Committee Meeting, Discord, 30/8/20

Meeting Start – 19:03

Jack welcomes everyone

Online First Term Prep

Josh says that we are not gonna submit the risk assessment for in-person meetings

Sam says there’s no feasible way we can have in person events

Jack says that its possible for Term 1 to be completely online

James states this is unfortunate

Josh states that Esports people still wanna do weeklies online

James asks how the weekly 1v1’s would work

Josh states its alternating games each week on Tuesdays (League CSGO Overwatch Rocket League)

Josh states this can be set up easily

Sam asks to be informed about dates to prevent overlap

Josh says there wont be much overlap, and thinks we should start on these from when people start moving in (Week -1 and Week 0 are freshers weeks)

James and Sam want a schedule sorted for Freshers

James checks the game-request channel for any new games requested, nothing new being added

James says that we do still want to advertise the game-request channel so we can organise events that the freshers want

Rhys goes back to esports weeklies and suggests that RL events should change to a different day due to conflicts

Josh agrees

Sam states that she has planned everything but needs to write it up, every tuesday from the start of socials. We will be running some form of casual event, like jackbox skribblio, joint socials. Wants to try to do more than one event in the week if people can host. Sam cant host Jackbox but others can.

James states that last years freshers, it was one week and we did an event on each of the days. However due to current circumstances it will be tricky to do that.

Sam states we wont have as strong of a pull due to current circumstances.

James says we are very limited on what we can do, including Smash Online as the latency makes it very unlikely to work.

Noah confirms this.

James recalls the events we had last year and sees if we can do any of those this year if they are online. The conclusion being “not really”. Then suggests more Jackbox streams and starting Skribblio.

Jack recommends Among Us as it is an excellent game at the moment

Josh states that it is as easy to set up as Jackbox, so it is easy

James likes this idea

Jack states that Among Us can be played on phone for free

Sam says she will get these socials planned by Wednesday

James asks about hosting Garry’s Mod

Jack says there is potential

James states that a lot of people have GMod, and that TTT, Prop Hunt, Pictionary and Sandbox are good ideas

Josh says we need to sort the bank account out so we can rent a server because hosting one would be too difficult.

James states that he has a circumstance where he can get the superfast rural internet to sort something else.

Josh goes back to money and asks if anyone objects to making the first term free.

James asks for clarification on whether to make term 1 free or make the yearly fee less.

Josh prefers Term 1 being free, then making Terms 2 and 3 roughly £4.

James and Noah express agreement

Josh says that we probably won’t end up spending any money during 1st term

Jack agrees

Josh states how he still doesn’t have access to Union Cloud

James then discovers that nobody has LUSU Union Cloud access; he then states he will submit a society help form.

Jack expresses concern.

James presses F to pay respects for Award Winning Browser “Internet Explorer”.

Jack also does.

Katie says that we would still want people to prove that they got membership even if it is free

James inquires about a free membership choice, that still needs a sign-up for

Josh says thats a good idea

James says we go back to the current item on the agenda, then asks Sam what events happening in freshers weeks

Sam will send an excel spreadsheet into the exec chat at some point

Sam suggests that events should not have a specific game, and should be more of a generic social, and then decide when it rolls around

James brings up Henry’s point, where during events, open voice channels for different purposes to be decided. As well as Exec introductions but this will be discussed in the next agenda item.

James asks for peoples availability for the freshers weeks

Josh thinks everyone will be available

Sam will be available once she moves in

James states again that this availability doesn’t include just hosting events. Still, he wants every event to have one person hosting and at least one person moderating.

Sam asks for everyone to DM her their availability so she can write down and sort things out later.

James requests that availability be sent in the exec chat, because it is useful for everyone to know

Rhys states he is moving in the weekend after this meeting, available from moving in

James asks about his previous commitments

Rhys states that his commitments were back at home and he no longer needs to do them.

James says if there is anyone on campus and not available, to inform the exec ASAP.

Jack states that he will not be back on campus until October 4th

James asks if he (Jack) will be available for hosting/moderating at home

Jack states he will be in the evenings, not during the days

James reminded that events should be started later on in the day due to members being available at the right times, as requested by Josh.

Sam says she can only do evenings anyway.

Josh states these availabilities will change once we are all back at uni

James asks for Sam’s excel spreadsheet to be posted in the exec by Wednesday

Exec Introductions

James messages Henry to give his point if he is available as instructed by Henry himself.

Henry is unavailable still.

Sam states she knows a good deal about Henry’s ideas

James states that he wants clarification on why these engagement team ideas are not being relayed to him, but he will investigate that later.

James asks Sam to give information about Henry’s proposition

Sam explains that the idea is during the first few socials, we have exec members in voice channels playing their favourite games, e.g. Josh in a voice channel introducing Among Us to fellow freshers, asking to play for a bit

James requests that Josh stays quiet about Alton Towers

Sam states the basic idea is to have exec introduce themselves in voice channels making freshers feel comfortable, then playing games with them, helping freshers get to know us.

James adds that adding text channels with each exec providing an introduction was also requested by Henry.

Sam asks for exec introductions to be possibly put on social media similar to how the JCRs and SU do theirs.

James states that some exec members might be uncomfortable with their picture being posted on social media with their introduction. Then asks the rest of the exec if they don’t want their pics posted.

