Dear Clare,

We are pleased to announce the MCR 2017 general election will be held from 8th May 2017 until 11th May 2017. The new MCR committee will take office beginning of 12th May 2016.

According to our constitution, the following executive and non-executive positions are available. Please note that all executive positions have to be nominated and seconded by MCR members by the 1st May. Send your nomination to mcr-president@clare.cam.ac.uk . All Executive Committee candidates are kindly asked to submit a manifesto no later than 6th May. Contested Non-executive candidates will also need to submit manifestos. There is no requirement to fill non-executive positions.

• 1 May: Nominations Close
• 2 May: Candidates nominations confirmed
• 6 May: Manifestos Due
• 8 May: Voting begins
• 11 May: Voting closes
• 12 May: Positions officially changeover

Executives:

• President
• Vice-President
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Bar Managers
• Social Secretary

Non-executives:

• Welfare (x3)
• Accommodation Officer
• Computing Officer
• Clareity President
• Green Officer
• Mature Student Officer
• Fourth Year Officer
• Admiral of the Punts
• Exchange Officer
• Sports Officer
• Library Officer
• First Year Officer

We wish all candidates the best of luck!

Description of Roles in the MCR committee

Executive Committee Positions

President

The President is responsible for overseeing the activities of the MCR Committee, and for being the main liaison between College and its students.

The President leads the MCR Committee activities, including: overseeing college events; chairing committee meetings and open meetings; upholding the constitution; and aiding the work of committee members. The President is also expected to have a presence within the MCR community so that they can effectively relay feedback from the students of Clare to the committee and to College.

The President also works closely with the Master, Senior Tutor, Bursar, Graduate Tutors, Dean and other College staff to promote the interests of the MCR. This includes attending regular council and governing body meetings, in which the entire fellowship of Clare makes major decisions about the direction of the College. They also meet regularly with the Senior Tutor to share concerns and ideas about happenings in Clare.

The role comes with a lot of freedom on the direction of Clare MCR, and as such is likely one of the most rewarding. Focuses for this year’s President have been: aiding the St. Regis redesign and future re-housing of affected students; improving communication and resolutions about issues in student accommodation; maintaining and open and friendly environment within the MCR; preventing a formal hall price increase; overseeing the Old Court redevelopment; creating funding for student-led events; re-designing the Freshers’ Booklet.

Vice-President

The Vice President is the second-in-command of the MCR and takes over, if the President is out of the country or otherwise indisposed. He/she supports the President in their duties and shares the representational role towards college, sitting on the Governing Body. The VP also represents college on the CUSU and GU Council. As of late, the ordering of MCR stash has fallen within their responsibilities as well. Apart from that, the VP can make of the position what he or she thinks would profit the MCR and ensures the everyday running of things.

Secretary

It is the MCR secretary’s job to efficiently manage the MCR committee. The MCR secretary is responsible for organising committee meetings and general meetings, putting together agendas and taking minutes, and sending out announcements by the deadlines in the constitution.
MCR membership is managed by the Treasurer or Secretary in conjunction with the computing officer.
MCR secretary is also a publicity role, managing the MCR twitter account, Facebook page, weekly MCR bulletin and moderating the MCR mailing list. In the past there have been cases of bad publicity in newspapers and scam sites which the MCR secretary must manage along with the rest of the executive committee.
MCR secretary is an enjoyable but busy role.

Treasurer

The Treasurer is one of the executive roles, along with the MCR President and Vice President roles, and in this capacity attends College’s Finance Committee, representing the MCR Community. He/she is responsible for operating the MCR’s finances on a day to day basis, approving expenditure on MCR activities and events, in accordance with MCR Committee policy, paying for expenses incurred, for example, MCR Bar invoices and reimbursing individual Members for approved expenditure incurred. To this effect, the MCR has its own bank account independent of College, into which College transfers MCR Member’s subscription fees.

