Our Honorary Members' Breakfast

To celebrate their newest and long-standing honorary members, Macquarie Golden Key hosted a lavish breakfast, complete with hot beverages, an array of baked goods and a beautiful floral centerpiece.

The members of Macquarie’s executive arrived in the morning’s early hours to prepare the breakfast and readied the room. Even before the preparations were complete, an eager honorary member, newly inducted this year walked in, keen to network. Quickly, other honorary members walked in and everyone sampled the laid out breakfast, in between chatting to all around the table. Even academics in the same building were drawn in by the cosy atmosphere and were invited to join the fun.

The event was an incredible opportunity to meet distinguished figures within Macquarie University and outside in the community. Ideas to more closely involve the honorary members fermented whilst the executive showed the face of the Golden Key chapter at Macquarie. The conversations were so charming that the breakfast ran a half hour over time before the crowd started to dissipate and the executive started to dissemble the breakfast table.

Macquarie’s Honorary Members’ Breakfast was a complete success, due to the efforts of all the executive members and the participation of Macquarie Golden Key’s honorary members.

Understanding Biology: A Macquarie Museum Tour

Monday August 31st was the date of the Macquarie University Biological Museum tour, a combined effort of the Macquarie Museum Appreciation Society and Macquarie Golden Key, enabling students to discover one of the university's best kept secrets and most fascinating exhibits.

An enthusiastic contingent of students gathered in the Biological Dept. foyer in front of Frank the stuffed bear (who has to be seen to be believed) and the tour commenced at 1pm.

Led expertly through the tour by the approachable host, Dr Andrew Simpsons, unit convener of Museum Studies, the attendees were guided through the new biology department rooms, given an insight into the history of the department and the study of biology at Macquarie University, all before reaching the museum proper.

The museum itself was full of amazing exhibits, buried away until now, including taxidermy, skeletons and as always, "things-in-jars". The story behind each of the exhibits was explained in a casual yet informative manner by the tour host, with plenty of science and biology jokes flying in all directions, including a spirited discussion about the future and how a mobile human skeleton could actively attract visitors to museums.

All who participated in the Biological Museum Tour came away having fully enjoyed the experience and certainly returning soon, bringing others who can also enjoy this hidden treasure within the E8B building at Macquarie University.

Golden Key Barnight Recap!

Thank you to everyone who turned up for GK's barnight on the first Thursday of Semester 2. For those of you who were busy and missed out, here's a recap ...

To start off the semester, the Golden Key Exec organised a night of snacks and mingling at the Ubar. At the beginning of the night, we had a slight hiccup - our initial location, the UBar, had been taken up by students ready for a night of Ministry of Sound dancing and partying. Despite the slight problem, members were still able to find us at the bar game lounge, many adorned in blue and gold, ready for a great night of chatter.

New, old and honarary GK members turned up to catch up with old acquaintances and to make new ones. The spring rolls, pies and pizzas that disappeared in a hurry suggests that the night turned out to be a great success.

The general consensus amongst the conversations was that most did not want to 'go back to university just yet' - everyone was still in holiday mode. But luckily for GK members, all could still enjoy a break and a night out.

We hope to see everyone again at our next social networking event and to those who were busy, hope you can make it to our next one!

We'll now leave you now with a few photographs to recap the night ...

Working at Diversity Week / Recycling Your Notes

Macquarie Golden Key's Diversity week stall stood proudly outside E7B from 3rd - 6th August, flecked in its trademark colours of blue and gold. The opportunity to promote GK awareness on campus was seized.

Eye-catching posters of our upcoming events decorated the stall whilst Golden Key's name in Macquarie's student publication 'Grapeshot' was displayed at the stall's front. By midday Wednesday, all 150 newsletters and every Asia-Pacific GK pamphlet had been distributed to interested students passing by (for a electronic copy of the newsletter, visit our Macquarie GK website).

The dedication of the new Macquarie GK executive kept the stall buzzing up until the last day of Diversity Week. All students and members alike came along with questions or just a general curiousity in GK and were greeted by the fresh and enthusiastic executive members.

To keep the interest going, the stall was the location of our 'Count the Candy' competition, the old-fashioned 'guess the number of lollies in the jar ... to win the jar!' game. After many estimates from passers-by, derived from apparent physics calculations and statistical surface area to volume ratios, it was Agni who walked away with the prize, guessing 2 lollies away from the real number of 422.

In addition to the promotional qualities of our Golden Key stall, the Macquarie executive held an initiative to uphold International Golden Key's goal of helping environmental sustainability: 'Recycling Your Notes'. With a straightforward name in check, the stall saw more than 80 kilograms of paper, and numerous bags of textbooks to recycle and resell. The student bringing in the most paper and textbooks was Edric, winning a $50 Macquarie Centre Voucher and film passes to 'Red Cliff'.

A huge thank you goes out to all the prize winners, participants and volunteers during Diversity Week. With this experience to build on to next year's Diversity Week, Macquarie Golden Key's stall is bound to become bigger and better!

Welcome to Golden Key Macquarie's very own blog!

Besides our regular website which already keeps you up to date with the latest events and happenings, this blog will provide you with detailed reviews and previews about our past and upcoming events, pictorial recaps and further information about the benefits of being a GK member.

This blog will also give everyone a chance to post comments and to share suggestions for upcoming GK events.

If you're a keen writer feel free to get involved with blogging. All input is very welcome.

We look forward to seeing all of you at our next GK event. Post a comment or email us at goldenkeymacq@gmail.com if you're looking for more info.

Happy reading!

Best wishes,

Golden Key International Honour Society

Macquarie University Chapter

Executive Team 09 -10