Exec Meeting @ 2012-02-27 19:15:00
Exec Meeting Minutes
Week 8 Spring 2012
Monday 27/02/12 19:15 H0.01
1. Welcome and Apologies for Absence
Present: Mike Lee (chair), Timothy Green (minute keeper), Ed McCutcheon,
James McLachlan, Enrik Nako, Harry Austin, Clarissa Gillingham, Rob Maas,
Richard Townsend, Scott Griffiths
In Attendance: George Marshall, Fergus Cooper
2. AllNighter Financial Report
Ed informed those present that the previous AllNighter (which was held on the 24th of February and sold approximately 171 tickets) made a surplus of £4.13. This excluded any surplus that was made from the confectionery stall.
(It was reported that the online ticketing system had some problems that were perhaps due to a possible miscommunication by Ed. The matter will be taken to the Front of House committee.)
3. Keys and Handover
All keys have now been given out to the appropriate exec members.
The President enquired if any of the exec members had yet to complete their handovers. The IT Officer stated that he has yet to find out how the server back-ups work.
4. New Constitution
The President informed exec that Matt Rogers (Societies Officer) has decided to look more thoroughly at the constitution, and so it will probably not be ratified before next term.
5. Qualification Ratifications
Timothy proposed that exec ratify the qualification of Neil Addison, who qualified as a projectionist at the showing of TrollHunter on 23rd January. The motion passed with nine in favour and one abstention.
Timothy also proposed the ratification of the qualification of Enrik Nako (who qualified as a projectionist at the showing of Anonymous on 6th February).
(Enrik then took this opportunity to leave the room.)
The motion passed with eight in favour and one abstention.
(Enrik then returned.)
6. Success Criteria for Events
Tim proposed that before WSC holds events success criteria should be agreed, such that the success or failure of the event should be established afterward and any changes that are necessary be implemented.
People questioned whether success criteria were necessary, and that our time would be better spent preparing for the event, rather than endlessly discussing what exactly would be required for it to be considered a success or otherwise.
The following motion was proposed: That WSC events must have established success criteria. The motion failed to pass with one in favour, eight against and one abstention.
It was thought that whilst success criteria were not thought appropriate, more reflection after events with regard to finances and their organisation would be valuable.
7. Advertising Restrictions
Scott informed exec that about six societies are currently advertising with us in our LCD slides. He thought that this number was too high and that a limit on the number of external advertising slides accepted each week should be agreed; with more external advertising slides, the time for which WSC's and sponsors' slides are shown is reduced, and the value of paid advertising is reduced.
Ed said that he did not think that this is a problem. Tim thought that trying to put a
limit on the number of paid advertising slides was quite arbitrary, given the discrepancy in the amount of our own slides in the slideshow each week.
Scott went on to say that we have never before had this much advertising, and that it was the first time that he had had to remove some of our own slides so that our clients did not think that they had made a poor deal.
After some further discussion, the following motion was proposed: That a form of restriction on the number of advertising slides should be implemented. The motion was declared null with two in favour, two against and six abstentions.
After further discussion, this motion was proposed: That the Marketing Officer will be given discretion as to the number of external advertising slides that will be accepted on any given week. The motion passed with eight in favour and two abstentions.
8 Exec Voting
Timothy proposed a new voting procedure for exec meetings. The constitution currently states that only a majority is required for a motion to pass; Timothy recommended that the exec have the ability, prior to major decisions, to increase the amount of support that a motion requires for it to be passed.
After a discussion on the necessities of codification versus the assumption of the competency and discretion of an exec, the following motion was proposed: That the voting procedure for the executive committee be kept the same. The motion passed with eight in favour, one against and one abstention.
9. Outdoor Screening - Certification & Film Selection
Mike has yet to talk to the council to ascertain whether we will be able to show a film certified higher than a U, though he is relatively confident that he will be able to achieve this.
James informed the committee that Beauty and the Beast is being released in digital only, and so our shortlist for the Outdoor Screening has been reduced to two. That leaves The Lion King, which may never be available again and whose popularity is still so strong that just under 500 students paid to see it with us earlier this term during its re-release. We are also left with How to Train Your Dragon which may well be available again, but we have not shown this film as a standard screening as recently as we have The Lion King.
Timothy enquired as to whether the decision need be made now, by this committee. Scott said that even as crude a method as a Facebook vote could be used.
The following motion was put to the committee: That the Outdoor Screening film should be decided now by the committee. The motion passed with seven in favour and three against.
At this point it was thought, by committee members, that further discussion as to the choice of film was unnecessary, given that most people had already made up their minds, and so a vote was held between the two choices.
Both The Lion King and How to Train Your Dragon received five votes. Due to the power of casting vote, afforded to the chair, How to Train Your Dragon was declared as the winner of the vote, and so would be the 2012 Outdoor Screening film.
10. Lifetime Crew Status - Old Exec & New System
Lifetime Crew Status for the old exec was voted upon.
Oliver Bell: five in favour, two against and three abstentions. Oliver will be offered the
crew status.
Mike Lee decided that, given he was only on exec for several weeks before the election, he would reject any Lifetime Crew Status that was offered.