The Treasurer has oversight, along with the MCR Committee, of the financial resources of the MCR. He/she is responsible for maintaining adequate financial records, producing accounts for the year and a budget for approval by MCR Members at the Annual AGM. As per the MCR Constitution, as ‘Junior Treasurer,’ the Treasurer is responsible for reporting to the Senior Treasurer (a fellow of College, as designated by College, currently Dr Fred Parker) on the state of the MCR’s finances. The ‘Senior Treasurer’ provides an additional oversight role. Of note is that College will foot certain expenses of the MCR, particularly to do with the ‘fabric’ of the room.

As Treasurer, you enjoy a thorough understanding of the MCR’s activities and how much they cost, and you can make a significant impact on ensuring events are cost effective, i.e. that Members get the most for their money. You also enjoy a great insight into College’s finances and financial oversight activities. It’s fabulous knowing that you, along with your fellow MCR Committee Members, are at the heart of making great events and moments happen for your fellow MCR Members, ultimately enabling people to meet one another and make new friends!

Bar Managers

The Bar Managers have three main roles in the MCR: these are to ensure that the bar is correctly staffed, correctly stocked, and sufficiently tidy. The two bar managers will work together closely on these – it is very much a team effort. Additionally, the bar managers must manage the bar’s cash-on-hand as well as formal pre-drinks.

The most time-consuming part of this is managing and balancing stock between our copious amounts of beer, whiskey and spirits. On the flip-side of this obligation, the bar managers choose the various special and exotic drinks that can be bought in, and may work closely with the social secretaries to help organise themed nights.

Despite being one of the most important roles in the MCR, if managed effectively the job is not especially time-consuming. However, it is an advantage to be based relatively close to town, to allow errands to be run more easily.

Running the bar this year has been great fun, and we encourage anyone who is interested to run (or at least ask us any questions you may have). It has been exceptionally satisfying to see a busy and lively bar on Friday nights.

Social Secretary

Clare MCR has two social secs who work together to organise the majority of social events in the MCR. The main parts of the job are the planning, promoting and running Fresher’s week events and managing formals.

In addition to planning several fixed annual events (such as the Burn’s Night and the Christmas Formals) the social secs organise other themed formals which involves devising a theme, menus, decorating the MCR and Great Hall, hiring outside entertainment, as well as promoting the events. Social secs also have virtually free reign (budget permitting) to organise and plan all other social events from bops to board games nights.

This is one of the most active and important roles in the MCR but other than a termly short meeting with catering, everything can be done outside of office/lab hours so it’s possible to be social sec even if based outside of the town centre or with a busy PhD/Masters. Being social sec has been incredibly rewarding and is a great way to meet the MCR- we’d strongly recommend the role to anyone who wants to make a real difference to social life in the MCR but is less keen on attending regular meetings with College.

Non-Executive Committee Positions

Welfare (x3)

The role of the 3 Welfare officers (each respectively representing Female, Male and LGBT+ students in college) is to assure mental health and well-being of MCR students as much as possible. The duties are to generally to be present in college and be identifiable by the MCR community. You also meet once per term with the UCS and College Welfare teams. You can organise welfare events with your fellow officers around once a term (e.g. Bridgemas and the Great Clare Bake-off) as well as coordinate weekly/monthly events (e.g. yoga). Furthermore you should help out as part of the MCR committee, attend meetings and support events.

The LGBT+ Welfare officer also runs LGBT+ specific events such as intercollege meet and greet evenings, cinema nights and a trip to London Pride. The LGBT+ officer may also be asked to support or represent students with LGBT+ or gender equality related concerns.

Accommodation Officer

The accommodation officer represents the interests of all graduate students residing in Clare accommodation towards College. This entails that you take a seat around those tables where decisions are made about current and future developments and investments. The main point of concern is the future plans for St Regis which will be demolished and replaced with new apartments and rooms next year. Another ongoing point of discussion is the annual rent increase which should not exceed inflation according to the Committee’s view, but which is seen differently by particular figures within the college community. From time to time you pop into the offices of Clare’s building and accommodations managers to discuss day-to-day issues reported by students and to hear about the latest news from their side. Requirements for this job are a keen interest in buildings, people and meetings.

