Summer School 2013
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Summer School 2012 is now a happy memory, and it’s already time to start thinking about Summer School 2013. So, I’d like to hear members’ views on where and when to hold it.
First up, which venue should we book with? Harborne Hall (bar, shared bathrooms, more expensive) or Fircroft (alcohol ban, mostly en-suite rooms)?
Are there any weekends we should aim for, or avoid because of other events? We never have a choice of many dates, though, as the venues get booked up quickly.
As for a theme for the talks, I’ve got something in mind already (which I’m surprised hasn’t been done before), but I’m open to suggestions.
Mike Foster wrote:First up, which venue should we book with? Harborne Hall (bar, shared bathrooms, more expensive) or Fircroft (alcohol ban, mostly en-suite rooms)?Any possibility of a third option combining the best of both Fircroft and Harborne, Mike? That is, bar, en-suite rooms and good breakfasts to boot.
Hi Mike, At summer school in July I mentioned to you that I would like to see a weekend devoted to the issues surrounding human sexuality and relationships in an insane society and what might be prefigured in our imaginations about how human intimacy might work in a sane society. I would also really appreciate a talk about societal attitudes towards same sex attraction both historically and currently through the prism of a purely socialist perspective. I think this would be a great idea for summer school…I mean we all have/or have had sex right? Cheers Ray
gnome wrote:Any possibility of a third option combining the best of both Fircroft and Harborne, Mike? That is, bar, en-suite rooms and good breakfasts to boot.I’ll second Gnome’s ‘third option’.Any local news on the security guy/bar tender/dogsbody, Mike?
En suite rooms are a must I think. Second, distance from train station for non-drivers – Fircroft is 16 mins walk, Harborne 35 mins walk though obviously anywhere else could fit these criteria. I think availability of alcohol in the venue (rather than a nearby pub) shouldn’t determine choice of venue at all. How about a venue of an educational establishment?
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I’ll look into other venues. There’s possibly Newman College, too, where we held a Summer School ten or so years ago. I’m not sure how many boxes it ticks, though, as it’s less straightforward to get to.I haven’t heard any more about the bloke at Harborne Hall, but I’ll try to find out.I hadn’t forgotten your great suggestion, Ray, and what I had in mind was closer to your ‘relationships’ idea. Perhaps ‘sexuality’ isn’t a broad enough theme to stretch to five talks, but ‘relationships’ is. Then, there would still be room for a talk about same-sex relationships, which I think should be included. Thanks for the idea!
Whilst not dismissing the above suggestions, five talks on relationships and sexuality? Really?Given the size of our Party and the challenges faced, wouldn’t a summer school be better spent working out real-world practical solutions to a) building the party and b) getting the whole socialist message out there?
Could we be ambitious enough to run talks in parallel (at least one at any one time would be audio recorded of course for the indecisive among us)? Squeezing ten talks into a weekend?
It could help diversify subjects beyond a theme (which I think any theme narrows things down too much) and potentially touch more targets that might interest people. There’s enough people attending any one particular talk to split into two concurrently from my experience of previous schools.jondwhite wrote:Could we be ambitious enough to run talks in parallel (at least one at any one time would be audio recorded of course for the indecisive among us)? Squeezing ten talks into a weekend?I can see a potential problem here — what if all attendees decide they all want to hear the same talk…?
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