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Exec Meeting @ 2022-11-22 15:00:00

Exec meeting 3pm 25/11/22, B2.03.
Present: Max King (chair), Liv Lancastle (minutes), Sam Chee (SpC), Sophie Cooper, Sophie Emeny, Ethan Graham, Zain Mothupi, Sueda Oktay, Adam Skrzymowski,
In attendance: Kieran Hall, Josh Heng, Kieran Balendran,
Apologies: Ethan Dougall



Team Updates:

Marketing: (from ED): Averaging 20-30 likes per post on insta, but doesn’t always translate into actual audiences. Trying to do 1 post per film. Good contribution from the team, mostly doing slides but instagram requirements are more strict and am happy to handle it all.
SE: Slides are all good, basically done for this term and now thinking about next term. Had a great turnout of Nobody at the marketing meeting but a decent turnout at the workshop in October.
Had an email back from big screen people about having upcoming films displayed as part of the normal cycle. Currently pulling stuff from the site, but they can’t get very much – they said ‘if you know anyone particularly good at coding websites’ they could show more stuff. KH: they’re currently pulling our SS feed, which has the title/tagline/date of the film. Andy is the best person to talk to about this since we need to work out what their systems can process first. Will ask.
Also discussion of getting onto the normal digital signage – used to have a cut-down version of the A0 plus an auto-updating thing to show what’s up next. Would be a marketing officer job to reach out to digital signage people about this.

Publicity: SO: Exec appreciation update for SC and LL who have carried the titles and graphics for next term. The publicity team hasn’t picked up as we hoped, turnout to workshops has been low. Had a few emails and 3 or 4 newbies signed up to do reviews, and one person coming during today’s show to do titles/graphics. More interest in reviews (and articles) than others. Been letting freshers sign up to films we already have archive reviews for, to try and retain them for next term.
Tentatively on track for next term’s publicity – A4s and loyalty cards are going out for review as soon as the schedule is confirmed.

IT: AS: We have the Christmas theme on the website? Some people on the IT mailing list.

Proj: EG: We have trainees! Signing up to more films – only had 2 empty slots this week. Bit tight on q-projs last week but the current rotas are fine. Removed access for the trainees who’ve been banished.

FoH: SO: Looks fine on the surface, but all our enthusiastic new stewards are final years so having trouble recruiting new DMs. Have taken on 1 finalist (Joe) who’s been challenged to qualify before the end of term. Aren’t on the same level as projs with sustainability – we have 5 trainees and only 2 are regularly around, so need a push for recruiting in term 2. Stewards are pog though, we’ve retained a lot of them and are still getting sporadic interest.

[SpC suggested a stewarding requirement for new projs to get more FoH? Brutally shot down]

Socials: SC: Not much at the start of term but the end has more stuff! Socials calendar on the door. Had a pog circle, will have a pub trip, bham christmas market instead of skating, end of term meal being sorted.
EG suggests poker night (recieved enthusiastically). AS and SpC suggest wave social (rejected).

Films Officers: SpC: Need to start properly booking films, currently only done those which are most likely to be an issue. ZM: Just the 70mm and all-nighter which are likely to be an issue. Not decided on the all-nighter theme yet (Shrek is embargoed, considering 70s/80s theme). Could probably get everything confirmed by Tuesday.



Double Events Procedure:

SO: From a DM standpoint, the way we did Alien was pog – use yellow tickets for doubles.
For Mad Max will have mario kart in the middle, SC going to run it and get people to sign up before the film. SC happy to organise events between other films but will need suggestions for ideas.
Paddington 1+2 is the only double next term. Evening of Anderson is back-to-back – KH: People aren’t coming to the doubles but it will sell better as an event.
Babylon and Avatar are more than 3 hours long. Will shift times to start at 6:30/10pm.
Mystery film? Will do free tickets for people who guess right. Will have a box on the steward table, and marketing officers can advertise on socials. DM can announce the winners just before the film.