Josh says he has no good pictures of himself

Katie says it can be a pic of his dog

James says it could be profile pictures instead if people prefered

Everyone jokes about putting anime pics instead

Hoodies

James states that now we know more about 1st term, recapping on the previous plan to get exec hoodies first, then wearing them in 1st term so people knew who we were. Followed by then organising hoodies for members.

James states that now there will be no meetings in person, so exec hoodies arent really needed until term 2.

James asks when we should request exec hoodies

Sam suggests November

James doesnt want them to be ready to collect by christmas, as we might not be able to collect them

Katie suggests having the hoodies ready for exec to take home before Christmas

James agrees, and will place the order at the start of November

James asks if anyone doesnt want a hoodie

Katie will see what theyre like first

Sam might not be able to afford it

James reiterates we have until November to decide and/or save up

A plan for Bank Stuff

James states he will be back in Lancaster in a week or so. He will have access to Barclays then, so he can submit the necessary forms.

James asks Josh who needs to give forms

Josh replies with just James and Katie. And Jack will need to be added later on

James states he can use the library printers to print off and fill out necessary forms

Katie is currently in a local lockdown, so is unable to do anything bank related

Josh states that we won’t be spending any money in 1st term, especially since we wont be taking in membership fees

James states that LUSU have allowed us more time to sort out bank stuff

James asks Katie if there is any way to send him a completed form

Josh iterates that each of them needs to give in their own forms in person. Which prevents Katie from doing anything at the moment.

James iterates that when Preston’s lockdown gets lifted, bank stuff will need to be sorted out.

Discord Moderation

James states that the Discord server has had a lot of questionable content posted recently, and as a result, questions on what to do.

James suggests requesting only English to be spoken in the server so that there is no confusion and everyone can be involved.

James and Jack acknowledge comments made against other countries and wonder if anything should be done about this.

Jack asks if any Discord ToS have been breached

Josh reveals a questionable message written by Member A, potentially discriminatory.

Josh did message Member A to stop and Member A argued against him about why it isn’t bad.

Sam recalls of non-members being banned straight away if the cause is bad enough

Josh recommends that we ban Member B after being advised by LUSU to do so.

James brings up how we will strip the current member role and give past member roles

Josh suggests renaming the current member role to past member.

James states this will give us two past member roles. James thinks there might be a more elegant way of doing this with Dyno, but is unsure.

James will attempt this in his spare time.

James quickly checks to see if there is any quick way to do it.

General Consensus on banning Member B as advised by LUSU.

Jack states that Member C is potentially making people uncomfortable.

James wanted more opinions on Members A and C.

Jack states Member C hasnt explicitly broken any rules so is not at risk of a ban.

Josh states there are flaws in the system.

James agrees.

James cannot get Dyno to work, so suggests to move on.

Discord Freshers Channels (More Opinions)

Josh doesnt like the idea of Freshers Channels

Jack says there are plenty of places to talk

James reiterates that some of the discord channels are topic-specific and are not suitable for general-chat. Still, general-chat might be a little intimidating with whats going on. So having a new empty channel for freshers might be useful.

Sam asks for a Freshers zone

James states we had chat and introductions channels last year that were used a decent amount

Katie also remembers this

James is all for having these channels again

Jack is hesitant on the name Freshers Fortnight due to possible confusion with an unrelated Battle Royale game.

General Consensus on Freshers Channels being a good idea

James falls back to moderation quickly and brings up only speaking English

Katie states it should not be enforced, but simply recommended. If it gets out of hand, then an exec can request them to stop and/or taking the conversation to DMs.

Jack states that most servers promote speaking English because it is the main language.

James states that we are also at an English University, and members should be able to speak English anyway.

James asks if anything should be done about Member A.

Katie states that they haven’t yet done enough.

General Discussion about whether or not Member A should be banned

James brings up that this member has directly targetted Member X. 

But due to it not being a LUGES specific matter, exec finalised on only keeping said member under observation.

General Consensus is that a ban should not be issued yet.

General Consensus is that we keep an eye on discussed members, and follow guidelines set in a previous meeting.

Further discussion on what should be done about this issue.

General Consensus is reiterated, observation and following discord guidelines.

James asks if there is anything else Discord related that anyone wanted to add

Rhys states that Discord is a very nice platform

James agrees.

James asks a bit more about moderating the esports server

Jack states Josh is moderating Esports server well enough

Josh states that a lot of the time, there are jokes, could be mistaken for breaking the rules

James asks if anything else in the Esports server needs addressing

Rhys gets interrupted while making his point

Rhys wants a new channel in the esports Discord

Josh states that this new channel can be made

James asks if anything else needs to be said

Esports Venue Summit 2020

Sam comments on the lovely weather

The previous president has sent James info on the Esports Venue Summit 2020.

James explains the email he received

Josh says it probably wont happen and it isnt worth LUGES attending

James asks for Rhys‘ opinion

Rhys has no clue

Josh states who it is probably run by, and that the esports people will not be interested.

James gets deafened by loud music from the website

Katie states that the virtual event is happening too so that might be possible

Josh still thinks it doesnt provide anything for LUGES, as esports members have claimed that they want LANs, not this virtual event.

James states that LANs will be difficult at the moment

Josh clarifies that it is tournament LANs that they want and not LUGES LANs.

James suggests we move on

Any other Business

No other business given

Jack declares the end of the meeting

Meeting end – 20:16