Committee Meeting, Discord 12/06/20 – Lancaster University Gaming & Esports

Committee Present

James Bulman (Chair)

Jack Holden (Minutes)

Rhys Appleby-Crosby

Katie Stevenson

Noah Valpy-White

Henry Potts

Committee Absent

Sam Innocent (Ill)

16:15 – Meeting Start.

James wishes everyone well.

New President, call for a GM and sort out what to do with Equipment Officer

James welcomes Jack as the co-opted President.

James calls for a General Meeting and suggests Sunday 28^th June or Monday 29^th June.

Henry suggests during the week.
James reiterates that it must be best for everyone.
Katie explains that after 3pm is the best time for her.
Sunday 28^th June decided the best day, and 3pm the best time.
James ensures that everyone knows to be free in order to check on the GM as it runs.
Henry suggests having two people in a voice channel to discuss the GM.

James asks what should be done with the Equipment Officer.

Katie mentions her and Jack discussing a solution, as the Equipment is currently unable to be attended to, the role of Equipment Officer should be distributed to the Executive Committee until we can physically return to university.
James asks if this would be a temporary action until we return.
Jack confirms this.
James states that this is fine to be brought as a motion for the General Meeting.
Jack then mentions what if the President nominations result in a RON majority regarding his old position as Equipment Officer.
James says that the motion would be made very clear that should RON wins, when term time begins next term Jack would resume to his original position of Equipment Officer.
James then suggests more transparency with the motions and not making them last minute.
Henry suggests notifying the Discord when motions are added.
James explains that motions should be added as soon as a GM is called and updated as soon as new motions are brought forward.

James summarises this section.

Reaffiliation

James explains what this next section is about, and that old members of the Committee will need to be contacted regarding bank information.

James says once he submits the handover form, everyone present will be considered the current Committee and will be able to send it to everyone.

James tells everyone that there are several training modules that must be completed: Data Protection, Duty of Care, Safeguarding Information, Appropriate Behaviour, and Equality and Diversity training.

James tells everyone that it can be spread out but must be completed as soon as possible, and then he can send the new Exec details.

James explains that group documents must be submitted, which includes the Constitution, an activity plan for the next year and a finance plan, which cannot be completed without the bank details being corrected.

Katie explains the current issue regarding the bank details being late, and that things are now in motion to obtain bank details.

James asks about Friends Funding.

Jack replies with a reminder that the Society has two laptops which were purchased with Friends’ Funding.
James asks if this is classed as sponsorship funding.
It is decided that it is not as we will not receive any more.

James says that UnionCloud must be updated with the Society’s profile and membership list.

Events

James asks about the current situation regarding Minecraft.

Jack says that the server is now working, however Aternos have said that there cannot be any more upgrades to the server’s RAM.
Jack then explains that when the response from Aternos shown to Brent, who has been looking after the server, Brent’s response was that the server wasn’t being used anyway.
James explains that this is because he hasn’t announced it yet and that maybe Aternos would change their mind about providing more RAM for the server.

Henry shares Sam’s event plan with the committee and explains the planned events.

