Exec Meeting @ 2011-03-01 19:30:00
Exec Meeting - 01/03/2011 - S0.28 - 7:30pm
1 Welcome and apologies for absence
Present: Edward McCutcheon, Fergus Cooper, Liam McNamara, Oliver Bell, Timothy Green, Robert
Gardner, Joseph Morgan (late, with apologies), Alex Ware, Matthew Wilkinson.
2 Introduction to solo exec
Ed rambled on for a bit, whilst reminding the rest of exec that we should still be friends when we leave
the room :-).
3 Quali cation rati cations
Harry Austin had a DM quali cation on The Girl Who Played With Fire. Rob informed exec that the
DM committee voted to qualify Harry.
A vote was taken to ratify the quali cation; 8 for, 0 against and 0 abstentions.
4 Lifetime crew status
Various names were put forward for being granted lifetime crew status:
Sophie Carroll: 7 for, 0 against and 1 abstention.
Alex Ware requested we not vote on lifetime crew status for him until next year.
Linas Trumpickas: 8 for, 0 against and 0 abstentions.
Fergus left the room.
Fergus Cooper: 7 for, 0 against and 0 abstentions.
Fergus returned, Ed appointed Fergus chair and left the room.
Edward McCutcheon: 7 for, 0 against and 0 abstentions.
Ed returned and recaptured the chair.
It was agreed by consensus that Elizabeth Wilks will retain crew status for the rest of the academic year
for her role as Marketing Coordinator.
5 Elections
There will be elections for the vacant positions of Chief Duty Manager and Marketing Officer on Monday
of week 9 in L3 at 7:30pm. Those hoping to vote will have their membership checked by the Returning
Officer (Fergus Cooper). Memberships will not be checked after 7:45pm, at which point hustings shall
begin. Ballot papers will be issued after the hustings.
It was discussed whether voting should be allowed by proxy. A vote was taken; 2 for, 4 against and 2
abstentions, so voting shall not be allowed by proxy.
It was clarified that abstentions are discounted from the total number of votes when calculating a majority,
unless abstentions account for 50% or more of the vote, in which case the vote is `null and void'.
Ed reminded exec that if possible they should be present for elections, as well as publicity runs, sponsored
events and AllNighters.
6 New website update
Matt informed exec that most of the `behind the scenes' implementation is complete and there is now
progress which can be seen. Exec saw the new website design and generally seemed to like it. Matt
clari ed that the project is still a long way from completion.
Joe arrived.
7 E-mail archive information
Matt informed exec that all emails to their official email aliases are stored in an archive. This recently
caused a problem when the allocated archive disk space ran out. More space has been allocated, but a
discussion about whether the archives should be kept was needed.
Some data protection issues were raised, but the prevailing opinion was that there is information stored
which may very well be essential in the future.
A vote to keep the current archiving system was proposed; 9 for, 0 against and 0 abstentions. The archives shall remain.
8 Clothing order
Liam queried the strict restrictions on free or subsidised clothing. It was agreed to keep the current
policy on all fronts which includes:
Exec clothing: First name; position; year in `yyyy-yy' format
Quali cation clothing: First name; either `Duty Manager' or `Projectionist'
9 VAT increase
Liam made exec aware that due to the VAT increase from 17.5% to 20% at this start of the year, we are
paying roughly £4 extra per show; equivalent to approximately £600 per year. In addition, there are
cost increases for transport, equipment, food and some publicity.
Liam estimated a total VAT related cost increase of £1,000 per year.
10 The Lord of the Rings AllNighter ticket prices
The current AllNighter prices are £7 for members, £10 non-members, £12 external guests, £3 crew, £7 crew guest.
When discussing prices for The Lord of the Rings AllNighter, it was mentioned that at current prices
for members and non-members, it would cost more to come to the AllNighter than to three individual
screenings. The prevailing opinion, however, was that the length and quality of the event, including the
quiz, raffle and interval entertainment was fair cause to keep ticket prices the same.
A vote was held to keep ticket prices the same; 7 for, 1 against and 1 abstention. Thus the current ticket
prices (above) shall remain.
11 Ticket prices
Ed opened ticketpricegate, regarding ticket prices and membership structure for next academic year.
Two main reasons necessitate a revised ticket policy:
The £1 membership fee imposed by the Students' Union
The substantial shortcoming we currently have, faced with digital projection
Several proposed options were tabled:
1. Keep all prices the same
This option generates no extra revenue, and does not recoup any of the roughly £2,500 lost to the
Union, however does keep ticket prices lower than any other option while maintaining our high
membership base.
2. Keep ticket prices the same, but don't include a free ticket for joining
We would get £1.50 from each membership sold, and issue no free tickets for members, thus gaining
£2 for each member who joined compared with option 1. However, the number of members would
likely drop signi cantly.
3. Keep prices the same, but raise membership to £3.50
We would recoup the £1 from each membership sold but the increased price is likely to reduce
membership sales as this creates a higher `on the night' cost.
4. Increase ticket prices by 50p and raise membership to £3.50
Compared to option 3, there is no `on the night' disincentive and, assuming similar ticket sales, an
increase in revenue.
5. Remove ticket pricing benefi t from membership and set standard prices to £3
No money is lost to the Union, and extra revenue is generated, while not becoming more expensive
than the Arts Centre for any single transaction.
It was noted that the size of our membership and mailing list is likely to be affect possible sponsorship
value. After consultation, it appears we would be able to automatically add every student to a mailing
list when they first buy a ticket, provided they are given ample opportunity to opt out.
