Exec Meeting @ 2012-10-14 14:00:00
1. Welcome and Apologies:
Present:
Fergus Cooper (chair), Jorja Ellison (minute-keeper), Harry Austin, Richard Townsend, Kat Sroga, Sam Kidman, Ed McCutcheon, James McLachlan, Rob Maas, Enrik Nako, Scott Griffiths, and Tim Green (arrived late, with apologies)
No Appologies
Also in attendance:
Oliver Bell
• Chair particularly welcomed the new members of exec.
2. Handover Progress:
Marketing:
• Full handover scheduled for Tuesday (16/10/12).
• Sam has already started emailing some Freshers who want to get involved.
Publicity:
• Kat has had a partial handover from George.
• Likewise, Kat has already being emailing Freshers who want to get involved.
• There are possible plans for Kat to have a later meeting (with George?) to discuss matters, such as the booklet, in greater detail.
• However, Kat is now basically running publicity.
President:
• There has been a partial handover, with assistance from the Treasurer.
• There still needs to be a quick meeting with former acting President Tim.
Vice-President:
• Handover has been completed.
• Still referring some queries to former Vice President.
Other Information:
• The treasurer has found another President’s Key Box key, and has told Vice President where to pick it up from.
3. The Sponsored Event:
• Sponsored Event is the Batman Begins Screening, Tuesday Week 4 (23/10/12)
• It was agreed that there were no firm plans for sponsored event other than:
- There is an agreed Projectionist.
- There is an agreed Duty Manager
- The film has been booked.
- KMPG are sending representatives.
• There was a debate between standard proceedings for the sponsored event (free pizza, drink and so on), and trying to make the screening more of an ‘event’:
- There was debate over what would be feasible given the short time frame with which is left to prepare the event. It was argued that the standard format works quite well, and should not be changed this close to the event. However other formats were also argued for.
- Tim suggested the possibility of having a Halloween themed event. In replied to this, James pointed out that the film was not selected to have a Halloween theme
- A past sponsored screening of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ was referenced for its Casino theme. It was suggested that this type of theming sponsored events could be emulated.
- It was noted that the theme should be accessible for the audience
- It was recalled that a “Black Tie”/ “Billionaire” theme had been previously suggested. The theme was discussed at great length; there were both pros and cons brought forward:
PROS:
o Would definitely add a sense of occasion to the Screening, coupled with appropriate food and drink
o Warwick Food and Drink do not specifically state we can’t serve spirits. Thus cocktails would be effectively feasible and also a change from the usual wine & beer
CONS:
o The accessibility of appropriate “Black Tie” for both audience and team members.
o There was debate over whether or not Warwick Food and Drink would allow us to serve spirit based cocktails, for Health and Safety reasons.
o The expense of Spirits means less money for food
o Idea of special area is exclusive and not in-keeping with the idea of a KPMG event
o It is too short notice to implement such a theme
o There is not potentially enough in the budget to support such an elaborate theme.
o Cocktails are adding a lot of complexity for a complex event
o Will a theme add any more appeal to the event?
o Fresher’s are our primary audience and are unaware of our routine; therefore it would be better to put more effort in the next event.
o Food has to be provided by Warwick Food & Drink, and so may make canapés a very expensive option. Any food which requires preparation would have to be provided by Warwick Food and Drink due to Health and Safety regulations.
- It was suggested that we look into a theme for the Sponsored event next term as it would allow for an appropriate time to plan.
- Next term’s Sponsered event is potentially Rear Window and therefore could lend itself to a Murder Mystery theme. However this is not a set choice and an alteration could be made to a choice to include an appropriate theme
- Overall it was decided to rule out major changes and attempt to ‘Bat’ Theme the Sponsored event as it was the most pragmatic option given the time frame; a theme for the next Sponsored event will be looked into.
- Front of House will primarily in charge of Bat theming the event; the Technical officer will look into procuring lights with Bat gobos to project the Batman logo onto the screen; IT will look into skinning the website with a Bat theme.
- It was decided due to the length of the film to not have a quiz, but have a raffle at the end instead, with winners picked by the KPMG representatives; Prizes have been decided on as:
o Christopher Nolan DVDs:
* Two for first place
* Two for second place
* One for third place
* There will be an Exec mailing thread about choice of DVDs
o Five-Film Passes/All Nighter tickets
* Fourth and fifth place will be given a choice of either or.
- Room Booking for handing out Pizza and drinks at the sponsored event will be investigated by the Vice President.
- The usual free Pizza and free alcohol was decided on
4. Pub Quiz Post-Mortem:
• The Quiz was overall considered a great success
• Scott gave the Exec a quick rundown of the event:
o The event sold out completely; there was officially 100 tickets sold.
o We filled up-to the capacity of the Mighty Duck.
o There was disagreement over the exact number of students turned away, however it was agreed it was a lot!
o It was noted that around half of the attendees were non-members; a lot of interest in the society was engendered by the event, although memberships were not sold as this is too complicated and time consuming a process for this sort of event.
