Exec Meeting @ 2018-09-30 14:00:00
Minutes of the Warwick Student Cinema (WSC) Executive Committee meeting held on Sunday 30th September 2018
14:00
H0.43 (Humanities)
Present: Irene Mercader (President), Casper Davidson (Vice-President), Taylor Wilkes (Treasurer), Todd Olive (External Relations Officer), Nicky Leathard (Publicity Officer), Anna Solecki (Publicity Officer) until point 11, Matthew Davies (Marketing Officer), Alice Glasgow (Films Officer), Kieran Hall (Chief Projectionist), Iain Walker (Chief Duty Manager), Benji Levine (IT Officer) point 2 onwards.
Also present: Reece Goodall, Chris Greenland and Richard Kirk
1. Welcome and Apologies
Apologies were received from Alex Pointon, Hilla Hamidi and Josh Bullin.
2. Updates from Different Teams
Front of House – We have approximately 10 DMs and 3 TDMs, but lost several stewards at the end of last year. There has been lots of interest in stewarding from the societies fair and the getting involved meeting. Rotas weren’t very full this week, but should improve as term begins.
Projection – We bought a new lamp and the engineer said our projector was quite impressive for how old it is. Unfortunately we have a flicker which is probably due to the ‘rectifier’ in the projector which may deteriorate significantly in the near future. Rotas have been quite empty but hopefully should fill up as term begins – we lost a few trainees over the summer. Many potential projectionists signed up at the getting involved meeting.
Publicity – Not a lot of people are signing up for photo frames or weekly publicity, but that’s not an immediate concern. Many people are interested in publicity following the getting involved meeting.
Marketing – lots of stuff was completed over the summer, but not many people have signed up for slides. Many people are interested in marketing following the getting involved meeting. MD may hold Photoshop workshops and Premiere workshops for those who are interested in the near future.
IT – Lots of things that were broken over summer have been fixed. KH and BL fixed a lot of the website so it is more reliable than usual. There has been some engagement from the getting involved meeting, but BL is yet to come up with a concrete plan for retaining and training Trainee-ITs. We can now access the website from campus wifi.
3. Welfare
IM is the welfare officer as well as President. Summer has been stressful for lots of teams, so if anyone wants to talk to IM, she is fully available to anyone for a chat or a catch-up.
4. Freshers Update
5000 Freshers bags were packed ahead of Welcome Week. We had a stall in the piazza on arrivals weekend and had lots of interest from that. We did a publicity run and reached every block apart from Redfern, Sherbourne and Bluebell. We were able to access all kitchens as they were helpfully left open. Lots of people who were offered A2s at socs fair already had them in their kitchens, so our pub run was clearly successful. Around 270 people signed up to our getting involved mailing list and we sold over 100 memberships on the day. We had an issue with the Film Studies Society who were calling themselves the Film Society. This caused some confusion at the socs fair tills which was only addressed several hours into the fair. During one show, someone came thinking they’d bought a WSC membership but they’d actually bought a Film Studies membership. The person at their stall was also quite inappropriate and immature when they spoke about FilmSoc. IM and CD contacted Societies Officer Leo Palma and he discussed the issue with the Film Studies Society. Our free screening of Black Panther was not well-attended, but this was our first Welcome Week and so perhaps it wasn’t advertised well enough. The attendance to all other screenings this week was very good. IW noted this is probably because they were on the Welcome Week calendar, so it will be worth getting our screenings on next year’s Welcome Week calendar. The number of unique people who visited our website and the number of unique people who came to a screening this week are very close, so our engagement is good.
5. Getting Involved Meeting Part 2
We’ve already told some people that we’ll have another meeting, so we should have another to avoid disappointing them – the next one shall be aimed primarily at non-freshers who missed our first getting involved meeting. A meeting on the 6th or 7th of October was suggested. BL noted this would not encourage people who live off campus, so a Wednesday afternoon may be better. AG notes this is when lots of sports have their taster events. It was also noted that the meeting would be worth doing in week 2 so that we have plenty of lead-time to advertise it online and at our tills. Due to lots of rooms already being booked at other times, the only feasible option was found to be Wednesday Week 2 in L3. CD will book room and get in touch with AV-services to get us the room during the first hour of their booking. IM shall purchase slightly more pizzas than last time in case more people come.