Timothy Green: nine in favour with Tim leaving the room during the proceedings. The
status will be offered to Timothy as well.
Harry Austin: Harry left for the vote that found nine in favour. Harry will also be offered this.
Louise Formby: nine in favour with one abstention. Louise will be offered the status.
Rob Maas: Rob protested that he did not complete a full term, Timothy told him to be
quiet so that the committee could make up its own mind. With Rob leaving the vote was seven in favour with two abstentions. Rob will also be offered the status.
Matthew Wilkinson: the exec went into closed session for the discussion on this point. The outcome of the discussion was that the decision would be deferred to the next meeting.
Scott Griffiths: similar protestations were voiced for not completing a full term. Scott
would be granted the offer regardless with nine in favour (Scott having left the room for the vote).
Liam McNamara: eight in favour with two abstentions.
(A short break was held.)
The discussion then veered onto the subject of a new Lifetime Crew status-granting procedure. Firstly a motion was held: That the exec would like the Lifetime crew status granting procedure to be reformed. The motion passed with nine in favour and one abstention.
It was noted that the status is a privilege that the society can bestow, and thus no formal or prescribed bar of what must be attained should be set. It almost went without saying that the system will not be applied retrospectively. It was also mentioned that the previous system was far too biased towards exec members receiving the privilege, and so any new system would have to solve this problem.
The following system was proposed: Any member will have the power to propose/nominate another person to the exec for consideration of an offer of Lifetime Crew status. The exec must then discuss the worthiness (commitment, merit etc.) of the nominated person to be offered the privilege. The exec will, of course, reserve the right to deny the nominee the privilege. This shall be the only method that will be used to decide upon Lifetime Crew Status.
The following motion was then put forward: That the proposed system be implemented forthwith. The motion passed unanimously.
11. IT Review
The IT Officer than informed exec of the following. Files and folders that are deleted from any of the office computers should be stored for up to six months; however, this feature is currently not working. The IT Officer advised the committee that copies of important documents should be stored elsewhere.
The IT Officer would like to plan downtime of the servers and would like to know the
publicity deadlines so that these can be organised around them.
The IT Officer then updated exec on some of the IT projects that are on-going and their respective progress. The online trainee booklets for the Projectionists and Duty Managers: specifications have been sent to the Proj and DM mailing lists for feedback.
As to the website, new and old. The current strategy of the team is to only fix problems as they arise with the old website, adding no new features, and so the new website can be prioritised. As to the new website: this is a very large project, requiring the reimplementation of existing and the creation of new features.
However, the IT Officer proposed a new strategy: the current website could be overhauled, giving it a new look and feel, instead of making a new website. This would mean that whilst the changes are implemented, a fully working website will still be in operation. If the old strategy goes ahead and the new website is completed, then the society will have a partially working website to begin with whilst it debuts and the plans for the current website will have to wait until the new website is completed before they can be implemented. The IT Officer stated that
the new website would take about a year to complete, whereas the overhauling of the current website will take only six months.
The IT Officer wanted the exec to choose between the two options. It was agreed that the exec did not have the requisite knowledge to make the call; however, its preference would be for the new website to be prioritised.
Upon enquiry it was reiterated that the IT Officer has full discretion over the reward structure of the IT Team.
12. Mailing Lists
Fergus brought the concerns of an anonymous member of the society to the committee; said member wished the exec to discuss whether the president should, due to their official equal opps responsibilities, be on all the society mailing lists.
At the request of Ed and the discretion of the chair the meeting then again went into closed session. The result of which was the conclusion that the exec did not have the power to overrule the president on this matter.
13. Time and Date of Next Meeting
This will be decided at a later date, though is unlikely to be before Week 2 of Term 3.
14. Any other Business
Fergus proposed the following strategy for future food stalls: a self-sustaining supply of money and stock will be kept by the society. The money would be kept in its own pot in the Duty Manager locker. The stock would be stored and maintained on our premises, with new supplies being added using the money supply and when a good deal is found at one of our suppliers. This was agreed.
Timothy enquired about Summer Term booklets. It was agreed that in light of the
AllNighter Financial Report these would be going ahead.
Ed chose to remind the committee about our purchasing policy: if an exec member would like to purchase something for the society, if it is less than £50 permission must be gained from either the President or the Treasurer, who will advise on the method of purchase. For purchases over £50, or for particularly controversial purchases, approval must be sought from exec. Exec members do not have the authority to personally deal with orders from external companies without permission.
Ed requested that the committee reconsider whether laptops should be permissible during exec meetings for exec members other than President and Vice-President. After discussion the motion was proposed: That the previous decision restricting all laptop-like devices at exec meetings be revoked. The motion failed with two in favour, five against and three abstentions.
It was noted that members should be organised enough that they bring any required
materials, paperwork etc., with them to the meetings. After some further discussion the following motion was proposed: That the use of the laptop-like devices be at the discretion of the chair. The motion passed with eight in favour, one against and one abstention.
Fergus requested, due to the on-going problems with the server backups, that the society purchase a separate backup for the "T-drive". It was agreed that this was a matter for the IT Committee to discuss.
Meeting Ended at 22:39