Issue 19, 2013 - Balliol College - University of Oxford

development news
Ghosts, gorillas and Gaudies, as the
Development Office takes to Twitter
What do Barack Obama, Lady Gaga and
Balliol’s Development Office have in common
Easy. We’re all on Twitter, the microblogging website that
allows users to contact anyone who wants to hear from them –
140 characters at a time.
Balliol’s alumni relations office entered this
brave new world in october, joining presidents
and pop singers alike as we launched the first
of two new twitter feeds, @BalliolAlumni, as a
way of keeping in touch with many of our more
digitally inclined old Members, and of sharing
news of what they’re up to – wherever they are
in the world.
By Christmas, the account had att racted more
than 100 followers – most of them Balliol alumni
– drawn inexorably in by updates about their
contemporaries, a fuzzy feeling of nostalgia and
a steady stream of College-based titbits.
We talked about this year’s Gaudies, András
schiff and overhead kicks, while retweeting old
Members’ thoughts on the weather, unconscious
decisions and the perfect cup of tea.
there was occasional contact from outside
our alumni network too. one non-member
who got in touch was a Japanese collector of
rocks, who confessed that he had ‘borrowed’ a
particularly attractive stone from the Fellows’
Garden a couple of years
ago and once showed it
to Christopher Hitchens.
the popularity of this
dedicated alumni account
persuaded us of the need for a
central College feed, which followed
hot on its heels in november.
the purpose of @Ballioloxford is to interact
with current students, publicise events and
ensure that news about the College’s work
reaches the widest possible audience. that
audience might only be 290 strong at the
moment, but it’s growing all the time.
it’s also important to note that while twitter
is an indispensable tool in the context of modern
communication, it also has a distinctly lighter
side, so we’re not averse to sharing pictures of
the College ‘ghost’, offering news of a student
whistling Darth Vader’s theme tune, or reporting
on the inexplicable arrival of a man in a gorilla
suit, spotted in the Garden Quad one lunchtime.
If you would like to get in touch with
the Development Office on Twitter,
you can follow us @BalliolAlumni
and @BalliolOxford.
It would be lovely to hear from you.
Calendar of events up to April 2014
Friday 21 June 2013
Commemoration Ball
Saturday 22 June 2013
Summer Gaudy for the
matriculation years 1971–1974
Wednesday 26 June 2013
Master’s Seminar in Toronto
‘New Directions in Medicine
and Agriculture’
University Club of Toronto
Friday 28 June 2013
Master’s Seminar in
San Francisco
‘The Internet: Reshaping
Society, Business and the
Economy’
To be held at the offices of
Bingham McCutchen LLP
Monday 1 July 2013
Master’s Seminar in
New York
‘Einstein’s Universe: Do
Parallel Universes Exist’
To be held at the residence
of the British Consul-General
Friday 5 July 2013
Evening reception at the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
Wednesday 18 September
2013
Rhodes Scholars of Balliol –
dinner in College
Friday 27 September and
Saturday 28 September 2013
Anniversary celebration
weekend at Balliol and in
the Sheldonian Theatre
The AGM of the Balliol Society will take place in the JCR
at 9.30am on Sunday 29 September 2013
Thursday 24 October 2013
Balliol in the City reception
at Barclays, 43 Brook Street,
London W1
Saturday 2 November 2013
Service of Thanksgiving
(Choral Matins), University
Church, Oxford
Thursday 14 November 2013
Sung Evensong at
St Lawrence, Jewry,
London EC2
Thursday 21 November 2013
Usborne Dinner, Reform
Club, London
Thursday 28 November 2013
Drinks reception for under-
35s at the Barbican,
London EC2
Sunday 1 December 2013
Recital by András Schiff in
Balliol Hall
Monday 16 December 2013
Choral Evensong at Durham
Cathedral (College Choir)
Saturday 22 March 2014
Greville Smith Society Lunch
Saturday 29 March 2014
Spring Gaudy for the
matriculation years
1959–1963
Friday 11 April and
Saturday 12 April 2014
The University of Oxford’s
Biennial North American
Reunion, New York
Saturday 12 April 2014
Balliol North American
Reunion Dinner, New York
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FLoReAt DoMus BALLioL CoLLeGe neWs