Committee Meeting, BNSR 16, 23/10/19

18:10 – Meeting Start

Current Issues

Ben stated, “I can’t and won’t do everything“.

Ben stated that the Bowland North Seminar Rooms are a better meeting environment that County Bar which improves focus, which Ben also stated that the Committee needs more of.

Ben also stated that we need to sort out the Community Cast and Smash Weeklies.

Ben stated that Committee Meeting attendance needs to improve with Committee members giving proper prior notice if they are not able to attend meetings.

Ben proposed amending the constitution to state that Committee members that miss three meetings without explanation or giving prior notice would result in removal from the Committee.

• This would not be consecutive meeting but rather overall.

Kieran suggested changing the 24 hours’ notice to be one day’s notice.

Ben stated that the Committee needs to stop “nit-picking” every suggestion made and instead to focus on the core of the suggestion.

Ben admitted that keeping the Committee on track during meetings is part of his role as the meeting chair, but also stated that the Committee needs to do a better job of keeping themselves on track during meetings.

• Josh responded that it’s better to nit-pick and make an informed decision instead of executing a half-baked plan.

Ben stated that the Committee needs to be more decisive when making decisions and not to go back on their decisions such as changing the date of the Wetherspoons social.

• Josh responded that it was Ben that changed the date of the Wetherspoons Social after a suggestion from the Committee.

County Social Themes

It was agreed that the Committee needs to plan more themes for the County Social.

• Josh stated that themes weren’t working and aren’t as popular as possible.
• Katie agreed, adding that it was difficult to get new members on board with the socials when she attempted to with Aidan.
• Aidan stated that the themed quizzes are working and suggested only keeping that aspect of the themed socials.
• Katie stated that we don’t have the necessary equipment to properly do certain themed socials.
• Kieran stated that when he originally suggested the idea of themed socials, he didn’t intend for the themes to last the entire social.
• Aidan asked if the Society’s members have an interest in themes that the Committee have been doing.
  • The Committee responded stating that members do have the correct interests.

• James suggested having the themes of the social be more like side-events with the theme not overriding the games that people want to play at the socials.
• Aidan suggested that socials could be carried solely on these niche themed games that the Committee provide.
• James suggested that asking the membership what games they would like to see at socials.
  • Committee responded that the result of the such a vote would predominately be for Smash Bros.

Ben expressed that he felt that County Socials are more for casual players that want to play something mainstream such as Mario Kart and not necessary more niche games.

Kieran suggested that County themes should be postponed until next week to get more Committee input as certain Committee members are not present currently.

• Committee agreed that next’s week’s fighting games theme should be completed before this change is effective.

Committee agreed that the games for the fighting games theme still need to be decided upon.

Aidan asked if we are able to play Mortal Kombat games due to its gore content.

• Committee responded that this game would still be acceptable to play.

Community Cast

Kieran stated that he intended to record the next community cast episode sooner but was unable to as he was busy.

• Kieran stated that he would be able to record on Friday.
  • Mo stated that he may be able to be present for the next Community Cast episode.

• Kieran stated that he would have an exact time for the recording at a later date.

Joint Socials

Katie stated that she would like a joint social with the Computer Science Society (CSS) as there is currently overlap in the society, the Committee included.

• This idea was also suggested by a member of the Society.

Josh stated that he would like a joint social with the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (LUCSSA).

Committee agreed on having socials with both societies with Katie stating that she would message the committee for both societies.

Pendle Games Night

Regarding Pendle Games Night, the Committee didn’t get a definitive answer from Pendle JCR.

• Committee agreed on having the next Pendle Games Night on the 13th of November and communicated this to Pendle JCR but, as there has not been a response from the JCR, the Committee does not believe that the venue has been booked.
  • Decided to try and book Pendle Bar for Weeks 3,6 and 9 for Lent Term as soon as possible to avoid issues such as this in the future.

Potential Bullying from Committee member

Ryan stated that he knew of a member, Member A, who he believed he felt uncomfortable going to socials due to behaviour from Josh.

• Ben stated that he would try and contact this member to try and resolve the issue.
• Josh stated that he is unaware as to what he may have said and done to Member A to cause this.

Bar Crawls

Ben stated that LUMAS and PokeSoc have a bar crawl planned for Week 10 and proposed asking them if LUGES would be able to attend the event too.

• Decided that the Committee would need to contact the PokeSoc committee as will be run by them.
• James spoke to a PokeSoc committee member already and stated that this committee member was OK with LUGES attending the bar crawl.
• Ben stated that we could have more joint PokeSoc socials as a new Pokemon battle videogame, Pokken, has recently been released and there may be potential for overlap.
• Additionally, the Committee considered collaborating with PokeSoc for the release of the new Pokemon game.
• Ben stated that he would contact the PokeSoc committee about the bar crawl and joint socials.

Wetherspoons Social

While Wetherspoons is typically busy on Fridays, certain esports players had already expressed their preference of going on Friday, Week 5 instead of Thursday, Week 5.

• Karen suggested having the esports players have their own Wetherspoons event on Friday however the members of the Committee agreed that idea would do more to separate the two sides of the society.
• Aidan suggested having the social still be on Friday but earlier.
  • The Committee responded stating that Wetherspoons is busy on Fridays even at 5 pm.

• Ben stated that the event should be held on Thursday the 7th of November (Week 5) as it wouldn’t be possible to fit the attending members in Wetherspoons on a Friday.
  • Despite this, Ben did agree that Friday would be a better day to have the social but wouldn’t be realistic.

