Committee Meeting, BNSR 12, 16/10/19

18:40 – Meeting Start

Esports Coaching

• Ben in support of the idea which was originally proposed by a member, stating that we could choose to either encourage it, disallow it or allow it for certain games only.
• Mo was indifferent about the proposal but saw no harm in allowing it.
• Aidan was in support of the idea and also suggested we experiment with coaching, stating “We’re happy to facilitate the coaching”.
• Karen and Ryan were under the impression that these coaching would be done online and therefore, booking rooms would not be necessary.
• Ben suggested that the “Esports representatives” could advertise a coaching night to which Aidan countered by stating this approach could be problematic if the “Esports representatives” didn’t personally want to run the coaching the sessions themselves.
• Karen stated that she would prefer a set-up in which the coaching session sort themselves out.

Karen, Jack, Ryan and Josh had to be warned to remain quiet during the meeting by Ben.

• Jack suggested pitching the idea to members to see if they would be in support of coaching sessions.
  • Ryan stated that he would make an announcement on the Esports Discord server later on the night of this meeting (16/10/19).

Esports LAN

• Decided that the event would need an official name.
• Ryan suggested that we name the event around the recent Bomber brand that the Esports teams had acquired.

Games for Esports LAN

• 5v5 games were suggested
  • Josh stated that these wouldn’t work as a tournament that is run in that fashion would only have two teams.

• Committee acknowledged that NSE partnered with Beyond and would be having an event coming up in the future which would provide an ideal venue for the Esports LAN
  • Committee also raised the issue that travel would be an issue for using that venue, as it is in Preston.
  • Using the Beyond venue would also mean that the Esports LAN could no longer be done online, however, set-ups for players would be provided.
  • Committee concluded that we need to sort out transport to make the Beyond event a viable option.
    • Josh suggested that we, as the Committee, wouldn’t be the ones to pay for travel if we go through with the Beyond venue, however then stated that members may find it unfair to then pay for entry after paying for travel.

• Suggested that we could organise it in such a manner that non-members pay and members pay.
  • The committee could charge around £2 for entry for non-members, with transport costing an additional £10 approximately for both members and non-members as this would be paid by the individual without society involvement.

• Estimated that we would get approximately 10 players at the event that play League of Legends and another 10 that play CS:GO, with an overall total of about 20-30 players for all games in total.
• Suggested advertising the event to other societies such as Computer Science Society, Lancaster University Chinese Students and Scholars Association (LUCSSA).
• Suggested that we could also run 1v1 games such as:
  • Super Smash Bros. (possibly)
  • League of Legends
  • CS:GO

• Raised question as to what participants would do between tournaments events as participants aren’t required to bring their own set-ups.
• Karen stated that she may visit the Beyond arena at some point.
• Josh began attempting to book the Beyond venue during the meeting.
• Raised question as to what the prizes would be.
  • Ben suggested that the value of the prizes should be based on the number of participants that we get, and therefore, the amount of money generated from the event.
    • Mo suggested offering the game keys that the Committee were given with the purchase of the society laptop.
    • Suggested Steam Credit.
      • Josh stated that we may as well have the prizes be cash if we would be willing to provide Steam credit.
      • Mo stated that we aren’t able to give out physical cash to winners of the events as this is against Students’ Union policy and that Bailrigg events use PayPal accounts to circumvent this.

Society Meal Social

• Karen asked if this social would be similar to the weekly County Social.
  • Aidan suggested that it could replace the County Social for that week.

• Society Meal social would take place during Week 5, Friday the 8th of November, at 7 pm at Wetherspoons.
• Karen suggested having a separate Meal Social for the Esports players as she stated that they wouldn’t be interested in a meal with the rest of the society.
  • Mo agreed that stating that it would most likely happen regardless of our input so we may as well brand it.
    • Mo also stated that a separate does do more to divide the society than it does to bring it together.
      • Ben agreed.

Pendle Socials

Suggested bringing Senet: Card and Board Game Society.

• James was in favour of this idea.
• Also suggested bringing PokéSoc to the social.
• Pendle JCR responded to our earlier emails stating that Pendle Bar is booked on Thursdays.
  • Decided to ask Pendle JCR for availability on Wednesdays.

Storage Access for Aidan

• Decided to wait until we get the results on the motion of removing Vice President at the next General Meeting before contacting the Union about Aidan‘s storage access as he may not be permitted storage access depending on the outcome of said motion.

Nominations for Vice President

• Raised the question of whether Vice President is a necessary role.
  • Escalated to a discussion in which the General Secretary was unable to minute all the points made by the Committee.
• Josh of the opinion that it is not a necessary role.
• Mo of the opinion that while the role might not be necessary, believes that the role was created to solve an issue with the current structure of the Committee and that removing the role would not necessarily resolve the issue, should that issue still be present.

• Karen suggested voting to see where the Committee members stand on this motion:
  • Josh, Karen, Jack and Ryan in support of removing the role at the next General Meeting.
  • Ben and James against removing the role at the next General Meeting, instead preferring to wait until the Annual General Meeting.
  • Aidan and Mo abstained from voting.

Political Profile Pictures

• Committee decided that political profile pictures are allowed provided that they do not violate Discord’s ToS.

19:37 – Meeting End (agenda left incompleted)