GOGSoc Episode V: The GOG Strikes Back

On the subject on donations, I keep getting emails asking me if I want to call up alumni to have a chat about their time at university and ask them for money. I have always wondered how successful anything like this since my default setting on receiving these calls is to hang up as quickly as possible.

Anyone got any tips for making transcription more fun?

My Oxford college did one of those telephone thingies where they do what you've said above. I think it was reasonably successful - at least, more successful than I was expecting. A friend of mine did volunteered to be one of the people telephoning and he enjoyed his two weeks

Top tip for making transcription fun: whistle while you work/sing a happy little working song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXgMFNaQUUU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb2si7fClqA

Also remember that in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun aaaaaaaaaaaaand SNAP! The job's a game!

(I know, I'm so helpful, aren't I? )

My Oxford college did one of those telephone thingies where they do what you've said above. I think it was reasonably successful - at least, more successful than I was expecting. A friend of mine did volunteered to be one of the people telephoning and he enjoyed his two weeks

Top tip for making transcription fun: whistle while you work/sing a happy little working song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXgMFNaQUUU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb2si7fClqA

Also remember that in every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun aaaaaaaaaaaaand SNAP! The job's a game!

(I know, I'm so helpful, aren't I? )

Hahaha thats brilliant.

My previous plan was to have a skittle after every 30 seconds of interview transcribed, but failed miserably when I got hungry and ate the whole bag anyway. Similar ideas with chocolate have also failed. Have no self restraint evidently

And I just tried to give you a thumbs up, but it won't let me.

The top 20 (top meaning a combination of RG/largest) universities probably raise of the order of £500k each year from what is usually called the Annual Fund, which is all the direct mail and telephone campaigns. £250k+ wouldn't be unusual for UCL, ICL, Warwick, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh etc from the telephone calling campaign. Oxford and Cambridge are in a different league because of the split between university and college fund raising, so most average figures omit Oxbridge as a matter of routine.

Alumni are usually sent a letter/postcard first, warning them the campaign is about to start and they will probably be called. Then the student calling them is often from the same faculty/subject area as the alum. And again, it's not just about the money, it's about giving the alum the opportunity, if they want to ask questions about the department, course, sports team etc.

It's a pretty decent deal for students, good CV material for all those persuasive, negotiating, presenting, client facing skills, pay is usually £7-10 per hour, hours are usually as many as you choose to fit in, with bonuses for most pledges per night, week etc and you'll get to learn a heck of a lot more about university funding!

I applied to be one of the callers for my college alumni telephone campaign, but they didn't select me after the interview. I really really hate calling people. I especially hate calling to promote things/ask for things. However I was desperate for money at the time. To be honest I felt a bit relieved when they didn't select me.

I'm not sure who you're talking about in the thread who proves otherwise, because as I largely inhabit the Oxbridge forums I'm fairly familiar with most of the Oxbridge names here and can't think of any user who would prove your point! Equally, I have a fairly significant sample size beyond this forum that would back up my point of view (as I obviously know a lot of Cambridge graduates) so I don't think it's just me. They receive higher donations not because of the social background of the students, but of the social opportunities that an Oxbridge degree affords. Yes, many Oxbridge grads go on to high paying jobs, but that doesn't mean that they started off richer than others. I don't think it's fair to suggest that going to a fee paying school has anything to do with it whatsoever - by the time you get to the age where you're likely to make a substantial donation you are well beyond your secondary education background. I agree that you can't make a donation unless you have the spare money, but I disagree that the motivation to donate comes from having a privileged background. I think it's also interesting to look at the pattern of donations to the university - most of them go to the colleges, with very few going to support the departments (where they could actually be more useful!). The does suggest that it has something to do with the relative enjoyment of the students while at Cambridge rather than just their socio-economic backgrounds. [...]

Craghyrax's final comment on the last page is indicative of what I am suggesting about exclusivity - '[a]lso tutorials and colleges at Oxbridge are completely different to those elsewhere, and to make a comparison is just ignorant'. She only has experience with Cambridge so she should not be talking about 'Oxbridge' (consider why she lumps the two together). She has no clue about what it is like at Durham or Lancaster (consider why she derides their college systems without any experience of them). And she suggests that an academic who spent their entire university life at Oxford, and gave tutorials, and then moved to Bristol stopped giving tutorials for the simple reason they were given at Bristol (consider why she suggests something so stupid). It is sheer prejudice.

However tutorials and supervisions at Oxford and Cambridge do work entirely differently to supervisions at other Universities And the difference I'm talking about is not quality as you seem to be assuming. It is what is being asked for, and what tasks are being accomplished among other things.

Without being antagonistic, you don't have personal experience of other universities at undergraduate level to 100% know that tutorials are as different as you claim they are to that of the Oxford/Cambridge system.

/just saying

What were you doing away from your fiords?

Why did you not tell me???? You could have come in for coffee or something.

Sadface.

I don't know if it is. The flight is ryanair so there isn't any option for amending it. We'd just lose the money we paid. I was hoping to maybe get a train on arrival from Oslo to somewhere else. Stay somewhere else for teh night and then go onto Bergen by train the next day, but so far it looks like southern Norway is quite boring. Ergh.

Which should allow published material, yea?

Yes- we even allow theses which are a series of papers bound together, with a general introduction and conclusions section

Having money influences the motivation to donate.

Hmmm... this may be a supremely dumb question, but...
One of the documents (chapter from a book) that I downloaded (I think I downloaded this one off the MIT Open Courseware site) says at the front that according to the copyright law of the US it may only be used for instructional purposes (their bold!). I presume this is to stop people selling it or something - I mean, if I use it and cite it in a bibliography I wouldn't be breaching copyright... or would I?

That's still relatively uncommon, though, no?

That's still relatively uncommon, though, no?

Hmmm... this may be a supremely dumb question, but...
One of the documents (chapter from a book) that I downloaded (I think I downloaded this one off the MIT Open Courseware site) says at the front that according to the copyright law of the US it may only be used for instructional purposes (their bold!). I presume this is to stop people selling it or something - I mean, if I use it and cite it in a bibliography I wouldn't be breaching copyright... or would I?