Minutes: 2002-2003/2002-04-22

Minutes of RockSoc Committee meeting

22nd April 2002

 

Present: Baz, Elizabeth, Peter, Ben, Oliver-Michael (Oli W later)

From the old committee: Andy M and Jason

 

Meeting opened 2045

 

1) Baz declared that the presence of a bottle of Australian chardonnay rendered us

quorate. He said that it had more brains than the rest of the committee.

 

It was mentioned that the neatly word processed agenda provided by the secretary was unusual in RockSoc, and that RockSoc etiquette demanded that

we use either beer mats or part of the Secretary's anatomy for this purpose. The secretary asked if she could claim toner and paper for these minutes

and agendas. It was agreed that she could.

 

2) The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

 

3) The Maybrawl

Andy M said that Kill II This had agreed a fee of L650, and that the contract was being drawn up. Jimmer said that Hangnail were bad at

answering mail/phone calls, but that in the last week he had established that they say

they usually mke a profit of around L250. Baz suggested offering them L250 (including expenses). Baz asked how much thay would expect for expenses.

Jimmer said that he didn't know. He had offered to help them keep expenses down by transporting their gear and up to 2 band members in Fire and

Forget's van, so that they would not have to hire one. He asked if the petrol could be claimed as expenses from RockSoc if they accepted this

offer. The treasurer said that this was OK. Jimmer also said that Hangnail were demanding

a rider of beer rather than the customary sandwiches. The committee agreed to this.

 

Hangnail have asked if we can take on their support band as well. This band is called Blackrock. The committee agreed that if Blackrock were offering

the play free we should accept, but that we could not afford another band whch needed paying, as the venue hire cost L900, plus at least L850 for

the bands. Jimmer said that he would find out if they needed paying.

ACTION: Jimmer to ask Hnagnail if L250 is OK and to find out if Blackrock want paying.

 

The treasurer went out to take a phone call. He came back. Elizabeth asked how much money

we might make and what the ticket prices would be. Kit said that RockSoc made a point of only charging a couple of pounds for gigs.

Elizabeth said that the Junction normally charge L8-12 for rock bands of this size, and that members would surely pay more for a gig with bands of

this status at the Junction than for smaller bands at the Boat Race. A price of L5 members L6 non-members was felt to be about right, but prices were

not finally decided upon.

 

4) The gig on 27th April

Elizabeth said that she had attempted to put the listing in Varsity last Tue, but that it had still not appeared on their website. She has also put

it on the Kerrang listings page. Ben said that he can arrange for it to appear in The Cambridge Student.(I have no idea what this is, but it

appears to be a publication of some kind). Andy has put posters in the several pubs and

record shops. He will take some flyers to WUS and distribute them. It was felt to be too

late to put up posters in Colleges, and Kit pointed out that it was very unlikely there were any death metal fans we didn't

know about in Colleges anyway, as there were only about 2 metalheads per College. Jason

offered to get future gigs and also WUS advertised on local radio as he knows a DJ there. He said it is too late to get a plug for this gig as

the show is on Sunday.

 

Baz and Andy M offered to meet the bands at 5pm on the night. Elizabeth and Oliver offered to turn up a bit later to help.

 

5)Gigs at the Boat Race in May.

Jason said that DarkCell were interested. Baz has e-mailed a lot of bands. They have all claimed not to be available. Demon and Girlschool have not

yet replied. Baz will mail the committee if any of them say yes. Ben suggested Mistress as he said he had heard that they were playing toilets at the

moment. Baz refused to hire Tangaroa on the grounds that he is unfamiliar with their new vocalist, even though some people thought that it was a

good idea to ask them. A band from Magdalene was mentioned, but by now everyone was talking at once so it didn't get minuted.

 

6) Booking gigs for the summer at the Boat Race

The committee wondered where the Ents Officer was. In her absence they adjourned this item.