An opinion shared by many on exec is that any option which signi cantly reduces membership numbers
is likely to aggravate the Union, who currently budget almost 25% of the £1 membership revenue as
coming from WSC. Others voiced the opposite opinion that we are disproportionately hit by this change,
that we would still be contributing a signi cant amount to the £1 membership pot and that it may be
counterproductive in the future to be seen to allow such taxes to be levied unopposed.
It was noted that there are several other benefits to reducing membership to just crew, including simpler
ticket selling from a front of house perspective and exclusivity of membership to those directly involved
in keeping the society going.
It was indicated that options 4 and 5 were preferred by the committee but that since there is no rush to
make a decision now, some time would be taken by those on exec to more fully investigate the implications
of different options. This point shall be discussed further at the next exec meeting.
12 Publicity order size
The following is a summary of recent order sizes:
A2s Booklets A4s
Summer 2010 2,000 2,500 10,000
Autumn 2010 3,000 7,000 17,000
Spring 2011 1,500 2,500 10,500
Liam informed exec that depending on order size, the booklets can cost between 50p and 96p per unit
and that the society is projected to spend over £1,000 more this year on publicity than we did last year.
Liam left and discussion on the matter was paused until his return.
We spent £1,912 on booklets last summer term and on top of that, 7,500 A4s cost £180 and 2,000 A2s
cost £700. Given that we took £3,152 in ticket sales during the Summer term last year, it was noted
that booklets would have to have been responsible for 61% of ticket sales for them to have broken even.
Rob informed exec that in the past during periods of serious financial instability for the society, the
Summer term booklet had been cut in order to save money. In light of the worrying financial precipice
upon the brink of which WSC stands, a vote was taken on not printing the Summer term booklet; 5 for,
0 against and 4 abstentions, so we shall not print Summer term booklets.
It was decided to order 3,000 A2s and 15,000 A4s for next term.
13 Sponsorship
Ed would like exec to review the sponsorship pack which is in the process of being made, and which
there is a draft of on the exec mailing list. Rob suggested setting up a working group to ensure efficient
progress and Ed is to hold a General Meeting later this term for that purpose.
14 Outdoor screening
Ed informed exec that Tocil Field has been booked for Wednesday 29th June. Ed is still in the process
of finding out whether we can show a PG or 12A; he hopes to hear from the person in charge of licensing
for the University shortly.
As for the choice of film, it was noted that showing a film in scope rather than x-wide is possible, but
requires the projector to be closer to the screen, and would result in a smaller picture on screen. This
format was used for the most recent outdoor screening and caused no major problems.
It was proposed that if we can only show U films, then we show Up; 7 for, 2 against and 0 abstentions.
Joe left.
It was discussed that if we could show a PG, films such as Indiana Jones would be a possibility. Olie is
to send a list of suggested PG films to exec, pending possible restriction to universal films.
15 Server upgrades
Matt informed exec that the rewall servers are dying. The IT team have proposed to make new ones
with harvested parts, however new cases will soon be required. Matt informed exec that the cases are
needed to keep the network running.
The IT team recommended spending just under £200 for two cases, two gigabit switches and three gigabit network cards.
A vote was taken to approve the expenditure; 8 for, 0 against and 0 abstentions, so the IT team may
purchase the equipment.
16 Dump list moderator
Tim suggested that the Films Officer may want more control of the dump mailing list, as it involves film
movements. Matt suggested adding Olie as an admin for the list. General approval ensued.
17 Digital projection
Alex informed exec that we can have a free digital survey from Sound Associates. When Alex spoke to
the Sound Associates engineer, the figure of £50,000 was a low end estimate for a system. Alex is to
chase Sound Associates for a de nite price.
There was a long discussion on how to raise more money to fund the purchasing of a digital projection
system. More details are to be discussed on the mailing lists, although Fergus is to push advertising
further, and to external companies.
18 DM quali cations
A member of the society raised concerns to exec regarding certain aspects of duty manager quali cations.
Rob informed exec that the DM committee had in fact discussed the issue before the concern was raised
by this member and that the DM committee recommended keeping the system at it currently is.
It was proposed to follow the advice of the DM committee; 6 for, 1 against and 1 abstention, and the
system shall remain as is for now.
19 Publicity runs
It was proposed that publicity runs be incentivised to ensure thorough coverage of campus; 8 for, 0
against and 0 abstentions, so publicity runs shall have incentives.
It was further proposed to incentivise the start of Summer term publicity run with a half large pizza
from Dominos (or equivalent); 8 for, 0 against and 0 abstentions, so there shall be pizza.
It was decided that other incentives shall be decided on a case by case basis.
20 Constitution
Fergus informed exec that a draft of the new constitution is ready and shall be emailed to the mailing
list. Fergus asked committee heads to read the relevant committee sections and comment if necessary.
21 Time and date of next meeting
The next exec meeting shall be held on Thursday of week 10 at 6pm. Fergus is to book a room and
notify members through the usual channels.
22 AOB
22.1 Fire safety officer
Ed is soon to be having a discussion with the University Fire Safety Officer regarding the outdoor
screening, but is to also to discuss the bright fire exit lights in L3.
22.2 User accounts
Matt will ensure creation of individual user accounts on the exec office computers for exec members,
after providing Matt with their ITS user codes.
22.3 Alcohol
Ed reminded everyone that alcohol should not be taken into the proj box at any time. Ed is also to
email the original file containing the new alcohol policy to the exec list for any comments or corrections.
22.4 Crew tickets
Ed reminded everyone that crew are entitled to a crew ticket and a guest ticket. Thus, crew should not
give their crew ticket to a guest.
Meeting adjourned at 11:45pm.