Committee Meeting, Discord, 30/01/21

Henry’s Quick thoughts on the agenda in case he isn’t here to

• Rules: He wants them to be harsher
• No comment on Member A’s appeal
• Closing server to non-members, a good idea
• Reaction poll tournaments, a good idea
• Twitch account streaming games is also a good idea
• 18+ games warning is reasonable
• Doesn’t care when the GMs are except on Wednesdays or Sundays
• Minecraft good, wants casual Overwatch events.
• Really wants Halo events
• Speedrunning socials are a good idea
• Really wants to play Scott Pilgrim
• Keeping the website running is a good idea

18:15 meeting start

Discussing Rules and amending areas

Katie asks about discussing rules and amending areas

James states this was mainly Jacks ideas

Nina also has some ideas

Nina says that its difficult for her and James to understand the rules and when they are broken, thinks it would be easier to declare severities of rule-breaking. States that discussion had to take place on what to do when someone uses a racial slur.

Katie clarifies that some of the rules should state that they are more severe than others.

James states that all exec members should states specifically the part of the broken rule so that the banned person knows what they did wrong.

Katie states that she has done this before, like referring to evidence.

Nina recalls the rule about speaking in English.

James clarified that it is less of a rule and more of a request.

Nina says that if people violate the speaking English rule repeatedly, then they would be subject to the chain of bans.

Katie says that it is more about using common sense to show respect as it is more of a request. Saying that we would need to pull people aside if they continuously ignore people and have conversations that nobody can understand.

James says that a further offence after being issued a warning would also fall under “Follow any reasonable request made by a committee member.”

Katie says that it would be okay to say individual words in another language, but if it comes to a point when they are disruptive, action needs to be taken.

James states that if it comes to a point where people are getting excluded because a conversation is not in English, then punishment is suitable.

Katie says that a lot of rules are heavy on the judgement of exec members, as a lot of stuff can be taken as banter whereas others may consider it unacceptable.

Nina states that exec members with autism can struggle to make these kinds of judgement calls due to their nature.

Katie understands, stating that it is difficult to make the rules easier to enforce as there are many possibilities. Recalling previously people who would accept different things as banter.

Katie states that it is difficult to see what people’s reactions are in text chat, but in voice chat, if people seem to be made uncomfortable with things, potentially action should be taken. 

Nina recalls a previous encounter with a member being made uncomfortable by another, there was clear awkward silence showing discomfort.

James clarifies that this discomfort occured when the members in question had basically just met each other.

Katie states that if a friend said that kind of thing to her then she would not be uncomfortable, but strangers saying the same thing would make her uncomfortable.

General consensus on this point.

Katie says we can add certain clauses to specify the rules more. 

Nina recalls people making paedo jokes who only got 24 hour bans because it was their second offence.

Katie thinks this should be a more severe punishment. But things like political discussion should remain a step by step ban.

Nina states that jokes about paedophilia is a violation of the discord community guidelines, so things like that should certainly be dealt with straight away.

James states that he finds it challenging to analyse emotions of other people especially online behind a screen, which is why he always asks the exec for their opinion and asks the victim if they have been offended. 

Katie states that it is completely fine given the circumstances and anyone should be free to ask other exec members for help.

Discuss Member A’s appeal

Katie states that Jack isn’t here to add anything.

Nina asks what would happen if the appeal is successful.

James states that the outcome will either be “No effect”, “Ban partially lifted”, or “Ban completely lifted”

Nina states this is similar to how LUSU operates its appeal system.

James states his concern on how the appeal info can be read, as he read the breach number and the number of breaches of which an appeal has been requested.

Nina took that to mean the number of breaches that the member has had.

James asks who we will select as the 5 non-committee members.

Katie thinks we can do this but not at random

James states we should have these members be ones who are not friends with Member A.

Katie knows a few people who could do it. It is doable but not randomly.

James and Nina both want to make sure that the panel members are not good friends with Member A.

Katie says we need to find 5 people after the meeting.

Closing majority of the server to non-members

Katie states we will need to vote on these things

James is unsure why the server was reopened to non-members in the first place. He recalls that Jack seemed to think the server was closed to non-members.

Katie reminds James that this was a motion that was voted on. She claims she was against the server being opened to non-members but was voted out.

Katie thinks it might be a good idea to put it to a vote again.

Nina thinks that there is no incentive to get FREE LUGES membership as we are not offering anything that non-members don’t already have. If we close it again, then people have reason to join.

James reminds everyone what the #information channel says and comments on how out-of-date it is.

Katie thinks we should have a lot of motions declared to vote on/

Video game channels that are 18+ should have warnings applied.

Katie states that if this is in Discord guidelines then it is indisputable that this is required

General Consensus

No vote required

Henry arrives again at 18:35

Using social media accounts to do reaction polls

Katie thinks this is a good idea for things like Facebook and Instagram

Everyone states that we can make Instagram stories with polls

Katie states again that we don’t need to vote on that.