 

7)Festivals this summer

Baz said that he had decided that RockSoc would not arrange a subsidised bus

to Donington because there was only one band he liked playing Donington

which wasn't going to be at Graspop and as he was going to Graspop he didn't

see why anyone else (for example those with insufficient funds to go abroad)

should therefore be offered the chance to go to Donington. Admittedly he

didn't put it quite like that, but that was the substance of his comment. He

also gave as a reason the fact that Opeth had a UK tour in the autumn. To be

fair he also pointed out that Graspop was already arranged now, and we can't

afford many more trips this summer. It was agreed that we can't afford a

trip to Donington.

He said that he had spoken to Andy H, who has booked a bus for Graspop and

that he is arranging Wacken. He has promised to mail the mailing list soon

to get names of persons wishing to attend these festivals.

 

Elizabeth enquired about the Italian festival on 8th June. Baz said that

RockSoc could not subsidise a trip to this festival. Oliver pointed out that

there really was no more money available for a subsidised trip this summer

given that the MayBrawl will cost RockSoc about L2000 and WUS is making a

bloody great loss at present. It was agreed that if there was huge demand a

trip might be organised, but at the moment it looked like a few people. It

was agreed that if anyone wants to organise a trip unsubsidised then RockSoc

will back it.

 

At this point Oli W arrived. He bought a beer.

 

The undergraduates present debated the merits of coursework Vs exams as a

method of assessing candidates in Higher Education.

 

8) Mandate

Oliver has one of these.

 

Kit said that when she was treasurer the bank were very insistent that all

signatories signed the mandate in the bank. Baz said that when he was

treasurer this was not so. Kit said they required ID from everyone. Andy M

said they hadn't last year. Someone suggested looking at the bloody mandate.

Some drunken attempts were made to do this. It was discovered that Andy and

Emma need to sign it, as do Baz and Elizabeth. It was decided that the other

signatories should be Oliver, Elise and Ben.

 

At this point Jimmer said that he had some torture instruments. It is

believed that he may not have intended this to be minuted. Oliver said that

he would go to the bank and ask them if they needed the committee members to

be physically present when they signed.

ACTION: Oliver to ask bank about mandate

 

9) Accounts

Oli has 'the old book'. Oliver promised to 'sort it out' with Elise. Baz

said that the previous year's minutes needed to be put on the website, as

they are now complete. E. Chapman has not signed the summary sheet for the

accounts where her name appears. The committee regretted that they had not

noticed this yesterday when she was in Cambridge. They agreed to try to

catch her next time she's here.

 

Baz said that we needed a summary of this year's minutes too from the Senior

treasurer. Oli agreed to arrange this.

 

Oli retained custody of the account book

 

ACTION: Oli to put accounts from previous year on website and get a summary

of this year's.

 

10) CD library

Andy H has this. Oliver should have it.

 

The committee agreed that it was heartily sick of this item appearing on the

agenda every week, so Oliver suggested selling it. Baz said that many items

were promos not for resale. Oliver suggested raffling it instead. Elizabeth

suggested loaning it to members. Those who had sat on the committee before

said that this had been tried, but the members tended to steal the CDs. It

was agreed that we should dispose of the CDs as they are not currently

serving any useful purpose.

 

Elizabeth pointed out that before we disposed of it we needed to catalogue

it and put it on the website as we had been mandated to do so more than a

year ago. Baz suggested we use the resulting catalogue as an advert for a

raffle.

 

Allegedly, Baz may have then asked a philosophical question about the

nature of the universe, particularly whether CDs which were previously in

the collection could spontaneously vanish and whether the embezzling of

valuable demos by those in charge of them was in fact possible in this

reality. Allegedly.

 

It was pointed out that the collection contained CDs by artists such as

Oasis. Elizabeth suggested burning these and charging the members to watch.

Andy Morgan suggested a clay pigeon shooting competition.

 

It was agreed that Baz would ask Andy to bring it to WUS, so that Elizabeth

could take it and give it to Oliver, who wouldn't be a WUS at the next Fire

and Forget rehearsal.

ACTION: Baz to phone Andy, Elizabeth to embez^H^H^H deliver the CDs :-)

 

11) Database

Elise has not given this to Elizabeth yet. The committee agreed that someone

should kick her.

