How the Outing Club REALLY Works

Since the Bates Outing Club is one of (maybe THE) oldest student-run outing club in the country, everything that is decided upon is done through us, by us, for us. For instance, two weeks ago my buddies and I decided that we wanted to spend our February break camping up on Lake Richardson in an old school canvas tent with a stove inside of it for heating. It was noted that none of us had this tent and the BOC didn’t exactly have what we needed for this kind of expedition. Suspiciously, 3 of the 7 people going on the trip were officers (including myself) of the Bates Outing Club.

No strings needed to be pulled, no begging need to happen, and no rules were broken. We simply brought up at a weekly meeting that we wanted buy this new tent for the Outing Club, and everyone thought it was a great idea. So, we bought it. Now that’s an egalitarian club!

In the end, we had a great four days of travel all on the Outing Clubs bill. And that’s the best part about the BOC. We can plan and execute the trips we want to have and have them be financially backed by the club.

-Graham

Here’s one of five of us on a hike back at the end of the trip. That’s me on the far left.

This a silly on of me messing around for a funny picture on a beautiful, trying to keep my hands warm

This was the tent we bought and the camp we set up.

And this just happens to be a beautiful shot of Lake Richardson.

OUTfront and the Auction

In Chase Hall this weekend was a fundraising event for the Valentine’s Day dance. But Bates has no ordinary Valentine’s Day dance…. we have Lick It!

Lick It! is a dance run by Bates’ chapter of OUTfront, a LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender) organization somehow connected to Amnesty International. OUTfront keeps a healthy presence on the campus, receives a generous support in the budgeting process for Bates student clubs, and is responsible for some of the more interesting events that happen at Bates College. Lots of my friends are involved in OUTfront, and nothing they organize is boring.

As OUTfront’s Valentine date auction invitation read:

1. ANYONE can bid on ANYONE.
2. There are no sexual implications in the date.
3. The date only lasts as long as both the Bidder and the Biddee are at the dance, but the date can terminate at any point if there is a mutual feeling.
4. Bidder and Biddee should treat each other with respect.
5. This is a great opportunity to meet someone new, relax, and have fun!

A bunch of my friends were auctioned off on Saturday as dates to Lick It! Of the people I came with, we could only scrounge up $21 and were out bid every time. Girls bid for girls, guys bid for girls, guys bid guys, one girl didn’t have enough money to bid for her own boyfriend, and, of course, someone was auctioned for $69.

-Graham

Here’s my buddy Tom who went for more than he was worth. As I remember it, he moonwalked across the stage and the auctioneer yelled “Tom is a HURRICANE!”

Life in Intercollegiate Maine

Sometimes our best friends are our worst enemies. We act like we are worlds apart, and yet the Bates-Bowdoin-Colby rivalry keeps us close.This weekend I made it up to Colby with a bunch of other Batesies to see a concert. I got in without paying, watched the whole show from the balcony where all the Bates kids were gathered, and made it back to Bates in time to catch a few after parties.

This weekend was also the Maine State Climate Summit, and Bates was hosting it this year. A bunch of Bowdoin students were here to participate in the summit and one of them was a friend from back home. I drove her back to Brunswick so she could caucus and we hung out at a burrito joint that I use to visit on my way back from the beach last spring.

I have been to all three campuses this weekend.

If the sayings true: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. Well, I keep my Bates friends the closest, but the other Bowdoin-Colby kids aren’t strangers. I try to stay on good terms with Bowdoin, my cousin graduated from there last year, and two girls from Kentucky go there. I got mad love for them all. I use to like Colby, but ever since my buddy went through a messy break up with a Colby girl I have had no love for the mules.

But in the end I guess it is all just fun and games!

-Graham

I wanted to have a picture from the climate summit this weekend. Unfortunately, I wasn’ there, nor was anyone taking pictures. But I love this photo, it was taken about this time last year and was organized by BEAM (Bates Energy Action Movement) who also organized the summit. Here we are supporting a congressional bill. I am in the brown jacket, in the very back, standing up on the left…. trust me, it’s me.

The Saturday Morning Tradition

A Bates tradition that’s often overlooked by the Office of Admissions but never forgotten by a Batesie is the Saturday morning breaded chicken patty sandwich. It is served in Commons all day during Saturday morning breakfast and lunch hours. It’s such an amazing staple of the Bates College experience that it is almost beyond words. Divine in essence, as if the chicken patty sandwich was there in Bates’ cosmological beginings, part of the foundation of the school. Before even time existed, the chicken patty sandwich was omnipresent.

Everyone I know has a different way of eating their’s. Some keep it simple and plain with just ketchup. Others prefer their’s with lettuce and tomatoe, while still others insist on peppers and onions and BBQ sauce. One of my best friends puts hot sauce and blue cheese dressing on his. I keep mine plain with honey mustard.

Ask any Bates student about Saturday mornings and they will immediatly say, “Chicken patty day!” It’s something that everyone thought was a godsend their freshman year, a gross and repetative nuisance their sophomore year, and then falling in love with it all over again just before they graduate.

-Graham

Observations by a Visitor

Unfortunatly, my sister came up on Wednesday and taking care of her has chewed up all my free time. It’s very exciting to have visitors but it is also a huge stress on the host. Today will be her third full day and tomorrow she won’t leave until 5pm. Balancing all of this with my work is tricky buisness and right now I am in the library making a list of all the work I still need to do for my classes and all the cool places I need to take my sister.

 Here’s the great thing about Bates though. Everything goes so much smoother when I let my sister intermingle with my friends when I am not around. Maybe I am just a bad mediator in these kinds of situations, but my sister has noticed one specific trait about all my friends here at Bates. She said that none of them are too shy, none of them are too cool, and all of them are interested in talking to her even when I’m not around.

 Morel, that’s her name, graduated from a larger southern school two years ago and since a lot of my friends are senior right now she also noticed a trait about them too. She said that at her school when seniors talked about what they were doing, the conversation would turn into a discussion of med schools, law schools, and working for consulting firms. But at Bates (though many of my friends are headed off to med school and law school) when you ask a senior what they are up to, they are super excited about what their thesis is about, what kind of camping/road trip they will do over February break, and whether or not there will be good skiing tomorrow.

 Take this for what you will. I’m out.

-Graham