Exec Meeting @ 2015-11-26 16:00:00
Minutes of the Warwick Student Cinema (WSC) Executive Committee meeting held on Thursday 26th November (Term 1, Week 8)
16:00
Rootes Flexigrid, Rootes Building
Present: Jonatan Benarroch (Films Officer), Reece Goodall (Vice-President; chair), Giles Hutchings (Treasurer; minutes), Richard Kirk (Marketing Officer), Anjana Radhakrishnan (Chief Duty Manager), Joel Speed (IT Officer; via Skype, present for items 2 to 4), Lauren Howard (Chief Editor), Philip Beckett (Chief Projectionist)
In attendance: Alex Holmes
1. Welcome and Apologies
Apologies were received from Lorraine Li (President), Emma Smith (Publicity Officer).
2. Allnighter
Reece laid out 4 possible problems which contributed to the poor attendance of the allnighter last week: choice of films, publicity, other events happening at the same time and the increased prices. It was agreed that films such as Minions and Hitman weren’t as big and popular as they maybe could have been, and a headliner, such as Ant-Man, may have attracted more customers. Richard recommended introducing a new strategy and improving communication and publicity, such as earlier planning and promoting, getting accommodation keys from reception and pigeonholing more departments. There was also talk of using uBlend, a new type of email newsletter which would include images of the respective films, though the point was raised that Kat didn’t add pictures to emails because the sizes were too big and took too long to load for some people. Next term’s plans regarding allnighters include a possible pyjama party and either one or two Lord of the Rings screenings - if two, they would both be held on the same weekend. Something about showing Countdown was also mentioned.
3. Schedule
The Films Officer is sending off the provisional schedule tomorrow (27/11), and has checked that there are no clashes with the Arts Centre films. The issue of when Emmersons is closed over Christmas was raised. There is the possibility of getting films more cheaply through independent cinema bookings, such as replacing Victor Frankenstein with horror-comedy Dude Bro Party Massacre 3 and The Look of Silence.
4. Publicity
The society orders a lot of publicity but doesn’t always use all of it, and weekly publicity is only used on people who are already coming to see films. If there is leftover publicity, exec members could pigeonhole with it. Reece raised the point that there was only one publicity run at the start of term and he suggested there should be two, and another one midterm. Exec members should be reminded that they are required to go on publicity runs. Unfortunately, Facebook’s algorithms have changed and it is not as effective at reaching our members as it used to be, since it isn’t showing everyone our posts. There needs to be more discussion on this issue and the Chief Editor will send an exec email.
5. Socials
A Christmas meal has been organised for 6pm on 10th December at Zizzi in Leamington Spa. It was agreed there needs to be a bigger social scene and that the timings for them should improve, with a focus on Wednesday socials as these were the most popular in years gone by.
6. Time and date of next meeting
The next meeting will provisionally be held at 16:00 on Thursday, week 9.
7. AOB
i) Alex Holmes needs to be ratified as a DM but quoracy wasn’t achieved at this meeting.
ii) There is a screening day being run by the ICO happening in Bristol at the beginning of next term which Jonatan is going to, and asked if others wanted to come. It is £30pp for all three days, or cheaper if you want to go to fewer.
iii) There is a Film Fund/Hub which offers financial help to small independent cinemas in various regions of the UK, and we may be eligible to apply for this.
iv) Reece is attending an official SU first aid training session on Sunday 5th December, which is useful since the society currently has no qualified first aiders.
Meeting ended at 17:14.