Change of Society Name (October 2022)
We are really excited to reveal our new name... 'OUTTS - Oxford University Technical Theatre Society'!
We hope that OUTTS will enable greater awareness of the society in the long term, especially amongst new students and staff, allowing us to better support a wider variety of people for years to come. We endeavour to be fully inclusive of a wide range of theatre roles, with workshops currently in planning specifically for beginners.
Thank you to everyone who took part in the consultation on changing the society name - it took feedback from across the Oxford drama scene, including current society members, student non-members, alumni, funders, university staff, and society associates. We are very grateful to everyone for their insights - it was great to hear from so many long-standing members and former members. The committee considered every point made, including issues raised on all sides.
OUTTS was the most popular suggestion, with feedback including greater transparency of society purpose, more obvious link to OUDS, more in-fitting with other similar societies, easier to remember for non-members, and more inclusive of all roles. We also took note of concerns including the need to be inclusive of the diverse roles involved in theatre, and the potential loss of society heritage.
In practical terms, it will take us a few weeks to fully change over to the new name, so please bear with us as changes are made to our website, social media accounts, IT systems, and associated university websites. In particular, the mailing list will continue to function via 'taff[at]maillist.ox.ac.uk' until further notice.
Additionally, we would like to use this opportunity to celebrate the 20+ years of TAFF! All members on our mailing lists will shortly receive an invite to a special commemorative event and social, which we hope will encourage current members and alumni to come together and celebrate. We look forward to seeing you there!
Finally, we are interested to hear your ideas on how we can commemorate the name TAFF. If you would like to get in contact, please email us at president[at]outts.org - we would be glad to hear from you.