James just wants to make sure nobody is against it.

Henry thinks exec members propose their favourite games

James suggests bringing back the County quiz

Henry agrees

Katie doesn’t want to do it weekly as it has been a proper chore in the past

Katie thinks bi-weekly is best

James says that online quizzes are easy to cheat on, but having things like Kahoot or Skribblio to control that would be good.

James reminds everyone that there’s a lot that people will likely not know

Nina suggests themed quizzes

Henry wants Halo: Reach quiz

James says if nobody has any serious concerns then we can go forward with these.

Katie and Felix think that having events too frequently deters people from showing up. Quality not Quantity.

James states that we have taken the Jackbox socials off Facebook as they are stressful to organise and there is not much point in keeping it there anymore.

Henry thinks it makes it easier to run on Discord only, and easier to moderate.

General Discussion on how the Jackbox Social on Facebook isn’t worth it.

Henry suggests weekly highlights

Katie and James thinks that is too much to do every week

James stated that editing those kinds of videos take a long time

Katie wants more exec to log into social media and post content

Henry wouldn’t know what to post

Nina suggests throwback Thursday

Katie states as long as its SFW and engaging then it can’t hurt

Henry suggests having a Halo Master Chief Collection semi-official event to run and stream on Discord.

Katie says that is a good idea but that Henry might be the only exec member there

James states that he could be there to just moderate.

Utilising the Twitch account to stream games like Detroit: Become Human

James states that we have tried this before at one of our LANs, it was not properly advertised and only 3 people showed interest.

James thinks that if this kind of thing was its own event, we might try and make it work. But this idea has been shot down before in previous exec meetings.

Henry still wants a Telltale playthrough.

James is unsure if people want this kind of thing.

Katie suggests having polls to gauge interest.

Nina recalls a Jackbox poll where people responded to it, but those people didn’t show up.

James talks about a similar time when this happened for Gmod Murder. People voted for it and just didn’t turn up.

Henry thinks that the people who would normally come to the in-person socials dont come to the online socials

James has commented on previous events asking why the people who voted for the event didn’t show up.

Katie thinks it might be a good idea after we do some polls.

James suggests a semi-official event.

Henry suggests Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy

Finalise dates for the GM(s)

James doesn’t think we can do this without Jack present. Josh requested a GM to lower quorum from 15% of total member count, to just 10%. Then the AGM will be for elections and honorary memberships and stuff like that.

Katie thinks this needs to be put along with the stuff that needs to be voted on.

James thinks this has been delayed too long and is going to just put some options in exec chat and have people vote on them before going to Jack to authorise it.

James suggests week 15 and week 18.

Katie agrees with sending it to Jack

James asks about the format that the GM takes place in

Katie likes the way it has been done previously, with a day to discuss and a day to vote, along with specific channels for each motion.

Henry does not like this, and prefers voice channels to text channels, then it would feel like a more in person GM.

James and Katie don’t like this.

Nina thinks it will be harder to moderate

James thinks people will be much more comfortable saying things behind the comfort of a screen.

Katie thinks it will take too much work, and asking questions throughout the day being answered when people are free is a lot better.

James recalls how bad the first GM went due to certain members causing issues.

James and Nina then recall how the previous GM went, and how it was quite successful.

Katie agrees.

Bringing back events like Minecraft and Gmod

James asks questions quickly as we are pressed for time

James asks Katie and Felix if they have any significant problems with Minecraft and Gmod events being brought back

Felix and Katie say no.

James states that the Engagement team will work on these events

Possible discontinuation of the website

Katie asks if the website is out of date

James and Nina state the website isnt and cannot be kept up to date because nobody knows much about how it works.

Nina would also include the steam group in this case.

James states that we need to make sure that anything important stored on there is taken elsewhere, like the discord rules, constitution and the branding.

Henry thinks it should be kept as it is easier to find than other societies.

Nina reiterates that it paints a bad picture if it is out of date

Henry says he can maintain it if he needs to.

Katie says that next exec might not be able to do that.

Nina states that currently people are being given wrong information about the society if they visit the website.

Katie once again says this should be put to a vote

James agrees but wanted discussion first.

Henry wants the steam group to be resurrected in order to help with other events

James personally doesn’t like steam groups and doesn’t want to use them

James states that we would need to sign into the LUGES steam account every time and that is difficult. And that it would also be difficult to moderate.

Katie says that James should put a few things to vote on in the exec chat

Any other Business

Henry asks if he can run a semi-official speedrunning event.

James reminds everyone that any exec member can run and host a semi-official event.

Nina needs to watch G2 win LEC.

Katie will talk with James about bank stuff

James yells “I like cheese!”

Meeting end 19:00