• It was raised that the success of the event might have been partly due to the Fresher’s Ball the night before, with Freshers wanting to attend a more relaxed event the day after the Ball: another such event might not be as successful next Term, although could possibly be emulated the same time next year.
• There was a great deal of support for the idea of holding the same event next year at roughly the same time.
• It was suggested that another quiz should be held this Term, before the AllNighter. However, this was decided against as another quiz is not in this Term’s publicity.
• There was some noise raised about holding another quiz next Term, to see how well it would do in the Spring Term. The following was decided in regards to next Term’s quiz:
o To use the same format as this quiz for the quiz itself, as it was agreed by everyone that it worked well.
o There was suggestion made to use the Dirty Duck, instead of the Mighty Duck: There would be greater capacity but greater charges for using the Dirty Duck, but this needs further investigation into exact quantities.
o A suggestion was raised of using Rootes Bar as a venue, however this was not a popular choice for venue.
o There is also the issue of having enough screens in the Dirty Duck for the quiz, as well as quality of sound– WSC has ways to get more screens if needed, but it was acknowledged that there would need to be more people than this quiz to help setup this equipment efficiently. In terms of sound, this needs to be further investigated.
o It was agreed that there was a degree of “under preparation” for this Term’s quiz, and this will need to be addressed for next Term’s quiz.
• Scott questioned the possibility of being able to collate a list of email addresses of those who attended the quiz, in order to invite them to participate in a questionnaire about the event:
o There were some ethical issues raised about “spamming” student’s inboxes; there were questions about whether the society would be allowed to do this. It was pointed out that we might be allowed to email members, as we send them occasional emails anyway. However it is unlikely we’re able to email non-members
o There were questions about the cost of survey hosting websites; it was pointed out that there are free survey hosting websites.
o An incentive might be provided, potentially in the form of free film tickets, in order to entice participation in a survey.
o There was no firm decision made about the possibility of a survey
• It has been provisionally decided that there will be a quiz in the Spring Term, Saturday, Week Two - if our film schedule allows and this date does not clash with a major SU event, also the availability of the Dirty Duck as a venue for this date. Further investigation is needed on this.
• The President has decided that an email thread to discuss this is to be created.
5. Customer Feedback Survey:
• Raised by the previous Marketing Officer, there was a question as to whether there could be a Customer Feedback Survey - both an electronic online survey and a hardcopy.
• The purpose of the survey would be to find out whether the society is showing the right sort of films? Is the publicity and marketing as effective as it could be? etc.
• Electronic Survey: this would limit the number of participants to those who either regularly visit our site and to those who regularly read our emails.
• Hardcopy: attempt to create a survey on a double page spread and insert it into our publicity booklets - James noted that this was done before in 2007.
• Since it has been half a decade since the last survey, it was agreed that this is a good idea.
• It was decided that this would be a cross-department affair, with Marketing, Publicity and the Films Officer involved, with the new Marketing Officer spearheading the project.
6. Time and Date of next Meeting:
• The Time and Date of next Meeting is 1st November, at around 8pm.
• The room has now been booked as R0.12 - please check the forums for more information, including the agenda points.
7. Any Other Business:
• The Mix-up: ‘Your Sister’s Sister’ and ‘Jeff Who Lives at Home’ are on the wrong days on the A2 – ‘Your Sister’s Sister’ is on the Tuesday and ‘Jeff Who Lives at Home’ is on the Thursday. It was decided that the President would email members about this mix-up and Publicity would make sure that this is clear on the publicity.
• The Birthday Screening: the Chief Projectionist informed the Exec that this was a great success.
• 30 Years of 35mm: the Chief Projectionist was forwarded an email from a crew member containing an article on 30 Years of 35mm from an old WSC member. He was wondering if this could be included on the WSC Wiki to make it available to everyone. The President agreed to contact the ex-member, to get approval for this notion.
• The Schedule Archive: the President raised that this same member has asked for all previous schedules to be added to the previous schedule archive. The President has previously suggested that we wait to do this on the new website. The Films Officer has offered to enter the previous schedules himself, and the President has agreed to forward on the spreadsheet.
• The WSC History Book: the Chief Projectionist asked whether it would be possible to compile an abbreviated history of WSC, in terms of previous events, previous survey etc. There were issues raised about whether such a document would really be used, and also the amount of work this would be to create such a document. It was suggested that the President at the end of their term could write a summary which would be archived, and this could serve as a ‘history’ - this could be in the form of archiving the president's AGM speech. This has been decided to be moved to an email thread.
• Physics Booking L3: Wednesday Weeks Nine and Ten, Physics have booked L3 for the afternoon/evening.
• IT Listing: the IT Officer urges the IT team to respond to their emails.
Meeting Adjourned.