Exec Meeting @ 2022-08-07 14:00:00
Exec Meeting, online, 2pm 7/8/22.
Present: Max King (chair), Liv Lancastle (minutes), Sam Chee (hereafter SpC), Sophie Cooper (hereafter SC), Ethan Dougall, Sophie Emeny, Zain Mothupi, Sueda Oktay, Adam Skrzymowski.
In Attendance: Kieran Hall, Anna Taylor, Lachlan Jack.
Team Updates:
Films: SpC: Been booking lots of films :) have contacted distributors for films which won’t be moved (mostly WW). No need for another programming meeting.
Treasurer: KH: Major issue is that filmsoc has no money. (https://images.app.goo.gl/6jUAnyL8etFdx7r77) Societies officers having a meeting on Monday to allow us to borrow some money, and we have about £4000 coming into the account (from film and TV dept and a cheque in the SU safe which hasn’t been banked yet), which should get us through WW.
Marketing: ED: Done polls on instagram for movies to get some inspiration and had a lot of interaction (few hundred story views)! Will now focus on exciting people about start of term, and working on video trailer. Engagement generally good.
SE: Grateful for Ethan managing the instagram! <3 Had a brainstorming for rebooting (pog graphic with ideas is on slack). Twitter isn’t the priority platform but it’s still nice to be active. Instagram algorithm changed so it’s harder to have posts show up, so prioritise stories – can use to push getting involved (possibly link a google form?). Tiktok algorithm is good to go viral, and can get videos based on location. Can start preparing stuff in the next week or so!
KH: Legally required to tell us to use Microsoft Forms :) And this is the most put-together the marketing team has ever been, both incredibly pog, love and preesh <3 <3
ED: Will get some experience editing videos. Tiktoks will probably involve more general exec participation so be Prepared. Thank u Kieran for doing the twitter :)
SE will make a marketing tracker (should be a template around to edit).
KH: Audience members are unlikely to find us from twitter but often important industry people do so it’s definitely worth keeping up with!
Publicity: SO: Plenty of people signing up (but more help is always good)! Will start making posters etc near the end of August.
Socials: Will start prepping pub quiz over summer. Happy to make stories etc related to socials to share on Instagram. Please share ideas for freshers events if you have any :)
IT: AS: Working on new website. It will happen When It Happens :)
Welcome Week:
OL booked socs fair. KH: Thanks to drama last year (please forgive me for not typing it all out), we’ve also got a stall to do popcorn at the freshers fair :) AT will let us know when the freshers fair is asap (but heard on the grapevine it’ll be Sun/Mon).
Plan for no popcorn at socs fair (just chatting to people went well at open days), but will be doing popcorn at freshers fair so can take publicity to give out to the queue there.
Need to make sure stall is eye-catching, need to take some sort of display board and lots of publicity. Current banners are deceased so need some new ones – SO, SE, ED having a (playful) banner competition so will get one ready to add to publicity order. Not too expensive, <£50 per banner.
Publicity:
SO: Plan is to have everything ready for WW (A0, A2, A4, booklets, loyalty cards, banner). Want to push booklets, they’re the best thing to give out, get everything about us across, people look at them if they’re bored, very pog. Got templates ready.
KH: Best to order everything at once, total spend probably about £1500. A5 leaflets are mega cheap (£40 for thousands) so let’s do some of them as well! 1500 booklets at 56 pages each is £889 which should give enough for 1 per kitchen and enough left for fairs. Previously have ordered 5000, put 4000 in freshers bags and used the last 1000 just at fairs and on pub table. Then loyalty cards are £228 for 10000, £100 for 5000 A4s and make up the rest with A2s.
KH: Suggested to comms/marketing that they could advertise advice centre in booklet (at cost of printing) so we can be friends. SO: Could see if other societies want to advertise (at cost) in return for advertising from them? Could try to get space in the Boar fresher’s edition. AT: Can try and mention our ad space in exec update email.
SO: Will do door pub again (just didn’t have time this year). Will print in the office.
Could also do something similar to EEAAO publicity for the WW schedule.
Stamps on popcorn bags?
Considered doing separate schedules for WW, wk 1-5, wk 6-10 to make posters a bit less full? Conclusion not to change, posters probably good because everything is there all at once.
KH: Best days for pub runs are days people are moving in (Sat/Sun before WW). Look for moving in times on the website somewhere. Good to chat to people in kitchens.
OL will make spreadsheet. Please can exec be around <3 but will also ask other members for help. KH will sort staple guns.
Welcome Week 2: Revenge
SC: Couldn’t book space on WW timetable for the Sunday at the start. KH: No stress, no panic, they won’t let you book anything then but we show anyway.
Film names need to be updated by Friday, SpC and ZM will update and add links to our website pages, get on sale on SU website too if possible. Try to sort by results day (18th August).