James stops Henry midway through to explain that there is a possibility that first term may be online.
Katie suggests planning for online socials too.
Henry suggests some events could be hosted online from the plan.
James reminds people that an exec member will be needed in order to moderate the events.
James expresses concern over Freshers.
Henry explains his plan, which includes Freshers.
Henry suggests a good idea would be to do an event that isn’t college specific and introduce each committee member and what games they like, so that new people can find people who share similar interests, which could be done online.
Jack states he likes this opinion.
James agrees, but has doubts on if it would work as it will be difficult to do online.
Katie suggests focusing on e-sports more than casual gaming if things will be online.
James says he was hoping there would be e-sports events anyway.
Katie explains that an early focus on e-sports would get those more interested in e-sports to come instead of focusing solely on casual gamers.
Henry proposes getting people in the voice channels to talk.
James says that he would encourage people to use them.
Henry proposes minigames on the Minecraft society.
James agrees with it, mentioning various minigames that could be brought in.
Henry suggests Garry’s Mod.
James says it’s a good idea, but hosting would be an issue, maybe hosting could be done instead.
Jack says this could be investigated.
James expresses his concern for costs however a server would be better than an Exec member hosting on their machine.
James says G-Mod would be desirable but tricky to handle.
Henry suggests “Online LAN” events, where games are hosted.
James mentions possibly having a hub on the Discord, for many games to be run at the same time, however if they were society-run events, the exec would have to be present.
Henry returns to his original plan of having people share their favourite games, and potentially have the website display the preferred games of Exec members and Reps.
James says this would make the committee appear a lot more human.
Henry mentions the Animal Crossing society, where an event revolving around Animal Crossing could be hosted and people could interact with each other online.
James asks for clarification on if Henry is suggesting crossover events with the Animal Crossing society, as it is unconfirmed as to if they are affiliated as of this meeting.
Katie suggests ignoring any in-person events for now and focus on online events.
James agrees, as we have some plans already if in-person events are possible.
Henry suggests doing the Animal Crossing event online.
James explains if the Exec would need to be involved and that this can only be discussed if the Animal Crossing society are affiliated.
Katie brings forward the point of those in the Animal Crossing group most likely not having Discord due to her knowledge of the people in the group.
James actively encourages the push of using Discord as it is very useful for communicating whilst gaming.
Henry suggests demonstrating how Discord works.
James mentions that the Animal Crossing group would promote this society if LUGES were to promote them, which could be used to our benefit, and Discord could be promoted through this.
Henry suggests maybe streaming Animal Crossing.
Jack asks how this would be done from home.
Multiple people respond by saying with the use of a capture card.
Noah mentions that the society has one however it is in Storage.
Henry says that maybe streaming a mobile game could be done and people may share Dodo Codes for Animal Crossing.
James brings up that talking about games is repeating the podcast concept, which became too high maintenance.

James mentions the view count for the most recent Jackbox stream, which was 71.

James suggests that Henry publicise the Jackbox streams more.
Henry suggests that a group of the Exec playing Jackbox may get more people involved.
James explains he was attempting this by asking some committee members to moderate with him.
Jack mentions his intent to help James before things came up.
Katie tells James he doesn’t have to do everything by himself.

Henry summarises his previous points.

James asks if any immediate events need to be done, and if Jackbox is still wanted.

The committee say yes to Jackbox.

James asks Henry if he could maintain the social medias.

Henry replies with a yes.

Esports and LA1 TV

James explains that Rhys had forgotten to send the request to LA1TV, however it has now been sent off.

Rhys explains that he sent a message to LA1TV’s Facebook explaining that he can’t personally tell them they can stream as it isn’t his thing.
Katie interjects asking if this regards friendlies.
Rhys was unaware that this meant friendlies yet.
Katie says that e-sports games would be the end goal but starting off with friendlies would be best.
Rhys explains that this would be entirely possible.
Katie speaks of a previous meeting with Mahi where Mahi stated that some of the e-sports members wanted to try casting and this would be the perfect chance for them.
Henry asks if LA1TV/Bailrigg could stream Jackbox to promote this.
James says he was planning on asking LUSU for a shoutout regarding promoting the society through this.
Katie says only e-sports commentating was mentioned by LA1TV.
James asks the committee if broadcasting Jackbox through LA1TV would be a good idea.
Katie explains that Jackbox will be hard to moderate and that we should focus solely on e-sports for the time being.
Henry suggests a delay to prevent any accidents on the stream.
Katie says this should be discussed later as the main focus should be on e-sports.

James asks if anything else needs to be discussed.

Henry asks if a Halo e-sports team could be made.

Katie asks what’s happening with e-sports currently.

Rhys responds with not much, as e-sports during summer is due to start later.

Katie suggests we should try to do more for e-sports as it has been brought up a lot that we do very little.

James mentions that the e-sports teams don’t say what they would like which makes things difficult.
Katie says we can do loads, such as 1v1 tournaments which could be easily done.
James says he doesn’t understand how e-sports events work and he wouldn’t be able to run them, however, encourages other people to try if they can.
Jack mentions that Overwatch 1v1s have been popular in the past and that similar events should be hosted again.
Rhys explains that the thing with e-sports and competitions is how much we’d want from it, and that the member of exec that is moderating will probably need to own the game and have knowledge of it.
Jack says he has most games that have an e-sports scene.
Katie says she has Overwatch too.
Rhys lists games and several members of the exec say they own them.
James asks if the Hearthstone team is still up.
Rhys doesn’t know if the team is still active however there is a section in the Discord for them.
Rhys expresses concern over the better players beating everyone else in competitions.
Katie says that previous events have shown this to be a rare occurrence.
Rhys suggests setting up a form and making randomised rosters to make things more interesting.
James expresses an interest in this.
Katie states that it’s the same in that whoever is better will usually win.
Jack suggests that prizes could be introduced later as an incentive for people to take part.
Noah explains issues with games hosted over the internet.