Computing Officer

The computing officer is an essential role in the MCR committee. Main responsibilities include: MCR website management, Clare Punts website management, database management, MCR committee email management, mailing list management and moderation, administering the MCR Google drive, website development, anything electrical.
Whilst there are a lot of different aspects that need managed, most are not overly time consuming on a weekly database. The MCR computing officer also sits on the College computing council, attending 2 meetings per term to report on issues of the MCR.
There is some technical requirement for computing officer. Ideally the computing officers knows or is willing to learn WordPress, HTML, MySQL, Javascript (AngularJS).
Computer Officer is by far the best position!

Clareity President

The Clareity President organises a graduate speaker series called “Clareity Matters Evenings” three times per term in the Michaelmas and Easter terms, and twice in the Lent term (the symposium replace the third event in Lent term). In addition to evening talks, the job includes organising the annual Clareity Research Symposium. This involves planning and organisation (IT, catering, speakers, abstract submissions, advertising, room bookings, etc).
In general, Clareity is a larger network and group of events run by Clare members for Clare members (including the Fellows’ speaker series and CRA talks, and is affiliated with the Dilettante Society). As the Clareity President, you coordinate the entire network. You are expected to liaise with the other representatives in order to advertise your events to them and forward their messages to the MCR, as well as develop opportunities for collaborations.

Green Officer

As MCR Green Officer, you are responsible for environment initiatives in the MCR. But you can also make a real difference across the whole College, thanks to your position on the Environment Committee. You get to know and work closely with Fellows, College staff, the gardens team, catering managers, the Porters, and undergraduates, as part of this team.

The Environment Committee at Clare is one of the most engaged and active green teams in the University. In 2016, Clare College won the Green Impact Gold Award for the third year in a row, and won an Excellence Award for implementing a Carbon Zero May Ball, the Environmental Improvement Award for a fundamental change to the College heating policy, and the Student Leadership Award. This year, we have again implemented a huge range of green initiatives, including an extension of an ongoing biodiversity awareness project. See the results here: www.biodivirtual.com

Mature Student Officer

Be mature (or not). Organise a mature students’ social in freshers’ week for the older students that arrive at Clare and, should there be sufficient interest amongst this group, arrange more events throughout the year. In the past these events have also included PhD students in general.

Fourth Year Officer

The Fourth Year Officer represents those MCR members who are currently in the 4th year of their undergraduate degrees. The Officer makes sure that the 4th year students have access to the MCR.

Admiral of the Punts

The Admiral of the punts looks after the College punts in collaboration with the JCR. Normal tasks include making sure the punts are in good conditions, managing online bookings and punts availability,  and dealing with other special requests (e.g. weddings, garden parties, may ball). Punts are available from April to November, meaning that the Admiral is busy only in this time of the year, while still being part of the committee for the other months. Everyone loves our punts and you will feel rewarded and satisfied by helping students and fellows enjoying punting at Clare.

Exchange Officer

The Exchange Officer is responsible for organising formal dinner exchanges (“swaps”) with other colleges. Usually there are 3 swaps per term, but during busier times, like the Michaelmas term, you can organise even up to 5 swaps. Additionally, you’re involved in planning a swap with one of our sister colleges in Oxford, which historically has been a very popular and well-attended event. It’s an amazing job that not only lets you eat in a number of college halls (usually superhalls and guest nights, which are superb!), but also make friends with people from other colleges – very useful contacts 😉 They are also a general helper for the social secs in helping them plan events for the lovely people of Clare. Probably the most fun position on the committee!

Sports Officer

As the MCR sports officer you can expect to be involved with the following:

• Organising sporting activities (eg. Tennis club and fun run club in the summer) – you have the freedom to organise whatever you want!
• Encouraging involvement in sport
• Liaising with the LCR sports rep about sports related matters (eg. Gym refurbishment, gym inductions).

This role suited for anyone with a passion for sports and physical exercise.

Library Officer

The Library Officer attends three library committee meetings per year (one each term). They are responsible for liaising with the librarians on behalf of the MCR, and for addressing any library-related concerns MCR members may have. There is scope for other projects, whether recommending book purchases, or organising visits to the Fellows’ Library etc. This is also a good ‘general committee’ position that provides the opportunity to help out with the running of the MCR more broadly.

First Year Officer

The first year officer deals with any queries from first year postgraduate students and provides support with any college related issues.