Exec Meeting @ 2018-04-28 14:00:00
Minutes of the Warwick Student Cinema (WSC) Executive Committee meeting held on Saturday 28th April 2018
14:00
OC1.03, Oculus
Present: Irene Mercader (President; Chair), Casper Davidson (Vice-President; minutes), Iain Walker (Chief Duty Manager), Taylor Wilkes (Treasurer), Matt Davies (Marketing Officer), Benji Levine (IT Officer), Nicki Leathard (Publicity Officer), Anna Solecki (Publicity Officer), Kieran Hall (Chief Projectionist), Josh Bullin (Films Officer), Alice Glasgow (Films Officer)
Also present: Reece Goodall, Richard Kirk, Tom Freeman
1. Welcome and Apologies
Apologies were received from Todd Olive, Hilla Hamidi & Alex Pointon
2. Updates from Different Teams
Front of House – IW said stewarding has been up and down with some shows not having enough stewards. Everyone was asked to sign up to some of the less well-staffed shows in the coming weeks.
Projection – KH said qualified projectionist slots were mostly full for the coming weeks. Trainee projectionists will be reminded to sign up to shows. The projector was serviced over the Easter holiday. Pearl & Dean has paid ads money – this will need to be put towards a new lamp in the future.
Publicity – AS & NL said it is going well. There haven’t been enough sign-ups for photo frames and weekly publicity for term 3 – the publicity team will be reminded to sign up.
Marketing – MD said there was a complaint sent by Facebook message in the morning from someone in Australia. We believe they mixed us up with another cinema. All slides for the term have been completed.
Films – JB & AG informed the exec that all the films have been delivered to the arts centre instead of us. Films haven’t been picked up from our dump either – the films officers shall email NFT to let them know.
IT – BL said the website is currently working. A potential cause of many IT issues has been identified and may be fixed in the afternoon.
3. Future Pub Runs
The exec received an anonymous tip-off that the SU Street Team saw our publicity up and have been told to take down our publicity because we haven’t paid them to put it up for us. AS spoke to someone in charge of Marketing and Communications at the SU and she’s going to tell the team to keep the publicity up as long as it’s not covering their posters. She told AS to use the digital boards in the SU, but it was agreed that few people actually look at those boards so it would have very limited reach. RK told the exec that we have used the street team before but they haven’t actually put up our schedule like we do on our own pub runs, despite us paying them to do so. We have always received refunds from the Street Team. IM said we cannot just leave publicity on the table as putting posters up on the wall means they (usually) stay there whereas putting them on the table could be considered littering. KH said that if we cover Warwick Accommodation posters, the SU gets punished and as our publicity does have the SU’s logo on it, we should give assurances to the SU that we won’t do that in future. IM will attend a meeting to discuss this with our societies coordinator on Monday.
4. Big Screening
The choice of film has been decided and is on relevant publicity. The screening will be on the last Monday of term due to clashes with the World Cup. The match will finish at approximately 21:30, so lots of stewards will be required to clear up the piazza for 22:00. IM has contacted the piazza booking team and we have been pencilled in, but the piazza hasn’t been formally booked yet. Andrew Madison will get in touch with Warwick Conferences to ensure we can show the film. Forms have already been sent to the SU regarding event planning, finance and risk assessment. KH confirmed the film will start at 22:00. We do not plan to show trailers, but the big screen may have slides put on it by AM. IW asked whether there would be a Big Screening polo shirt order and suggested it wasn’t worth the money to buy a polo shirt for just one night. KH suggested that it is good as advertisement for the event and RK said that they have previously been subsidised by the society, they are good for knowing who is crew and who is not on the night, and they can be a nice memento of the event. TW will find out how long it will take to sort out and do more research ahead of next exec meeting. RG contacted some African dance societies and shall pursue them further regarding a dance performance beforehand. KH suggested we create something for audience members to pose next to like a face board or something similar for photos. IM will contact HH and investigate.
5. Warwick Fringe Festival
The university is doing a Warwick Fringe Festival. IM asked if there was anything we could do for the event. It is mostly for music and dance societies, but all societies have been encouraged to submit an idea. IW said the day of the festival shall be an open day, so it would be good to get the word out to future students. The event will be on the weekend of Week 9. RK suggested we could livestream a performance to L3 but perhaps this wouldn’t be particularly well attended. KH noted that we’ve previously done a Disney music singalong. CD shall send out an email enquiring if any of the crew has an idea. It shall be decided via email before 4th May.
6. Society Promotion Video
IM suggested it would be a good idea to make a video with interviews with exec members and other society members to promote the society. This would be led by the marketing team. MD believed this was a very good idea. Because of exams, this should be organised for the last fortnight of term 3. IM will send round the previous video created by RK. RK shared the previous video project outline with the exec via email. KH suggested we get plenty of stock photos of busy L3 shows, which would be good for publicity, marketing and external relations. IM noted that a time-lapse video of L3 filling up would be great as well. RK will bring his camera in and can lend a lapel microphone too. Anyone who sees a busy show should take photos of the audience. IM will make a Facebook chat and post a message on the Facebook crew page. The IT team will make a related mailing list too.
7. Week 0 – Big Screening 2 and Schedule
The SU are enthusiastic for the society to do a big screening and have told us we should do it on the Sunday of week 0 so as not to clash with the Freshers’ Party. The current plan is for us to show a usual schedule of films, but beginning a week early (in week 0), with nothing on the Saturday. The Wednesday will be left free with potential for a Meet the Exec event or Getting Involved meeting then.
