Newsletter March 2024

OCCG

First, slightly belated Happy New Year to all Oxford & Cambridge Club of Geneva Members and best wishes for your endeavours during the year ahead.  Hopefully 2024 will make more sense than 2023 managed to do for many.

This said, for OCCG 2023 was probably the busiest on record.  TwentyTwo events, almost 500 attendees and a stable membership of circa 200 alumni.  It is pleasing to see that we have a regular flow of new younger members joining the Club, so it seems that our ‘marketing’ efforts are bearing some fruit.

Of the 200 or so members, about 50% pay annual subscriptions with the balance being Life & Honorary Members.  For those of you who pay annually, please take a moment to update your membership, either by credit card or bank QR code/transfer.  Your subscription helps us to fund the Club infrastructure and to try out new event ideas.

In this regard David Lewis has kindly arranged a hosted attendance at the GEDS premier of Charlie’s Aunt on Tuesday 19^th March.  We will be briefed by John Ward, the GAOS chairman while enjoying apero prior to the performance, followed by a chance to meet the cast afterwards.  See the OCCG website for details.

If you would like to host a Club event or have any ideas for something ‘different’, do please get in touch.

This year sees the 75^th anniversary of the Club, so we will be arranging a suitable event to mark the occasion.  Planning is underway for September, details follow.

The OCCG What’sapp group is now over 100 strong and is a useful source of information for Alumni events and activities over and above the published schedule.  For example, members were recently invited to attend a very successful Oxbridge MeetUp at the World Economic Forum held in Davos.  Contact Christian Mannoni if you would like to join the Whatsapp group (you need to be a current OCCG member to qualify).

After 9 months of operation, our new Wild Apricot Club administration system has settled down and is providing an additional dimension to the services that we can offer members.  For the Committee, keeping track of events and membership is much easier and hopefully you will have learned how to use your personal Profile to best effect.

With the core platform in place there continues to be more we can do to leverage its features, particularly being more visible in social media.  Once again let me know if there are things that you would like to see.

The AGM 2024 is scheduled for Thursday 11^th April 18h at the SNG where we share the AGM proceedings with a viewing of the boat races (ably commentated by Ian Gordon) and what is usually an excellent dinner and of course good company.  We are grateful to a number of members who have offered themselves as new  Committee members and we look forward to introducing them to you in April.

A reminder that Covid is still with us, so please be mindful of the more vulnerable members of our club.  If you feel unwell, please do not attend an event.

Thank you to those of you who have made the past year an enjoyable opportunity to meet and socialise and I look forward to meeting you (again) soon.

Don Birch

President

Our thanks once again to Isobel Shaw for leading the annual snow walk in the Jura.  Amazingly, after a season of almost no snow, the snow gods delivered and the walk was held in perfect conditions.  Be sure to make a note to join us next year.

Our grateful thanks to Professor Martin Millett for making a special effort to visit Geneva and deliver a very clear and informative dinner presentation detailing recent advances in archeology.  

Much enjoyed by all

Thank you also to Club Nautique Versoix for providing a great evening meal and ambiance.

Autumn Newsletter

With summer (almost) behind us, we turn to events for the remainder of the year.  The new club management system is proving to be invaluable in managing the large number of events we now have scheduled over the course of the year

The new system is much more dynamic in updating the schedule of events, so I recommend that you occasionally browser www.oxbridgegeneva.org to keep yourself informed of changes.  This is of course in addition to the regular email reminders.

If you have a moment, be sure to sign-in and complete your profile in the new Club system and update your details including positively agreeing to the Club’s GDPR policy which can be found here.  This system makes it so much easier to register, pay and cancel for events and makes life enormously simpler for event organisers.

Friday 1^st September 2023 saw something of a milestone with over 60 members and their guests attending the End of Summer beach party at the UN beach, Geneva.  This is certainly the largest turnout for a Club event that we have had for some time and reinforces the popularity of causal drinks events.

With the change in weather, casual drinks will now move indoors with a social drinks scheduled for Thursday 9th November and the regular Tea4Two 1st October and 3^rd December.  The October event will be cocoa based in honour of World Cocoa day.

A speaker dinner, the annual Chase dinner and the popular Christmas meal are all also in the works, with details circulated as soon as finalised.

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS

Committee members

Interview practise for local Oxbridge applicants

Mentors

Recommendations for Speakers

Our busy schedule of events is currently organised by just a handful of hardworking members, so more help would be much appreciated.

Angus Mcdonald has kindly agreed to hold an Oxbridge ‘interview’ course by Zoom on 6th November, designed to enable Members help aspiring local student with their entrance interview technique

A number of younger members have asked whether they could engage a mentor from among our community.  Please contact me if you believe you can help.  A typical mentor programme lasts 6 months with a monthly conversation in person/zoom and is enormously beneficial for both parties.

As we enter the flu and possibly a Covid season, please be aware of those around you and do not attend events if you feel unwell.  This advice will be updated as events unfold

As ever ideas and suggestions are most welcome, especially offers of local speakers.

Dear Philip, It gives me great pleasure to introduce myself as the University of Cambridge’s new Vice-Chancellor. I’m excited to be starting in this new role at a critical time.   I’m a psychologist with an interest in social norms. I have spent most of my academic career at Princeton, including the last few years as Provost, with responsibility for all academic, planning and budgetary matters. There is some more information about me in my bio.   I am very grateful for the warm Cambridge welcome I have received. After only a few weeks here, I already feel at home. Above all, I have enjoyed meeting alumni and supporters both in the UK and as far afield as New York and Hong Kong. You are some of the people that make Cambridge so special.   In the months ahead, I look forward to meeting many more alumni, and to working together to make sure that Cambridge continues to be a global leader in education and research.   With best wishes,   Debbie   Professor Deborah Prentice Vice-Chancellor   It gives me great pleasure to introduce myself as the University of Cambridge’s new Vice-Chancellor. I’m excited to be starting in this new role at a critical time.   I’m a psychologist with an interest in social norms. I have spent most of my academic career at Princeton, including the last few years as Provost, with responsibility for all academic, planning and budgetary matters. There is some more information about me in my bio.   I am very grateful for the warm Cambridge welcome I have received. After only a few weeks here, I already feel at home. Above all, I have enjoyed meeting alumni and supporters both in the UK and as far afield as New York and Hong Kong. You are some of the people that make Cambridge so special.   In the months ahead, I look forward to meeting many more alumni, and to working together to make sure that Cambridge continues to be a global leader in education and research.   With best wishes,   Debbie   Professor Deborah Prentice Vice-Chancellor

THE CHOIR OF SELWYN COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, UK Sarah MacDonald, conductor Adam Field, organist Summer concerts 2023 A STAR TO STEER HER BY morning and evening on the water (1).pdf

The Oxford Alumni office has very kindly sponsored an upgrade to the Club's Membership management system.

Beginning 27th May 2023 members will receive a request to reset their password and to verify their Profile details.

In October we will be calling for volunteers to work with local Oxbridge applicants to polish their interview skills.

The main benefit is to give students exposure to different view points to improve their interview communication skills.

Angus Mcdonald will provide a briefing for those volunteering who would like to update their understanding of the selection process.

Commencing in late May 2023, the Club will further update the membership system to improve both administration of the Club but also communication in general.  The revised system will enable online payments by credit card and bank QR BVR and will support online registration and payment for those attending Club events.

With the new system, membership dues will be collected commencing 1st January each year for those members choosing to pay annually.  Alternatively a Life Membership of CHF250 is available for those who prefer to dispense with annual payments.