Henry mentions people speedrunning games.

James says this wouldn’t be much of an event.
Henry replies saying this would be more of a fun stream than an event.
Rhys asks if there is a channel in Discord based on when people may be streaming.
Rhys also expresses concern on if things go wrong on a stream that has been promoted in a LUGES discord channel and if the society would be shut down.
Katie says we’d get in trouble but wouldn’t be sure if we would be shut down.
Rhys says this may limit how we do things as we might appear fearful of being shut down.
James suggests leaving this for now.

Planning for summer events and clarify what’s in store for 1st term

James explains he wants to sort dates for the proposed events.

Henry mentions Pokesoc hosting online events every 2 weeks.
Jack suggests asking people what they would like to see in socials in the weekly announcements, as socials in the past feel as though they have no direction.
James says this is because the society is a very vague one.
Jack suggests clarification within socials by getting people to post in the feedback channel.
James reminds Jack of what happened last time in the feedback channel.
Jack says more moderation could be done.
James mentions the game requests channel, with suggestions such as GTA IV.
Henry recalls his previous suggestion, explaining how it could spawn new communities within the society.
Rhys says different games theming socials may give socials more meaning.
James explains how we tried this sort of approach with themes, which was going to result in high cost.
Rhys says that even if it is expensive, we should try and do more as it is our job and why people pay to join the society.
Katie explains that there’s no way we could afford multiple Switches.
Rhys further explains his belief of the society, in providing things for people that they can’t normally experience.
James explains that it’s hard to provide things right now however there are things in place such as the Minecraft server for this to be done in the meantime.
Rhys provides a solution in finding a free game that everyone can play every few weeks.
James explains why Jackbox is a good idea.
Henry asked how the themed socials went
James responds by saying there were not many people consistently, staying only for specific themes.
Rhys mentions we should help people enjoy themselves, even if it’s for one day of the year.

James returns the conversation back to the topic and asks for suggestions.

James suggests Minecraft Hunger Games.
Henry suggests Race for Wool and Terraria.
James specifies Minecraft is one option and follows up with Jackbox.
James moves to planning events, spacing between events and dates.
Henry suggests Skribbl.io.
James says it could work and mentions adding to announcements to ask in the game requests chat.
Rhys backs Skribbl.io if an Exec member is present.

Henry asks how many new “temp members we have.

James says that a few of them are current members mocking the system.
James says there are 31 temp members.

James asks people to brainstorm suggestions and that Jackbox will be hosted at the normal rate.

James tells the exec that any notifications towards the committee in the Discord channel is important.

James summarises this portion of the meeting.

Facebook Group

James asks who is allowed into the Facebook group.

Katie says that the group is for anyone at Lancaster University who is interested in games.
James explains he’s received mixed signals about this.
Katie clears things up for James in that those wanting to join must fill in the questions to be given access.

AoB

Henry has two things he wants to bring up. Firstly, Henry suggests making the two roles of social secretary and publicity officer into one role temporarily as Sam is out.

James explains that the two roles bounce off each other well, and the merging is not needed.
Katie backs this up.

Henry then asks if 4pm is the normal time for meetings.

James suggests checking the actions channel as the meeting times are usually posted and updated in there as it is the most important channel.

Katie explains how she has been contacted for a sponsorship for LUGES.

James asks who they are.
Katie explains that they promote STEM subjects.
James expresses concern over the legitimacy and topic of the sponsor.
Katie explains how they contacted her about it because they are based in Lancashire and they’re proven to be legitimate as they paid her for sponsoring them a single time.
James and Jack both suggest knowing what we would be getting and what they would be getting.

Henry mentions another game that could be played at a social: Cubeworld.

This could be discussed later.

James asks people to continue suggestions after the meeting in order to plan the events calendar.

18:01 – Meeting End.