6. Harry Potter Marathon
AG and MD have made a great trailer for the event. Some flyers will have to be purchased which we can pass onto SU street team for distribution. There are currently around 480 people interested in the Facebook event page. Socials related to the marathon will occur soon. The films are booked, but to make sure every film is in 35mm and comes in time, AG and JB are keeping in touch with the Troys. The fact that every film will be in 35mm can be announced nearer the time to generate hype. Digital copies of all films will run simultaneously for a near-seamless experience should the 35mm projection go wrong. RG has got hold of prizes including a Fantastic Beasts book, a Quidditch book, a stuffed Hedwig toy and replicas of Harry and Voldemort wands. Costumes could be bought from Amazon. IW has sought booking for L3 so we can get the room overnight and confirmation should come soon. Currently, the SU has a maximum of 200 tickets to sell, so that we can sell crew, crew guest and staff tickets on top of this. This capacity may be increased when we know how many special tickets we intend to sell. KH has got in touch with the Cinema Printing Company which could produce souvenir tickets on 35mm film. The cost for 400 tickets would be £100. The exec took a vote to approve this purchase up to £110 – this was unanimously supported (11 for, 0 against, 0 abstain). RK said WB Games has dealt with us before for Lord of the Rings so TO will get in touch to see if they’re willing to give us free Harry Potter game keys. TO could also get in touch with WB Studios and Travellers Tales (who make the Lego Harry Potter games). BL could get a 50% discount on Lego Harry Potter sets as prizes. TO will get in touch with HP society for props they could bring. Further discussion will take place on the Harry Potter marathon chat that IM created over summer.
7. Future Publicity/Films Officer Deadlines
Publicity cost more this summer than usual because we couldn’t confirm the films in time for an earlier deadline. The Films Officers had delays because Disney only had one person doing film bookings over summer and Sony Pictures weren’t communicating with their London office about the release of Venom. Everyone was surprised at how long it took to book films this summer. AG says we should be mindful that next summer we should start booking films even earlier. It shouldn’t be an issue this term because we know more release dates and aren’t booking so far in advance. KH praised AG and JB for the efforts they put into booking films this summer. There was also an issue with publicity being completed on time and the Films Officers would’ve chosen to scrap Venom earlier had the publicity been completed. In future, publicity officers should begin compiling the publicity based on the draft schedule so they aren’t delayed either. A programming meeting for next term’s schedule will take place around week 5 of term 1.
8. Popcorn
On our beermats, we have popcorn on the design and IW made the point that we don’t allow popcorn when the exec voted on the design over summer. AP pointed out it might be worth having a trial period of allowing popcorn in L3 and seeing what the effects are. If we find that it doesn’t cause many problems, we could continue to allow popcorn in L3. If we find it does cause problems, we will have good reasons to explain why popcorn is not allowed in L3 when confiscating it from customers. IW asked DMs for their opinion at the most recent DM meeting – no one had an enormous objection to the use of popcorn, but many noted it could be difficult to clean up in L3 especially between shows on a double. We should get better ways of clearing popcorn to make it quicker, such as a more portable hoover. Even if we don’t allow popcorn in the long-run, a new cordless hoover would be good for cleaning up the office too. A cordless sweeper would be another option which KH has looked into. A poster could be put up on tills to advertise the trial so people aren’t annoyed by suddenly seeing other people allowed popcorn. We could also allow hot drinks, with the requirement of a tight-fitting lid or a sealed thermos. Exec voted to have a trial of allowing popcorn in week 2 (9 for, 1 against, 1 abstain).
9. Loyalty Cards
KH emailed proposed new terms and conditions for loyalty cards to the exec. The only significant changes are that loyalty cards no longer expire at the end of the year, externals will be allowed to use them and there will be no requirement to go through customer’s ticket history to check they’ve been to four films. The discussion shall be continued over email as it’s a wordy document. If it is not voted for over email, we shall definitely have a vote at the next exec meeting.
10. NFT Situation
We received a bill for £400 from Royal Mail which confused many of the exec as our contract was believed to be with NFT. NFT had stopped delivering and the invoices had stopped coming last term so it was thought that we’d dropped off the accounts of NFT. The SU post had lost the transfer of contract letter and this only turned up this week (having been delivered in March). KH said we shall soon have a Unique Digital box meaning we’ll have very few physical hard-drives or film reels being delivered so we could move our delivery contract to Rico which deliver our advert hard-drives as it would work out cheaper. AG called NFT and discovered we used to have one delivery driver who knew our dump code and where our dump was, but with Royal Mail, we could have a different driver every time who doesn’t know these details. AG contacted someone at Royal Mail who said he’ll get in touch with the depot to pass on that information and he’s got the Films Officers’ details for further communication. If our collections are not picked up on Monday, AG will get in touch.