OL will change Sunday (2nd Oct) 3pm slot to getting involved meeting – if approved then it’s on the WW timetable, if not then we can schedule it whenever.
Remember when designing that banners will be behind a table at fairs (so no text in bottom half).
Can have a sign up sheet at fairs (write name+email and we can send getting involved information).
KH: No plans to be able to buy memberships at socs fair this year.
SO: Please sign up to steward in WW! KH: But don’t pounce on stewarding from week 1 onwards, expecting rotas to be filled up with new people.
Collabs:
MK: Could contact societies to explain how collabs work, benefits etc?
Not sure where best channels are, suggestions are email/socs facebook group/insta highlight/website. OL could keep contacting societies in term 1?
Sponsorship:
Could give someone a slide or something? Mostly suggested in case we desperately needed money.
SO: Might be worth holding off in term 1 and trying later if we need it. What if (hypothetically) we were sponsored by tesco and then (hypothetically) it transpired tesco were killing (hypothetical) puppies? AT: Will also need to reflect their company values as well so would need to be more conscious of our image.
KH: Campus is becoming very corporate and we’re probably one of the few places that isn’t, so might be worth maintaining that? Proper sponsorships have to go to Gerard to be signed off anyway, so not going to happen between now and the start of term 1. Also at some point the Assembly in Leam will approach us, do not engage, they are dodgy and a scam.
KH: In terms of money, keep socs fed budget in mind. We can submit a grand application for it – there are rules on what we can spend it on so think about how we can demonstrate things are in line with what they want to fund.
TADONM
MK: Looking good for WW, can pencil in a hyping-up meeting on 23rd/24th Sept, and wk 1 or 2 of term for a proper meeting.
AOBs
KH: Remember not to lean on Anna as a society – not a good look or fair to expect special favours. AT: Probably can’t get much done anyway! Will always pass on any information though.
AT: Will try and find out freshers fair date and moving-in dates for accommodations.
SC: Are the SU doing free condoms again? AT: Not currently a plan, but will do something in Feb for sexual health week so might be some there. For inclusivity please branch out to dental dams.
KH: Want to shift as many beer mats as physically possible over freshers. We have a lot :) so many :) boxes and boxes :)
SE: Any updates on exec polos/hoodies? Treasurer absent so probably not. AT will check about ban on socs funds for exec clothes.
Suggestions to take clipboard to sign up to crew stuff at fresher’s fair/have people write names+emails to do bulk emails? KH: Don’t stress too much about removing all friction, sometimes people will sign up and then not show up so people can be unreliable. Good idea to have people sign up to get more info though. OL: Could write relevant emails on pub materials at socs fair if people express an interest in certain roles.
AT: Would be nice to have opportunities for people to chat to someone relevant before signing up to crew – first shows can be intimidating.
OL: Will make sheets for doors of office/proj box to report problems (as mentioned previously). AT: Good idea to have a sweep of the office, clean, sort out any issues before new people join.
OL: We have keys! For everyone who still needs them (i think) :)
Film passes! Were considering termly/yearly unlimited film passes.
KH: Need to get on sale asap if going to be useful. When done previously on crowdfunder they were £50 for the year.
SO: Might put people off crew because the free films perk becomes irrelevant.
OL: Will we start following up on people reaching stewarding quotas to stay crew? SO: Yes, couldn’t afford to do it this year but will start again.
AS: No one bought tickets for more than 10 films this year, so not many repeat customers anyway.
OL: Could get people loyal to the cinema in term 1 though (will keep coming if they want to get their money’s worth), advertise crew to them all term, and then they might become crew in t2 rather than spending another £35. Important to stick to termly passes then. KH: In a normal year, we have more people wanting to steward than there are rota spaces in t1 – people put off by gap between interest and rota space, so could be good to spread out demand. Also, overlap between people stewarding to be cheap and people committing to £35 up-front is small. Good reasons to only do termly pass.
MK: Leaning towards no, but passes will get us money early on + up-front.
OL: Would definitely make more money in the long run, would get us repeat customers and loyalty. Once people spend the money they’ll think they may as well use it so will come back.
KH: And anyone exploiting it to lose us money would give us great advertising, by bragging to everyone about what they’re doing.
OL: Lots of other angles to attract people to crew, not just free films.
AS: Only 26 people who watched more than 5 films last term 1, and no one watched more than 11.
Based on this, suggestion of £35 for non-members and £25 for members.
Vote: 7 for (+ KH), 2 against, 0 abstain (+ AT for fun).
Will discuss logistics in exec channel and see if any issues arise. Will need to sell on SU shop, Alex can set up.
KH: Can we make sure memberships + members free tickets are more visible, eg add a blurb on the SU website ticket pages to say don’t buy non-members tickets if you have socs fed.
Meeting ended after 1 million hours (at 17:00).