As many will know, regular Wednesday Expert Breakfasts and Sunday Formal Dinners are unique features of St Margaret's College.
These occasions provide valuable opportunities for Members to meet interesting people, learn
some networking and social skills, gain some valuable insights and
learn new things from guests of different backgrounds and careers.
For Sunday Formal Dinners, Members are required to dress formally for a lovely three-course meal during which we are treated to a marvellous musical interlude by fellow Members.
The evening begins with a group of Members (one from each floor/house and their College Leaders) meeting our special guests at a pre-dinner gathering in the Atrium following which the Formal Dinner is enjoyed in the Norris Dining Hall.
After Dinner, a
general invitation is extended to all to attend the post-dinner gathering in the Valentine Common Room where the Master chairs a question and answer session with the main focus being to learn about the careers of our guests and how they have "got to where they are today”.
By the time of writing, just prior to Easter 2020, five Formal Dinners have been held with guests being the following:
- 24 February: Dr Royden Somerville (Chancellor of the University and a Queen's Counsel) and his wife, Lee Somerville (alumnus of St Margaret’s); and Dr Sue Bidrose (Dunedin City Council Chief Executive Officer) and her wife, Lisa McCauley.
- 3 March: Prof Paul Brunton (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Division of Health Sciences) and his partner Ian Crabtree (Head, School of Nursing, Otago Polytech); and Suzanne Kinnaird (Financial Adviser and St Margaret's College Council Member) and her husband Tony Kinnaird (Technical and Training Manager, Smith & Smith).
- 17 March: Prof Tony Ballantyne (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Division of Humanities); and Prof Ian Tucker (School of Pharmacy and a St Margaret's College Council Member) and his wife, Judy Tucker.
- 31 March: Prof Richard Barker (Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Division of Sciences) and his wife, Lynette Barker; and Hamish Wixon (Architect and President of the St Margaret's College Council) and his wife, Linda Wixon (General Practitioner).
- 14 April: Rachel Cardoza (Barrister and Lawyer, Vice-President of the St Margaret's College Council and her husband, Antony Arlidge (College Fellow and Staff Member); and Prof Stephen Robertson (Paediatric Geneticist, Women’s and Children’s Health) and his wife, Dr Robyn Blake (General Practitioner)
In addition, our Expert Breakfasts programme runs each Wednesday from 7.30 to 8.30 am and is arranged by the College Leaders. An expert is invited to have breakfast with a group of Members in the Atrium where they talk about the work they do.
So far this year, the following guests have attended the Breakfasts: Dr Rebecca Bird (Anatomy); Dr Simon Cox (GNS); Prof Robert Patman (Politics); Tony Zaharic (Centre for Early Learning in Medicine); Assoc Prof Niels Kjaergaard (Physics); and Dr Christone Jasoni (Anatomy). Reports of each Expert Breakfast are kindly prepared by College Librarian, Dr John Cross, and published on the News section of the College website (https://stmargarets.college/news/).
All Breakfasts have been very well attended by Members.
Accompanying this story are photographs taken during Formal Dinner on 14 April 2019 and Expert Breakfast on 10 April 2019.
(Story by the Master, Dr Charles Tustin)
