Thursday 20th January 2011, 8pm (quiz starts at 8.30pm)
The Newbridge,
Tettenhall Rd,
Wolverhampton

As always, all are welcome.

nb. Yes, these posts such posts should be written much earlier and the blog was meant to cover more than the next pub quiz, but it’s amazing how time gets away from you!

Thursday 16th December, 8pm (quiz starts at 8.30pm)
The Newbridge,
Tettenhall Rd,
Wolverhampton

As always, we don’t care whether you are an OU student based in Wolverhampton, or come from further afield, it’s just about having fun in a pub quiz and chatting about all things to do with being an OU student.

Admittedly two pints doesn’t go too far these days, and Wolverhampton can’t claim all the glory as we were joined by students from the wider West Midlands area. But a success nonetheless, and it’s always good to see new faces.

We’re not a group to rest on our laurels, and will be returning to the Newbridge pub this week hoping to claim the first prize!

Thursday 18th November, 8pm (quiz starts at 8.30pm)
The Newbridge,
Tettenhall Rd,
Wolverhampton

As always we welcome any OU students along to our meetings, there’s no need to be based in Wolverhampton. So if you’re free on Thursday, and know which films have won the Academy Award for Best Picture and have animals in the title, then please feel free to join us.

Thursday 21st October, 8pm (quiz starts at 8.30pm)
The Newbridge,
Tettenhall Rd,
Wolverhampton

After entering the quiz for the last few weeks I can confirm that The Newbridge provides a good solid general knowledge quiz: ten rounds of ten questions – nine general knowledge and one picture round. There are prizes for the first three places, and last time the winning scores weren’t that high [out of one hundred: 1st-67.5, 2nd-67, 3rd-58], so I’d expect a well-rounded OUSA team to have a good chance of winning somthing…especially if we can encourage someone to join us who has any idea about popular music and culture!

Some of the questions that appeared in the quiz (and that I got wrong) last week:

• Which girl group had a hit with “No,No, No”?
• Which year did Sigmund Freud die?[Give or take one year]
• What is the capital of Ecuador?
• Which Hollywood actor, who just turned 90, said “Always get married early in the morning. That way, if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t wasted a whole day”?
• When was the death penalty finally abolished for all offences in the UK?
• When did the London Underground first open? [Give or take five years]
• Which Queen of England married her brother-in-law?

If you know the answers to any of these questions then we really need your help…and if not, don’t worry, neither did I. Most of the questions were easier than these, and it’s the taking part that counts anyway!

Wolverhampton Art Gallery Cafe,
Saturday 25th September, 10.30am

We will, however, be trying another pub quiz in October. The time and venue are yet to be confirmed, but on trying the new Newbridge pub quiz last Thursday my girlfriend and I came a respectable third – so I’d think a larger OU group would definitely have a chance of winning!

This month we will be trying our luck in the quiz at The Westacres:
Wednesday 18th August, 2010
The Westacres,
Finchfield Hill,
Wolverhampton
[Google Maps].

The quiz starts at 9pm, and we’ll be there from 8.30pm if you want to join us for what will hopefully be a far more successful evening.

It may not be University Challenge, but there again you can’t win beer on University Challenge.

Photo by Suburbanslice

It’s a good general knowledge quiz and free to enter, so come along and join us – especially if you keep up with popular culture. As with all Wolverhampton OUSA branch events, we’re happy to welcome people outside the area, or who are just interested in learning more about the Open University.

The quiz starts at 8pm, but we’ll be there from 7.30pm!

NB. Don’t worry, I’ve phoned up and checked, the quiz is still on during the World Cup, but if you really want to watch France v. Mexico there is a TV.

The elephant in the room at Conference 2010 was OUSA Futures – the proposal to radically restructure the way OUSA is formed and works. After two years of planning and consultation, the motions to bring these ideas into action were put to the vote.

The crucial motion went under the innocent name of 15M(PO). This aimed to authorise the Executive Committee to formulate a brand new constitution that would fundamentally change the organisation of OUSA.

There was no audible sigh of relief when the flutter of voting cards showed that the motion had carried overwhelmingly but it was noticeable that many of the Association’s officers relaxed in their chairs.

The easiest thing to say about most of the rest of the motions is that they are designed to provide most of the ‘meat’ that will go intot the new constitution. Of course, much of this is concerned with the legal niceties of running an organisation like OUSA but your correspondent can highlight some of the ways in which each member of OUSA may be affected if the shiny new, expertly-written constitution is adopted by Conference in 2011:

• At the top end, Conference will be thinned out and will only meet every two years.
• There will still be an Executive to run OUSA at the top and Regional Assemblies to run things locally. However, in future, every member will have the opportunity to elect the members of these boards. Elections will be held on the basis of one member one vote.
• Within the regions, the existing structure of geographical branches, which have to have at least a Chair and a Secretary to run them will be swept away. Students will be free to form whatever groups they want without being restricted by boundaries or the need to have a formal committee structure. If any set of students want to set up a Mercian Albino Gerbil Appreciation Society within OUSA, then they should be free to do so with the assistance of the Regional Assembly.

So there is a brave new world approaching. OUSA is moving into the 21st century and taking on a form that will enable it to continue representing the student voice to all levels of the OU whilst allowing students at a local or national level to provide themselves with the sort of groups and networks that suit the way in which they want to organise themselves.

If there any questions on Conference (with the exception of anything related to the Abba tribute band that provided the Saturday night ‘entertainment’!) or the local organisation of OUSA in the West Midlands, please feel free to ask.

If you want to discuss the changes in the OUSA consitution, or anything else about life as an OU student, then come along and join us for a coffee in the Wolverhampton Gallery cafe this Saturday (22nd May) at 10.30am.

After drinking more tea than you can shake a stick at at last month’s meeting in the gallery, tomorrow sees a welcome return to the Combermere Arms:

8pm – Wednesday 21st April, Combermere Arms, Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton. [Google Maps].

As always it’s an opportunity for OU students to get together, have a beer (or two), and discuss the highs and lows of distance learning and life in the OU.

Also, at month’s event, Steve Johns will be reporting back from the OU conference. After years of arguing over commas and semi-colons, this year’s event was set to be dominated by OUSA futures, a consultation on the future and structure of OUSA.  Hopefully Steve’s thoughts on the outcomes will eventually find themselves online in the form of a blog post in the near future.

We’re also trying to gauge interet in creating an OUSA pub quiz team. What’s the point in all that learning unless you put it to some practical use such as winning beer? Therefore, in the name of research, I forced myself to go to the Newbridge pub a couple of Thursdays ago, and try their quiz. I’m happy to report that it’s a good quiz, and one that I would happily enter again. Unfortunately I ended up just outside the prizes in fourth place, but I’m sure an OU team could give the locals a run for their money. So let me know if you’re interested – especially if you read Hello or some other celebratory magazine…it’s the gapping hole in my knowledge.

Photo courtesy of Black Country Museums

Steve Johns will be our delegate at OUSA conference this year, so if you have any thoughts about the issues being raised, make sure you come along and let him know. We’re especially looking for the sort of feedback that will force him to go down the front and have to address the conference, he seemed far too happy sitting and voting from the back last year .