11. Clean Office
IM, RG and AP have made several attempts to clean the office but it does become untidy relatively quickly. A lot of people do work and eat there and IM quipped that ‘A clean office is a clean mind’. Everyone should be aware that it does become untidy so it would be a good policy that we always leave the office cleaner than we find it. BL said this includes the microwave – make sure to wipe it after you use it. A lot of desk-space does get cluttered with other things so always aim to have as much clear desk-space as possible and don’t leave items on the desks unless absolutely necessary. KH added that people should refrain from simply moving things to the proj box as this just makes a mess of the proj box. Irene suggested KH should pass this onto projectionists and IW should pass this onto DMs and stewards. RK said this should also be the case for the projection box. KH suggested all milk in the office should be communal as it goes off and then people don’t get rid of it. This was approved by the exec (6 for, 0 against, 4 abstain). RG added that if the bin is full, ensure to remove and replace the bin bag.
12. Hoodies
Clifton have our current design and this would cost £40 (including a name). TW found a company called College Custom which would cost £30 (plus £3 for a name). Publicity and Marketing will have the design which TW can pass on to College Custom for free sample. If we purchase more than 20, the cost per item would drop to £26. CD suggested we subsidise the hoodies to a value below £26 (to be decided on at a later date) and then if we purchase enough hoodies to meet the price break, then the society wouldn’t have to pay as much subsidy.
13. External Relations Report
A sponsorship agreement with Now TV which would have given us an outdoor screening fell through. TO is continuing discussions with them for other sponsored shows. A society collaborations spreadsheet should be complete by next Sunday. The LGBTUA+ Officer got in touch and asked us to show a 120BPM screening on 1st December for World AIDS Day. TO told them that we’re showing 120BPM on Thursday and we’d be happy to have a charity bucket then and the LGBTUA+ Officer could give a talk beforehand too with an accompanying slide. We could show a matinee screening of a different film on the afternoon of 1st December before Crazy Rich Asians. For the December screening, we could ask the SU to pay for the film. The exec voted in favour of £1 from each ticket sold at 120 BPM going to charity (10 for, 0 against, 0 abstain). Discussion for December screening shall be continued at the next exec meeting following further conversation with the LGBTUA+ Officer. Collaboration tickets with the Harry Potter society for the Harry Potter marathon have been put on the SU event page.
14. Upcoming Events and Socials
There shall be a meal at Varsity before tonight’s screening of Toy Story. There shall also be a meal at Wagamamas in Coventry on October 10th. Other plans include Harry Potter socials being organised such as a trip to WB studios at end of term.
15. TADONM
This should take place before the HP Marathon – probably around week 3. CD and IM shall send out a poll.
16. AOB’s
i) CG praised AS and NL for their publicity work over summer.
ii) IW: There shall be a briefing in L3 at 7pm for the big screening tonight.
iii) IW: We have had an issue with Members Free Tickets (MFTs) during Welcome Week. Society memberships do not expire until today so EPOS has been giving people who bought memberships last year a members free ticket during shows in Welcome Week. KH will get data on how many customers this has affected. This currently means people who renew their memberships but have already used their MFT this year won’t get another one. The exec agreed this was unfair to those customers. We could resolve this issue by resetting MFTs for customers who came to screenings last year. The exec voted to give MFTs to people who have already used their MFT this year to people with university IDs beginning 17 or earlier (9 for, 0 against, 2 abstain).
iv) KH: Roll A2s.
v) AG: If a film arrives, please let AG or JB know about it.
vi) BL: Collaboration tickets will be done differently this year. Previously, new tickets had to be created for each collaboration show. Now, a ‘Collaboration Ticket’ shall be created for DMs to select in ticket sales. This has already happened for Free for Everyone and Free for Members tickets.
vii) BL: The IT team is not a service, but a group of volunteers who want to make FilmSoc better. Occasionally people can be unpleasant about the IT team not getting stuff done, so please don’t be unpleasant. If something IT-related needs fixing, please tell BL or on #errorreports on Slack, instead of complaining.
viii) RG commented that tensions have risen between team members over summer and noted that many people commented that FilmSoc is a great place to make friends at the getting involved meeting, so please be kinder to one another to make that statement true. RK added that you can always ask for help if you’re having trouble with your workload.
ix) CD shall send out a crew update email tomorrow, so please let him know if you want anything in it by tonight.
x) IM reminded everyone to renew their FilmSoc memberships for the new academic year.
xi) IM: We’re doing open day stalls on 6th October and on 20th October. Please help out if you can, especially as the University is donating money to the society for our time.
Meeting ended at: 16:20