Support staff gather at Imperial Village Fete

Imperial support staff gathered yesterday evening for a Village Fete and barbeque on the South Kensington Campus.

Many braved the rain to take part in an assortment of games and activities around the Queen’s Lawn hosted by College support services divisions. Staff had the opportunity to test their reaction times in beat the buzzer and play giant snakes and ladders, collecting sweets as rewards. Around 100 staff from the Hammersmith and Silwood Park Campuses made the journey to South Kensington for the evening, arriving by coaches.

The event, organised by the Support Staff Social Committee, aimed to respond to survey feedback that support staff had little opportunity to meet people from other areas of the College doing similar jobs to their own.  Over 1400 registered initially with a good turnout despite the rain.

Imperial's Provost Professor James Stirling taking part in one of the games put on as part of Imperial's Village Fete

“The Committee has organised events before – walks, staff choir, tours of the Queen’s Tower – but we wanted to do something on a larger scale to give people the opportunity to meet a wider group of support colleagues,” said Louise Lindsay, Director of Human Resources. “The College therefore agreed to fund a support staff barbeque and we have included fete stalls to optimise the mingle – with the incentive of different retro sweets to collect at every turn!”

Imperial’s new Provost Professor James Stirling took to the stage to address the audience of staff. 

“Here in central London we may not look much like village, but we are a village in the sense that we are a community and it’s been a pleasure for me personally to get to know you, the members of the community, since I joined the College just a few weeks ago.

“While we are rightly famous for the quality of the teaching and research we also have an incredibly talented body of professional and support staff."

Alongside the diverse assortment of games, tours of the Queen’s Tower were led by Kim Winter (Estates), Projects Planning Manager.

A group of staff at 18:30 were treated to sunset views over London as the weather cleared, including Jason Perry (Estates), Maintenance Manager for the Medical Campuses, making his first trip up after nine years at the College.

“It’s great, I love the gatherings the College puts on, I think it genuinely means a lot to the staff – I certainly think so anyway. We have a few smaller social events within our department such as the secret garden party last month, but it’s great to have all the College staff together. As for the Queen’s Tower, I’m in maintenance so I can always get in there and go up as we do hold keys, but I’ve never made the move – it’s really interesting and shows a bit of our heritage.”