The committee were treated to a change of scenery recently, as we had our weekly meeting at Walkabout, just before our social. If you’re a RAG member you’ll know that Walkabout kindly donate to the Community Fund and offer drinks discounts at the events we hold there, so the social on the 6th November was no different. It was posted on Facebook that Walkabout would donate 50p per like they received before the social started, we’re still waiting for the total to be counted, but it created a social media frenzy, which of course is my department.
The main topic that came up during the meeting was RAG week. If you’re new to uni, or don’t know much about it, RAG week is a week set aside in the year where lots of different, imaginative and sometimes weird things go on around campus. This is to raise money for the Community Fund http://www.leedsrag.org.uk/about/community-fund and raise awareness of the fantastic work our society does.
Last year, there were a whole host of events going on, ranging from the Stage Musicals Society flash mob (wearing RAG tops) to busking, to “Morocco Night “at Hukaz. There were also two main events; Take Me Out and The Auction of Promises, which will be repeated this year. If you didn’t take part in these, then you couldn’t have escaped the hype that surrounded the Library. It was arranged between RAG and the University Library that all fines that were paid during RAG week would be donated to the Community Fund. This alone amounted to over £17,000! Yes, that’s the amount collected in one week, just from us forgetting to renew or return our books! I’m not going to lie; mine have already grown to £14.00 this year, so I know where that will be going…
For this year’s RAG week we’ve decided as a committee to come up with our own idea, there were talks of beans, boxes and biking among other weird and wonderful things. I’ve had a few ideas in mind, but nothing that really has the X Factor (apologies for the overused reference!) But I think it would be a real opportunity for a society to get involved, have fun, and perhaps raise money for a number of different charities.
If your society would like to help us raise money and turn heads, then by all means get in touch! We’re on twitter @LeedsRAG or on Facebook.