DM Meeting @ 2010-12-01 18:10:00
DM Meeting, 6.10pm, Wednesday 8th December 2010
Location: ‘The Bar’, Rootes Social Building
Present: Robert Gardner, Fergus Cooper, George Marshall, James McLachlan, Liam McNamara, Owen Rye & Natalie Tyldesley.
1. Welcome and Apologies
Apologies were received from Rachel Crofts, Mike Joy, Veronika Lipinska, Edward McCutcheon & Natalie Tyldesley.
2. Qualification
Robert invited all those present to congratulate Liam on his qualification as a Duty Manager at the early screening of ‘The A-Team’ on Sunday.
3. DMs not DMing Shows
Rob has received the following message from Rachel:
“At the show, there were a lot of qualified DM's hanging around the tills, distracting the stewards, and encouraging them to behave - not exactly badly, but not properly. When I asked them to go away as they were distracting the stewards and acted like it was a big joke. I had to basically shout that I was sick of Qualified DM's taking the piss, and act angry to get them to behave themselves."
"All of this wouldn't have been so bad, as we weren't super busy, but from the first little bit of his interaction with stewards, I could tell that Harry was struggling to assert himself as his stewards were all his friends. Olly was telling him what to do, and making announcements (only little ones - we're not open yet, and we are open now, but still) and it was hard for me to either talk to him about it, or ask Olly to take a back seat when there were people pissing around in the background, and encouraging the stewards to behave badly. I was trying to let Harry do most of the talking, but at one point I had to ask the stewards to stay behind their tills.”
From DM Meeting, 18th October 2006:
“5. AOB (i) In absentia, James E. asked James M. to "reiterate to DMs... how their role is an active, special one within the society and not just a fancy title. In particular... a DM runs their show, not the projectionists, not the stewards, and certainly not people just hanging about."
"The DMs present concurred that James raised some valid points. Problems with running shows smoothly are sometimes caused by a lack of communication, resulting in someone other than the DM making a decision that affects Front of House. It was highlighted that there are often more DMs than stewards at shows, and so the stewards don't always know who is in charge. DMs should be working constructively with one another, but they must respect that the Duty Manager for a show is responsible for that show.”
* James concurs with the sentiments of his own minutes from four years ago.
* Those at the screening believe that in the continued lack of a queue, it was not inappropriate to offer stewards sweets.
* More generally, it was agreed that it is not inappropriate to have fun if it doesn’t affect the show.
* At the same time, it was agreed that whilst DMing, if you have issues with other DMs or Exec members, then the DM should express these concerns clearly and without ambiguity so as to ensure the issues cease.
4. Time and Date of Next Meeting
It was agreed to retain the meetings at 6.10pm on Wednesdays in the Spring Term, with the next to be held on Wednesday 12th January 2011.
5. AOB
Owen suggested that when filling in DM Training Booklets, the DM should write a “Things to look out for next show” in the “General Show Comments box”.
The meeting was adjourned at 6.41pm.