11th Annual Golf Match vs Oxford, Monday 4 November 2019

Chris Golis the convenor writes: Oxford won 4-1. James Balfour won his match but Peter Wilson, Jonathan Negus and Laurie Scandrett and I all lost our matches. The majority were decided on the final holes.  Close but no cigar!

Annual Winter Feast, 5 September 2020

Over 100 alumni and guests gathered on Thursday 5 September at the Royal Sydney Golf Club to hear St John's alumus and member for Wentworth Dave Sharma MP speak on Australia - Our Place in the World. After sharing a few 'Chatham House Rules' stories about well known Australians, Dave talked of his time in Israel as Ambassador where he was struck by their investment in technology and innovation, and the challenges that lie ahead for Australia.

Thinking at Twilight, 17 July 2019 with Dr André Cabrera Serrenho

Members gathered to hear Dr André Cabrera Serrenho visiting Sydney from Cambridge, talking on How frugal we need to become to mitigate climate change? Climate change mitigation requires urgent action across all human activities. Yet change has been slow and current climate targets will hardly be met. Current strategies have identified technological options to reduce emissions in the power sector and some options to reduce our demand for energy and materials. However, the scale of the challenge may require the reduction of our demand for energy and material services. Opportunities for travelling less or living in smaller homes have rarely been explored but the link between service demand reduction and wellbeing could unlock new opportunities for meaningful emissions savings with far-reaching social and economic implications.

AGM and Thinking at Twilight, Thursday 13 June 2019, with Tess Langfield, PhD student

Members gathered for the AGM followed by Thinking at Twilight with fellow alum guest speaker, Tess Langfield (Christ's College), visiting Cambridge scholar talk on her work on public health and drinking behaviour. Tess spoke about her current research topic of public health and drinking behaviour. Tess is interested in behaviour change. She works to understand some of the lower-level mechanisms driving health behaviours, as well as, why certain behaviour change approaches may be more effective than others. Ultimately she is interested in understanding the nature of human behaviour, including the factors (physical and social environments, motivations, underlying processes) that shape it.

Casual evening out at the Sydney Comedy Festival, Thursday 16 May 2019

Members gathered at the Enmore Theatre to hear fellow alum and comedian Alice Fraser entertain them with her new comedic masterpiece Mythhos. Alice takes on the stories and lies that we tell ourselves about ourselves. Is beauty truth? Is truth beautiful? What does anything mean any more? Alice then joined members for a drink after the show. Comedian, writer, podcaster and The Bugle (UK) podcast regular Alice is a word geek, polymath and ex-corporate lawyer. That’s quite a lot of stuff right there. Insatiable academic Alice studied law at Sydney University and English Literature (Rhetoric) at Cambridge before working as a lawyer in New York City. When she found herself spending more time writing jokes than litigation; Alice realised that the funny stuff was far more exciting to her than the legal stuff. Alice has taken her passion for comedy, writing and performing around the world - with sold-out shows from Edinburgh to London, New York to Cambridge and many places in between. Consistently selling out seasons at comedy festivals across Australia and the Edinburgh Fringe, critical comparisons to Daniel Kitson and her brilliant guest spots on British comedy podcast The Bugle have earned Alice a ferocious cult following. At the 2018 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Alice performed her three previous years’ shows (Savage, The Resistance and Ethos) back-to-back as Trilogy, to a full house and standing ovation at Melbourne Town Hall. Alice subsequently took the Trilogy to London and the Edinburgh Fringe before the ABC released The Alice Fraser Trilogy in podcast form using binaural sound.