2018/19 Term 3 Week 3 Exec Meeting Minutes

10 May 2019

Posted by Finnbar ( Avatar for finnbar finnbar )

You can view the full PowerPoint meeting minutes on Google Slides. This meeting was conducted way back on 10/5/19 at 1600-1700 in S2.73. Sorry for the delay! I've been busy with exams and this is the first day off I've taken in weeks.

Introduction

Exec Present

Finnbar (Secretary) Callum (President) Thomas (Web Admin) Jon Bell (RPGs) Jon Cheah (Wargames) Benjamin (Treasurer) Josh (Boardgames) Jakub (LARP) Luke (Comms) Anakin (Assistant RPG) Ares (Graphic Design, Acting Draft)

Exec Absent

Timothy (Quartermaster, his shoulder probably still hurts) Nigel (Holiday Rep, has no excuse)

Orders of Business

  1. Quiz
  2. Buying more advertising material for Socs Fair
  3. FAQs
  4. Something for Luke to collect cool stories with
  5. SU Training discussion
  6. BOARDGAYMES
  7. External announcements channel
  8. Serious channel
  9. General Discord moderation

Content

Reminders and Updates

  1. Society Documents: We're gonna submit the new Constitution once it's been EGM'd (Wed Week 9). The Memorandum is in Callum's bag. Risk Assessment yet to exist.
  2. Socs Awards Nominations Complete! (After Meeting Note: Hey, we actually got shortlisted.)
  3. Laserquest with CompSoc: Messaged CompSoc's social sec, will run Tuesday Week 9.
  4. B2.02 Cupboards: Responsibility has transferred to Callum and Finnbar.
  5. Badges and statuettes are still on sale! If you look at slide three of the meeting slides you can see a good meme,
  6. Hoodie orders: Since the meeting, they've been sent off.

1. Quiz

The quiz is Week 9 Thursday evening (same time as Socs Awards >:( ), and Ares is hosting. Ares is taking one round - volunteers for the rest of the rounds were Callum, Thomas, Anakin, Luke and Jon Bell. Ten questions, please don't make the scoring stupid. Most importantly, Scottish John will probably do a bonus round, hell yeah.

2. Socs Fair Advertising

Mini Socs Fair is Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd June, 9-5 (or at least one of them depending on what the SU decides). We need advertising material!

  • Business Cards: We have many of the generic ones left from previous fairs.
  • Posters: We have an A5 and an A4 one. Ares will print a bunch more of the A5 ones (on a generic printer, so free).
  • Pin Board: We have access to a pin board - Ares will legitimately acquire a laminator and laminate various logos, event posters and photos to stick up on it. They'll also look into a society flag. We might also have the D&D rainbow flag but that's unlikely to arrive on time.
  • Logo Statue: Will be £20, Benjamin will see if that's feasible. I'll get measurements.

We'll do a sign up sheet for this, remembering that the Megagame is on the Friday so we'll have limited exec around then.

3. FAQ

The FAQ is available but unlinked for the moment on the website, but is a bit long. Luke is in charge of cutting this down to a reasonable size that doesn't duplicate the website description. Thanks Luke! Callum also suggested maybe putting the full FAQ as a PDF (including the questions to be culled) but we thought it wouldn't be read. Once the ritual cull is complete it'll be linked to on the front page!

4. Something For Luke To Collect Cool Stories With

Luke would like a way to collect cool stories from events he's missed, for he cannot go to every single event we run (ex-Comms Officer interjection: lightweight :P ). Fortunately two ideas were presented and put into motion:

  • A message at the top of the newsletter to the effect of "Did a cool thing at one of our events? Contact us and it might be featured next week!"
  • A Discord channel for cool stories. #highlights

5. SU Training Discussion

Various exec went to the relevant training. Socs Forum happened (notes here), as did Welfare training, but many useful points were made during the Inclusivity Workshop attended by Benjamin and Ares. It ended up being a discussion so lots of useful points that could be done by the society were raised. Let's a-go:

  1. An anonymous poll of our membership asking for feedback and suggestions. Apparently the SU have our demographic details which we can access (Thomas will investigate). We can run such a poll at the end of term three.
  2. We could run a buddying scheme for Fresher's Week - existing members offer to be a buddy to a nervous fresher, play games etc.
  3. To get more people to run for exec, get members to do small exec-like tasks, such as GMing an RPG or helping run boardgames. (After meeting note by Callum: bring in members to help run events as an assistant.)
  4. Apparently we get a weekly email from the Societies Officer, but I've never seen it...
  5. You can go to specific SU officers for specific issues.
  6. Make a code of conduct and stick it on the door of events!
  7. Apparently you can elect multiple welfare officers, which is kind of what we've got now that Equal Ops doesn't entirely exist. Might be good to try and get a non-male Welfare Officer in our next exec (or from outside the exec).
  8. For wellbeing needs we can refer people to the advice centre upstairs in the SU, which the SU is working on centralising.
  9. Keep people aware that they can join the society whenever!
  10. Could frequently print out A5 schedules (just generic printouts), along with links to the site.

