The Suss-Ex Club for University of Sussex former staff NEWSLETTER NO. 3 November 2006 Welcome to the newsletter of the Suss-Ex Club (the association of former staff). To those receiving this for the first time: the Club is open to all former staff of the University, whether they left before retirement or have retired, and whether their posts were academic, manual, technical or clerical. For more information about the Club, see our web site at http://www.maths.sussex.ac.uk/Suss-Ex/ (also reachable by putting 'Suss-Ex' on Search on the university web site). Please check with former colleagues with whom you are still in touch that they are on the circulation list for this newsletter. If they are not, but would like to be, please ask them to contact the Development & Alumni Relations Office by post (Bramber House, Falmer BN1 9QU) or e mail (maxinepeelyates@sussex.ac.uk) which will be happy to add their names and addresses (postal and email) to the list. You can also find a form for doing this on the web site mentioned above. Christmas Party We're pleased to announce that the Suss-Ex Club will be holding a Christmas Party for the first time, open to all ex-staff and their partners. (This includes those who have previously been invited to the USPAS Christmas Party.) The party will be held on Thursday 14th December, from 6-9.30 pm in the Meeting House Quiet Room. There will be good company, food and drink, and music for carols upstairs. Un fortunately numbers have to be limited to what the room will officially hold, so we cannot promise that there will be room for everyone who wants to come. Tickets, therefore, have to be issued, and will be available on a 'first come, first served' basis; please apply promptly to ensure your ticket! We are charged for the use of the room etc., so in the absence of any club funds yet we have to charge for tickets. To keep costs as low as possible, and in the spirit of a members' association, we are asking members also to bring a contribution to the buffet. Please see below for an application form and more details. Other forthcoming activities A number of activities are in the pipeline, listed below, but details will be confirmed later. If you have additional suggestions, please do put them forward - especially if you have useful contacts or are prepared to play a part in organising them. Ideas and expressions of interest are always welcome, and very helpful to the Steering Group in planning activities members will enjoy. Theatre visits Larry Lerner reports on our first visit: Fourteen ex-Sussex faculty and their spouses gathered to see Alan Bennett's 'Habeas Corpus' at the Theatre Royal on 21st September, meeting for dinner beforehand. Some, no doubt, came mainly for the play, others mainly for the company. I doubt if any came mainly for the meal, and if they did they were ill-advised, since service was slow - rather disquieting when the curtain is about to rise next door. The company was of course delightful: everyone found a mixture of old friends and hitherto unknown faces. The play was a surprise to those who expected the Alan Bennett of 'Talking Heads' and 'The Madness of George III'. It was an early work, still filled with the zany humour of Beyond the Fringe, vaguely located in a doctor's consulting room inhabited by the doctor's sexually frustrated wife, a strikingly intelligent cleaning woman who acted as chorus, the President of the British Medical Association (who lost no opportunity of announcing that's who he was, and who along with sundry other respectable gents in smart suits occasionally forgot to put his trousers on), and a host of other inhabitants of a luridly improbable plot, including someone who dropped by in order to hang himself very visibly on stage (but who of course survived to take his bow with the others). The Alan Bennett of a previous epoch, which was no doubt appropriate for a bunch of academics from what is now a previous epoch. Jennifer Platt adds: I confess that I was a little nervous about how successful my choice of a play for our first theatre trip would be when I saw the Evening Argus description of it as 'sex comedy'! However, as it turned out they might as well have called it 'philosophical farce', and drawn attention to the innovative role of the chorus drawn from a quite different theatrical tradition. Let's hope that our next choice may be as successful. With the pantomime season coming, there are no obvious proposals for next term's visit, though there is dance ranging from 'Tap Dogs' and 'The Nutcracker' at the Theatre Royal to the Russian Cossack State Dance Company in Eastbourne. But the Theatre Royal's later programme is not out until mid-November, so the plan is to make a special circulation to see what interests people most when we have that. House of Lords dinner A dinner at the House of Lords on Monday 29th October 2007, to be followed by a talk from a distinguished speaker to be arranged, is tentatively proposed; we are grateful to member Baroness Margaret Sharp for facilitating this. The cost of the dinner would be of the order of £60+ per person (details depending on menu). We are not asking anyone to make definite commitments at this stage, but to confirm the booking we need to know if enough people would be potentially interested. We would be grateful, therefore, if you would fill in the form below to indicate whether you might be interested in attending this event, please, and send it in promptly so that the decision can be made. Informal talk Gordon Conway will speak on "Life after Sussex - Philanthropy and the Civil Service" at a date to be arranged, near the end of January. It is hoped that this will be the first of a series of such talks by members, with light refreshments provided. If you have any suggestions in connection with this, please let Bob Benewick know. (r.j.benewick@sussex.ac.uk) Other activities A country walk led by David Streeter is planned for the spring, and a trip to Chartwell or Wakehurst Place may be organised for the early summer. A trip to a London art gallery, with a guided tour of an exhibition from a University art historian, may also be a possibility. We did not have enough takers for a potential exercise class at the university this term for our age group, but if anyone else is interested please let Jennifer Platt know and we could try again. Access to computing facilities We have raised with the University the possibility of access for former staff to University computing facilities. So far we have been into the technical aspects, but want to establish whether there is a demand before taking the matter further. If you would like such access but do not have a current university role that gives it, please contact Charles Goldie (c.m.goldie@sussex.ac.uk). Sussex Lectures Details for the professorial lectures for the rest of this term can be found at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/USIS/news/diary.php?category=1. To attend any of these lectures please contact Deirdre Fisher on 01273 877707 or email events@sussex.ac.uk. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Christmas Party ticket application I would like to attend the Christmas Party on Thursday 14th December NAME: ADDRESS: Email: Telephone: Tickets will cost £7 per single person, £12 for a couple I would like ticket(s) at a total cost of £ (please print these details, enclosing payment. Cheques only please, made out to the University of Sussex.) Please return to the Development & Alumni Relations Office, University of Sussex, Bramber House, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QU. We hope that everyone may manage to bring some contribution towards the buffet, whether home-made or bought. (Some suggestions: dips, munchies, sausage rolls, cold meats, cheese, quiche, salads, mince pies, dates...) To avert the danger of everyone bringing sausage rolls, you are asked to offer your suggestion to Jennifer Platt (Arts D, j.platt@sussex.ac.uk, or evening phone 555025) by no later than Nov. 30, please, or get in touch before then to discuss possibilities, and she will attempt to negotiate where necessary to ensure a reasonably diverse and balanced spread! ------------------------------------------------------------------- THE SUSS-EX CLUB 2006-7 HOUSE OF LORDS DINNER Please indicate if you are interested in this potential dinner NAME: Other Activities: Any other suggestions? Offers of organisational help? If you know of anyone who you believe has not yet been contacted about the Suss-Ex Club and who qualifies, please ask them also to complete this form, also giving their name and address below. NAME: ADDRESS: Email: Telephone: Role/dates (approx) at University? Please return this form to the Development & Alumni Relations Office, University of Sussex, Bramber House, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QU or email maxinepeelyates@sussex.ac.uk. Maxine Peel-Yates, Legacies Development Officer Development & Alumni Relations Office University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 9QU Tel: + 44 (0)1273 876574 Email: m.peel-yates@sussex.ac.uk