Present: Crystal, Andrew, Claire, Rhona, Sara, Isabel, Stanley, JC and Joanne
1, We have been asked to put on an event at Bang Goes the Borders on the 23rd of September in Melrose: https://www.facebook.com/BangGoesTheBorders/. Glasgow University’s WCMP is interested in teaming up for a parasitology themed #UnsungHeroines and we will try to get the virologists to team up for a virology activity too. We will work out activities around Muriel Robertson (worm dissection?) and To Youyou (Chlorophyll extraction) for parasitology and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi for virology.
2, Explorathon – We considered putting on an event, but decided against it since we will be doing Bang Goes the Borders in September.
3, Our self-imposed remit has been “hard to reach audiences” since November. We have met with the elderly and a deprived community. We discussed whether we want to continue with this remit or whether we should expand? It was generally thought that we should continue to seek out people that don’t normally engage with science festivals etc, while accepting requests for help at science festivals and the science centre. Andrew is back from his trip to the USA and has been looking into refugee groups in Glasgow. He will contact Maryhill Integration Network to see whether we can come and talk to their members.
4, Our postcards are printed and look brilliant, so now we just need events to take our #UnsungHeroines to! We discussed activities we could do alongside the posters and postcards and decided to have another activity workshop on the 22nd of July to test out some new activities around our heroines. We also discussed improvements to the VelcroMicrobiome (adding more compartments for the bacteria to infect) and Molecular Mimicry (adapt for vaccines). JC mentioned that he would like to revive his fruit FACS activity, but has storage issues for the equipment.
5, We have spent quite a lot of money recently out of our SG budget. It would be great to look for some grants to apply for so we can fund our future activities. Everyone will look out for public engagement grants we can apply for.