The general consensus of the exec was that we should put some films on arrivals weekend (the weekend before week 0) and these films should be free as well. There was a discussion of what film we could show at the Big Screening and as our first free film. The Big Screening film should be a U certificate film. As there is no precedent for publicity in week 0, we can experiment with different strategies. More pub runs in Leamington and Earlsdon were suggested. KH noted that people moving into halls means doors are open so it’s very easy to get into halls during arrivals weekend.
The films officers will come up with some ideas for films ahead of programming meeting. JB suggested it would be wise for week 0 to be a ‘greatest hits’ week, rather than showing more obscure films. IW suggested we show at least one 35mm film. KH said we should ask the SU for some funding for week 0 as we’re helping them by showing our films and we’re likely to lose money on the week.
8. Warwick Filmmakers Showcase
Warwick Filmmakers Showcase got in touch with the society to use L3 to screen their films at an awards ceremony, showcasing the films. A similar event was held 2 years ago with little success, but the organisers are working hard to avoid a repeat of this. WSC would need to provide projection, potentially some stewards, a projectionist, a DM, a microphone and a lighting technician. Th event is scheduled for the evening of Friday 15th June and will last a couple of hours. IM is meeting the organiser next week and will show them around L3.
9. Sponsorship
IM relayed TO’s report to the exec. On Thursday, IM, HH and TO met with the organisers of LuvBug to talk about potential sponsorship arrangements. Two main parts of a potential deal were explained to the exec. The first is that WSC will get 100 free tickets for us to sell every term for £3 each and make a surplus of £300 per term just from this. Luvbug does clash with our Saturday films, but IM noted that many people go out on Saturdays anyway so it wouldn’t hurt for us to get paid for this. RK suggested we could give the tickets away as prizes and IM said we could sell the tickets to other societies or do socials there. The second part of a deal is that The Assembly (the location of LuvBug) is planning a pop-up screening in Christmas and wants us to show a film there. WSC would be paid the surplus from the event and the screening would have our name on it. KH noted we would want the event to be a high quality screening as it has our name on it, so we would want to organise tech hire. The Assembly will already have the relevant entertainment licenses, so only a cost of a license for the film would be required. The general consensus of the exec was enthusiastic about this deal. IM and TO shall contact the organisers of LuvBug to further enquire about the event.
In his report, TO noted that the time when most organisations sort their budgets is at the end of March and because of when our AGM is, the ERO doesn’t have enough time to do all the relevant organisation in time for that deadline, so TO suggested moving the election of the ERO earlier.
IW suggested moving all the related term 2 events earlier, including the AllNighter which doesn’t do well so late in the term. CD suggested that we can untie the AllNighter and the elections, but KH noted it is nice for the exec to have the handover at the AllNighter. CD suggested moving the handover for the ERO later but keeping election timings as they are so as not to be even further away from when all societies traditional have their elections. BL noted the responsibility is on the newly-elected ERO to take advice from the previous EROs and learn the relevant information in the handover so they are quickly able to secure deals at the end of March. New exec members are also more enthusiastic at the beginning of their term so may be able to secure better deals. From experience of programming the term 3 schedule, AG suggested the heavy lifting for these deals should be done by the outgoing exec member as it can be too much work for someone new to the role without the relevant experience and the person with a year’s experience has a lot of advice to give. RG noted the role will be reviewed by exec anyway at the end of the current exec’s term.
10. Updates from Societies Council
IW attended Societies Council on Tuesday and relayed relevant information to the exec. The societies fair will be on the Monday and Tuesday of Week 0 – we’ll have one of those days, but we won’t find out which one until we’ve applied for a slot. The application deadline is the Friday of week 8. Societies awards will take place on Friday 15th June. All presidents and treasurers have training to attend, which they’ve organised. Other training sessions are available for other exec members – the relevant link has been emailed. The deadline for Societies Awards nominations is midday on the coming Monday. We will now be able to contact our Societies Coordinator to find out the demographics of our members, which will be worth pursuing for sponsorship. IW noted we should be aware that societies fair will not necessarily reach 2nd and 3rd years and we should bear that in mind at the beginning of next year. Our Memorandum of Understanding, Constitution Change, Risk Assessment and Exec Sheet have all been handed in to the SU.
11. Upcoming Events and Socials
The Big Screening and Warwick Filmmakers Showcase had already been discussed. JB passed on HH’s suggestion of a dessert social in the coming weeks.
12. TADONM
An email will be sent round once everyone knows their exam timetables. IM suggests 2 or 3 more exec meetings this term. IW suggests one before main exam period, potentially in week 3 or 4.
13. AOB’s
i) JB: We’ve received lots of messages about how to get tickets for our screenings, partly because website hasn’t been available on campus. JB suggested adding this information on our FB page. KH added that e need to rename ‘Lecture Theatre 3’ to ‘L3’ as our location.
ii) AS: We were lucky to have Andy’s credit card for purchasing publicity over Easter. For future publicity purchasing problems, someone would have to go to the SU finance office over the summer.
iii) KH: The current hard drives are dying, so we will have plenty of money requests coming through for these.
iv) The current fire door policy was discussed. IW will talk to the previous CDM about what the University’s rules are.
v) RG: Next year SU will provide a welfare document for societies.
vi) RG: The office door is being taken on Monday morning to make it a fire door.
vii) TF asked whether a hoodie order was going to happen. TW is investigating.
viii) TW: The SU budget application is due in next Friday. Suggestions for what could go in the budget included £1800 for new till laptops, money towards a new projector, projector lamp, etc…
ix) A crew polo order of £373.25 was approved by the exec.
x) CD requested suggestions for tomorrow’s crew update email.
Meeting ended at: 15:57