Hi Amnestiers!

Hope you have all had a good start to your week.

This week’s meeting

This week’s meeting is on Tuesday (tomorrow!), at 5pm in QUDOS in the QMU. We’ll be talking about the Arms Trade and taking a couple of actions, as well as continuing to prepare and plan the Secret Policeman’s Ball.

Coming up

- THE SECRET POLICEMAN’S BALL 2012, Saturday 4th February, 7:30pm, £5: Our annual night of comedy is two and a half weeks away! The 5000 fliers (!) have arrived so the big job in the run-up to the event is to get rid of them! I’ll distribute them among you at tomorrow’s meeting. Here’s the event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/195138300581324/
Tickets are also available here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/150821
And you can also buy them at the QMU box office!

- Cake stall this Friday: We’re running a cake stall on Friday to drum up some publicity for the Ball. We’ll sort out a rota at the meeting tomorrow.

Ticket info: If you have a bunch of friends you want to sell tickets to you can grab some tomorrow. If you took some away last week and have money please bring it tomorrow or next week- thanks! We really rely on the enthusiasm of members to guarantee the success of the event, so keep plugging it to everyone you know!

See you tomorrow!

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/

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)

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

Thanks to everyone who came along to our first meeting, hope to see you next week and beyond!

Afterwards (~6 PM), we will be heading to the Common Rooms on Byres Road for our first introductory social, so if you can’t make the meeting, please come along for that!

We hope this year is going to be as fun (or more!) as last, with many events actions and petitions (like the photo petition for solidarity with the Egyptian protests, below):

Ceilidh

Amnesty-STAR-Red Cross Ceilidh, Sunday 6th March, 7.30pm, £5, Qudos, QMU

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=129472320455227

Dear (recipient name)

I am writing as a supporter of Amnesty International in your constituency to ask you to confirm your support for human rights.

I appreciate that you will receive correspondence from many organisations and individuals on a whole range of issues over the course of the Scottish Parliamentary elections, but I hope you will consider supporting Amnesty International’s campaign pledge ‘Scotland Stands for Human Rights’. Human rights are what every human being needs to live a healthy and fulfilled life and to participate fully in society. Everyone in Scotland is protected by the commitment to human rights written into the Scotland Act, which is binding on the Scottish Government and Parliament. This underpins Scotland’s standing as a compassionate, inclusive society. A number of human rights issues fall within the devolved responsibilities of the Scottish Parliament, and new MSPs will need to consider these after the election.

The leaders of all the mainstream political parties have already taken the pledge, along with a number of candidates. Their photographs are posted online at amnesty.org.uk/scotland, where you can also find supporting material from Amnesty International.

If you haven’t already taken the pledge, doing so is simple. Show your support by having your picture taken with Amnesty International’s campaign poster, with the message ‘Scotland Stands for Human Rights’. Copies of the poster are being posted to every candidate, along with an introduction to some of the human rights issues new MSPs will need to consider. Then simply email your photograph, along with your name and constituency to scotland@amnesty.org.uk

Many thanks for your attention in this matter. I look forward to your reply.

Yours Sincerely,

–

Hopefully we can get plenty of support for this campaign!

STAR-Amnesty National sleepout week is here and we’re taking to the street to stand up for destitute refugees and asylum seekers nationwide.

Tuesday 22nd February: Double Meeting. Amnesty and STAR are doubling up for a 2 hour meeting from 5pm-7pm in committee room 1 of the QMU ausual. The first hour shall be spent making banners and organising the photo action for Friday night. Then at 6pm we have Gary Cristie, the policy and research manager at the Scottish Refugee Council, joining us to talk about the causes of destitution for asylum seekers, and what we can do about it.

Friday 25th February: The Sleepout! 8pm, Wellington Church steps, University avenue. Speakers, entertainment and free food. Most importantly a vital opportunity to raise awareness on the situation of destituiton of asylum seekers.

Event details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=202065543141659

Sponsor us at justgiving.com/starsleepout

See our old sleep out photos!