• Josh stated that he doesn’t like having the social on a Thursday, stating that he doesn’t believe that anyone would want to drink on a Thursday.
  • Committee made it clear that the social would not be advertised as a drinking social but drinking would be allowed at the social.

• Committee decided to have a vote as to when the Wetherspoons social should be held:
  • Thursday, 7th of November – Ben, Mo, James, Karen, Aidan, Katie, Ryan.
  • Friday, 8th of November – Josh.
  • Abstain – Kieran.

Michaelmas LAN 1

Overnight booking for Michaelmas LAN 1 has not been confirmed.

• Mo stated that he would email to confirm overnight booking.

Committee decided that the LAN should end at 3 am as interest appears to drop off after that point.

Committee agreed that the LAN needs planning and decide to use the timetable from the Freshers’ LAN be a template for the this LAN.

Committee decided that we attempt having a PT event.

• Aidan stated that he may be able to acquire a copy of the game.
• Committee decided that having multiple events running simultaneously would not be necessarily bad but would depend on the event.

• Ben and James volunteered to do speedrun.
• Aidan and James volunteered to do PT.
• Noah and Kieran volunteered to do Smash Crew battles.
• Kieran, Katie, Ben and Mo volunteered to help do sections of the quiz.

Committee agreed that we need to but in a purchase request form for Jackbox 6.

Josh and Karen also suggested not having any League events as they were already done during the Freshers’ LAN.

• Other games that could be present at the LAN would include:
  • Overwatch
  • Tetris

• Karen suggested the 1 pm – 2 pm timeslot should be used as a “chill” time as a lot of people aren’t at the LANs by 1 pm anyway.
  • Karen also suggested that this time could be used to socialise with the Committee.

The final draft for Michaelmas LAN 1 is as follows:

12 pm	Finish set up
1 pm – 2 pm	Chill time
3 pm – 4 pm	Speed run bingo
5 pm – 6 pm	General Meeting
7 pm – 8 pm	Smash Crew Battles
9 pm – 10 pm	Quiz
11 pm onwards	Jackbox (would need to moderate), PT

General Meeting Agenda

Josh stated that the Committee needs to make sure that any decisions that are made regarding the Committee need to be added to the constitution before they can come into effect.

Josh expressed his belief that the new 3 unexplained meeting absences ruling is too harsh.

• Committee decided that the current ruling on absences from meetings would be kept along with the new ruling.

Kieran proposed the following General Meeting agenda items:

• Re-evaluating the necessity of the Smash and Bailrigg Officer role.
• Re-evaluating the necessity of the Community Officer role.
• Splitting the Engagement Officer role back into Publicity Officer and Engagement Officer/Social Secretary?

Committee also decided to add ‘Re-evaluating the necessity of the Equipment Officer role’ to the General Meeting agenda.

• Equipment would be everyone’s responsibility
• Ben suggested having Treasurer be the Equipment Officer
  • Josh and Mo objected for separate reasons:
    • Mo stated that Equipment Officer and Treasurer shouldn’t be the same person as that would result in centralised control over what equipment would be bought, even though they would still need to go through the exec.
    •  Josh stated that this merger would not solve the issue but only add more unnecessary delay.
  • It was also suggested that the Equipment Officer could be the Committee member that makes sure that PAT testing is done by a certified PAT tester.
• Karen stated that the agenda should include an item regarding redefining the Esports Co-ordinators’ role
• Karen stated that she doesn’t believe that Esports co-ordinators need to go to socials, as they don’t need to do anything at the socials that is role-specific, along with the casual nature of the County Social not being where their interests lie.
• Most of the Committee agreed with this sentiment.
• Ryan stated that he would be more incentivised to go to socials if there was more equipment.

The final draft for the agenda for the Michaelmas LAN 1 is as follows:

• Re-evaluating the necessity of the Vice President role.
• Introducing the new ruling about Committee absence during meetings.
• Checking to see if members are content with the current implementations of the Smash and Bailrigg Officer, Community Officer and Engagement Officer, while not actually acting on these motions.
• Re-evaluating the necessity of the Equipment Officer role.
• Redefining Esports Co-ordinators’ role.

19:25 – Katie left, was excused.

Esports Socials

Karen suggested the Esports players should have their own equivalent of a County Social.

• Ryan responded stating that he’s not entirely sure of the Esports players would want such a social.

It was suggested that this social would not happen as often as the County Social’s one-week frequency.

• It was suggested having this social be completely separate from the County Social but would be branded to have as wide a reach as possible.

• It was also suggested that the Society could use these socials to have mini-tournaments where non-members would pay for entry in for which there would be prizes.

BELONG Arena

• Regarding the BELONG Arena, the Committee, via Josh, has communicated to NSE expressing interest but would still need to organise transport.

• Agreed that the only times that would be suitable would be Saturday, 9th November (Week 6) from 6 pm to 9 pm.
• Ben asked Josh to check the arena’s availability so it can be booked as soon as possible.
• Committee would also have to prove the Society’s NUS status to book the arena.

AOB

• James stated that he felt that the Community Cast has gone well so far and that we could also stream members playing games of Jackbox.
  • It was stated by the Committee that it would be difficult to record and stream the footage due to the nature of Jackbox being played mainly on mobile devices.
    • James responded by stating that the Society laptop’s camera could be used to film the room for the stream.
• Mo stated that Jackbox games typically contain multiple in-jokes that most people watching the stream would not understand, reducing user engagement.
• 19:34 – Meeting End