The Welfare training also provided some action-by-action points on inclusivity, which is useful to follow.

6. Boardgaymes

Pride month is June, and there was much discussion about running special events for that week! It was concluded that it would be run in week 8, and needs to be more than just renaming the events. Running a charity Magic Cube Draft was mentioned, but otherwise we need to think of other events to run (if you're reading this and have an idea, let us know).

Equalitea was also mentioned and will be run during Boardgaymes in Week 8 - this is a Stonewall fundraising event where people buy tea and cake. Ares has briefly discussed this with Sam in the SU, and we can possibly get free hot water canisters from them. Discussion was had about moving boardgaymes to be earlier so we have cake from midday (people are more likely to buy cake then), but people there from 2 might miss out due to hungry lunchtime cake purchasers. This is a decision to be made closer to the time.

Ares could also do their talk on gender identity (they did one for Physics Postgrads) again, but there isn't really a best day for this. They'll try to determine interest. Finally, there's a schedule on slide 11 for the end of this term, and it looks very busy.

7. External Announcements Channel

There was discussion on having an #external-announcements channel on the Discord for events we'd like to publicise but don't run. This includes LGBT+ events and LANs. We considered having it as a footer in the newsletter (this was in fact suggested at the Inclusivity Training), but the newsletter footer is already quite large so a Discord channel was suggested.

In the end, the main aim is to show we're supportive and inclusive, and could lead to us going to events as a society.

  • Who manages it? Ares doesn't mind running it, Luke is happy to promote events in the newsletter when asked.
  • How do we implement it? Two options were considered.
    • Locked so only exec can post, and make it clear you can contact exec to get stuff advertised. Could be seen as us promoting only events we like, but this is fine as it's our space to promote stuff. Must pass events by the rest of the exec before promoting them.
    • Open, with very strict rules and moderation. Difficult to moderate, not uniform.
    • We voted on it: 8 for locked, 0 for open, 2 abstain, 0 for no channel at all. Thomas will carry this out.

8. Serious Channel

Discussion was had about having #serious, for serious discussion. Should this exist in our society Discord?

  • It could promote arguing, but also moves possibly difficult conversations away from more general channels and into ones only people who want to have serious discussions are in.
  • Our server isn't really the place for this kind of debate - it's for lighthearted tabletop content, and we don't have the responsibility to provide this space.
  • Some people in the server are trying to avoid serious matters altogether.
  • The argument breaking out was independent of a serious channel, it was just people talking about a current event - but it's difficult to distinguish between discussion on current events and #serious.

We also discussed the different ways it could be implemented.

  1. A doormat channel with a pinned post explaining how to join a secret channel.
  2. A secret channel explained in the rules.
  3. Open which is read only only once opted into.
  4. Open.
  5. We don't implement it at all.

There was a vote on whether #serious should exist: 0 for, 6 against, 2 abstain (some exec members had to leave the meeting early). There was also discussion on whether #off-topic-and-shitposting should be split into two channels so #off-topic could be used for discussion of current events, the vote for this was 7 for, 0 against, 3 abstain.

9. Discord Moderation

We currently have every exec essentially acting as moderators of the Discord, which can lead to problems as different exec handle things differently. How do we make moderation more consistent?

Points to Discuss

  1. Have a few assigned mods from within exec - more consistent, but pushes pressure on a few people when these things happen.
  2. Have a very specific set of guidelines to follow when moderating. How do we define these?
  3. Could add to rules?
  4. What happens if another exec is out of line?

Discussion and Votes

  1. Do these have to be from exec? Could link into idea from earlier of getting members involved so they run for exec. Could also promote those mods to the exec channel on the Society Discord. Thomas can be head moderator in that sense. Any mod should notify all others if they are going to deal with an issue so there aren't conflicts. Mod should have priority, but exec can still try to solve issues in worst case. Vote on full members joining mods happening: 9 for, 0 against, 1 abstain.
  2. Code of Conduct links into this easily. Poll members as to what they'd like in said code (what would you like to change in the society?). We need to include procedures as well. Also need to be careful with too many people complaining about it being out of line (pouncing on them). In the end, let a moderator claim and sort it, and try to avoid members joining in. People make mistakes, both parties need to be careful.
  3. Rewrite with respect to mod changes and Code of Conduct. "If you see a mod dealing with an issue, don't join in".
  4. To be dealt with within exec, probably as a small meeting (Pres, Welfare, Equal Ops) first.

Next Meeting

The following will be discussed, with bracketed members focussed.

  1. Brief discussion on what we charge for board games. (Josh, Benjamin)
  2. Sponsorship (Benjamin)
  3. Socs Fair logistics (Ares with respect to advertising)
  4. More boardgaymes (Ares)