing up until that point.

The agenda will be sent to you next weekend, but the most important elements will be reports from the Exec, constitutional amendments and elections.

Any full-member of the Society can propose an amendment to the Society’s Constitution. If you want… to submit an amendment, please read the constitution (found here: http://essexlgbt.co.uk/about-2/the-constitution) first. Once written, you must submit an amendment to David Giles (dgiles@essex.ac.uk). You will be asked to give a short speech at the General Meeting outlining your proposal, and you must be able to answer questions before it is put to a vote.

SOCIETY ELECTIONS:

Media Officer

NUS CONFERENCE ELECTIONS:

Open Place x2
Women’s Place
BME Place
Trans Place

To nominate yourself to be considered in either of the elections, you must be a full member of the Society, and a fully registered student at the University of Essex.

You must submit your nomination to David Giles via email.

To close the meeting we will have the ‘Over to You’ section. A sort of ‘show and tell’ where a member gets the chance to talk about something close to them.

TBA

Any questions? Email president@essexlgbt.co.uk

We hope to see all our members there!

Student Pride 2011 in BRIGHTON – The event of the year….

This event is the Highlight of the LGBT calendar
…
The final details of student pride haven’t been released, but what it involves is a whole day of debates, talks, music, stalls and free stuff and then a pub crawl and then a night club.
…Last year over 1000 students attended, see here to see what happened http://www.studentpride.co.uk/

We have been working hard to get you the best deals and cheapest price so as many people can attend as possible.
We will be staying in a hostel in dormitories. So there is space for 24 people to attend in a package holiday format, with trips to the pier and shopping. You don’t have to follow the program but we hope that you will and we can stay as one group.

The Basic details are below. A more detailed program will follow nearer the event

—————-
BARGAIN Cost
—————-
LGBT Society Members £110
This event is open to members only due to reduced capacity and funding from the society.
———–
Includes
———–
Return Travel – Leaving 11am on Friday and returning for 5pm on Sunday.

Accommodation for 2 nights in hostel, a single bed each in shared mixed dormitories.

Continental breakfast both mornings

Entrance into the pre party club on Friday Night
Entrance into the day and evening of Student Pride

A three-course meal at Breeze Bar and Restaurant

Takeaway on saturday night

Essex LGBT Student Pride T-shirt
It will be an action packed weeked with endless fun times, all icluded in the prie.

And many more surprises…

———————
Booking a Place
———————-
The Important Bit…..

Places are on first come first serve including committee members.

To book a place email events@essexlgbt.co.uk including your
Name:
Contact:
Emergency Contact name and number:
T-shirt Size:

Once you have booked, you will recieve a more detailed summary of the package and events.