 

12) Website

Oli has updated the website and made it available for inspection by the

committee. It was noted that the site is now up to date, which Baz held to

be a first. Some deficiencies were noted, including Emma's e-mail for

members to contact. Oli said that the site was not mirrored yet.

 

At 9.23pm the meeting was adjourned so that the President could make a phone

call and the Secretary could have a piss. Meeting recommenced 9.23pm

 

The subject of picture galleries on the webpage was discussed, It was

decided that a gallery on the page was not desirable, but that links to

other relevant galleries would be good.

ACTION: Oli to carry on with the good work.

 

13) Advertising WUS

It was noted that last week WUS had only 32 paying customers, and that this

by no means covers the cost of hiring the venue. It was also a cause for

concern that we can expect the same again in the summer, and that this term

the undergrads may have other things on their minds than WUS, for example

Tripos and May Balls.

 

It was decided that an advertising campaign is needed. Elizabeth offered to

put adverts in Varsity, AdHoc and the Cambridge Evening News. Ben said he

would have them put in the Cambridge Student.

 

Kit suggested driving around playing loud music. Baz said that he thought

the police might object. Andy M said that in his opinion a good way to

advertise would be for members to wear cheeseboards. Several people found

this amusing. My spellchecker believes that he might have suggested this in

error and that he may actually have intended to suggest the wearing of

chessboards. It was suggested that sandwich boards might be better.

Elizabeth suggested the Strawberry Fair as a good place to do this, and also

to hand out flyers.

 

It was suggested that RockSoc needed a mascot. Jimmer suggested Oli W

wearing a dress. It was also suggested that Oli attend the first WUS of

Fresher's Week wearing a dress and see if the Freshers could tell that he

was a man.

 

Siobhan asked Oli for her dress back.

 

Ben suggested that WUS could be advertised by handing out flyers after gigs.

He mentioned that he was going to several rock gigs at the junction in the

near future and offered to hand out fires. Oliver said more poster were

needed in bums and record shops.

 

Andy said that he would get Taff to make some posters and flyers for next

week's meeting.

 

Elizabeth suggested advertising in language schools over the Long Vac.

Jimmer suggested CRC too.

 

ACTION: Elizabeth to put WUS adverts in Varsity, AdHoc and CEN, Ben in CS

and to flyer some gigs. Andy to provide posters and flyers at the next

meeting.

 

14) Some photos of Oli in a dress were passed around the meeting. The

committee found them amusing.

 

15) Termcard

A list of dates for the termcard was agreed and written down. This was given

to Matt, who agreed to get them printed. Dates for this term were agreed for

the punt party, and a party on the piece, but they were then given to Matt,

so they aren't in the minute book. Damn.

 

It was agreed that the Megadeth playback party would be fairly tedious if it

meant 4 hours of Megadeth. It was decided that instead it should be a party

to honour all those who are sick (including Mustaine, Clive Burr and Cronos,

who apparently fell off a mountain recently) as well as those who died in

the last 6 months, of whom there are a surprising number.

 

This party is to be called 'The Sick and the Dead'. Date to be confirmed.

Matt said that this name was in poor taste. The committee agreed that it was

in bad taste, but that they were calling it that anyway. There was a strong

consensus that bad taste is what rock music is all about.

 

ACTION: Matt to get termcard printed and bring it next week.

 

16) Trip to Nottingham.

The committee managed to work out that the first Saturday in May was the

4th. A bus to Nottingham would be laid on, and people could then choose

either the Old Vic or the Rock City as they preferred.

 

ACTION: The minutes record that Baz expressed an intention to kick Emma

 

17) Membership card blanks

The committee authorised Elizabeth to get some printed.

ACTION: Elizabeth to get blanks printed

 

18) AOB

DarkCell phoned in a piece of AOB, namely that they would like to play on

the 24th May.

 

The rider for the gig on 27th was mentioned. Matt said that sandwiches were

usually provided, and it was agreed that this should be done.

 

Oli W delivered apologies for next week's meeting, as he will be in

Scandinavia. He claims that this is for business reasons, not so that he

can listen to power metal.

 

Meeting closed 2148