Publicity:

SO: This term is the tightest deadline in the world since printers are closed over new years. Proofing deadline is December 8th, final deadline December 15th. Should then all arrive in the first week of January, best to organise pub runs on weekend of week 1 for the pub runs in case it isn’t all here, could do a small one the weekend before.
KH: Going out on the piazza worked well in term 1 – could look at booking it and having a stand.
LL: Last term events: Got banned from accommodations, ended up giving stuff out on the piazza which was super successful but only because we knew who were the freshers to target and they were too small to think we were weird. Unlikely to work well this year so we need new ideas.
SO: Can pin hopes on refreshers fair, sometime in week 2 next term. Could still try handing stuff out – at least we have nice-looking stuff to give to people (unlike the society which shall not be named).
Could try getting freshers to put stuff in their + their friends’ kitchens? Reasonable to go to kitchen windows and ask to come in, or to ask people going into their accoms if we can come in with them. Can write some guidelines on what is/isn’t allowed.
Josh: Postboxes? (No :( also got told off for that)

SpC: Can plan a free film or some free for members films? KH: When we did a free for everyone film in term 2 it was cafe society and it got 200 people. If it’s free and entertaining but something people don’t usually pay to see it should work. What made Minions/EEAAO so successful? Could plan one on first Mon/Tues of term. Films officers will brainstorm.



Getting Involved:

LL: Sorry we haven’t had by-elections :( Hasn’t been much interest in publicity and only SO can run for CDM. If anyone is upset we can run them but probably no need.

Need to get people properly involved, especially in DM and publicity teams.
Been discussing who should be added to Slack. General agreement to add stewards on their 3rd show.
KH: Don’t think filmsoc has got worse at encouraging people in – think we’ve actually improved. Atmosphere in FoH has got less intimidating so people who would previously have only come once are staying around but would never want to take on a senior role. We’ve put a lot of focus on publicising come-and-watch-our-shows so now in term 2 we need more emphasis on join-our-society.

Suggestions:
Have some non-dated getting involved doors publicity.
SE can make a slide.
Consider ways to get people involved in publicity throughout term, eg writing more reviews.
Spotlight on individual teams on socials. Insta takeovers?
Invite stewards to DM meetings to see what the hype is about.
KH: Used to have a getting involved banner – doesn’t necessarily have an immediate impact but it makes sure the idea is on people’s radar. Can be modern and have a qr code.
SpC: Could have a little video for before shows with some chirpy text.
AS: Advertise DMing directly. Or just advertise FoH as a whole instead of splitting into stewarding/dming. [SO: Would just recruit power-hungry Matt Potter-s. MK: But Matt Potter had a good DM team]
LL: Need to understand why people aren’t coming – don’t know about us, don’t know about getting involved, or don’t know why they should get involved.
Second getting involved meeting should have happened – important for future terms. Make sure we plan it at the start of term so people can keep that day free.
Going to organise exec meetings more often – 1 every 2 weeks?



TADONM:
Most likely Friday afternoon again in week 10.



AOBs:

SO: Overview of the money situation?
KH: Yesterday we got to the point of having 0 money instead of negative money! Done a lot this term to become financially sustainable. Not the end of filmsoc austerity – need to pay back £1.5k inactive socs fund at the end of term, and £5k SU loan back next October ideally since interest is getting expensive. Have no more places to borrow from so we need reserves.
SpC: Attendance has noticeably decreased recently. Probably deadline season (coincided with pub/marketing meetings bombing) so hopefully will start to see an increase again.
Also got £2.3k grant money.

AS: Approaching 50th anniversary! Will be on the agenda for the next exec meeting.

SpC: Just heard we can’t play Glass Onion next term. Will ask if there’s any chance we can show it this week (as in starting today).

LL: Can we have polos? (inconclusive)

LL: Also can we have a crew filter without lifetime crew?
We don’t know who has crew+lifetime crew ticked but IT will make a filter with crew and not lifetime crew.

Meeting ended at 17:15.

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