Minutes: 2002-2003/2002-04-29

Subject:

Minutes 29/04/02

From:

"Elizabeth Watts" <empp1@hotmail.com>

Date:

Tue, 30 Apr 2002 20:32:18 +0100

To:

rocksoc-announce@chiark.greenend.org.uk

 

Here are the minutes of this week's RockSoc committee meeting. Expect more than the usual number of typos, as I have a new keyboard which is slightly smaller than my old one.

 

------------------------------------------

Minutes of the RockSoc Committee meeting 29/04/02

 

Present: Baz, Elizabeth, Ben (for about 5 mins), Jester, Emma and Oliver-Michael.

From the old Committee: Andy M

 

Apologies: Oli Wade

 

Meeting opened 2042

 

1) Baz demonstrated to the assembled members his astonishing inability to distinguish between the number 2 and the number 7.

 

2) Minutes for approval

Baz whined about being sniped at in last week's minutes. Elizabeth agreed not to snipe at him so much. Even though he can't tell 2s from 7s :-)

 

It was also agreed that the paragraph about trips to festivals should be amended to read 'Andy said that he would not be organising a RockSoc trip to Dynamo'.

 

3) Flyers for WUS

Andy M said 'Oh fuck, is it tonight?' Andy will meet up with Ben tomorrow if possible to give him the flyers for distribution at Idlewild and Hundred Reasons.

He will also arrange to give them to Emma.

ACTION: Andy M

 

4)MayBrawl

At this point the meeting became rather disorganised, with several Committee members talking at once, often about different agenda items or disparate things such as their new CDs and it became rather hard to minute the discussion. Apologies for any mistakes. From here on, the minutes have been re-ordered to follow the agenda, because if presented chronologically it would be extremely difficult to follow which event each person was talking about.

 

Hangnail have had to pull out of the MayBrawl. A new support act is required. Darkcell are unable to appear on the 18th or 24th, but Jason said that they might be interested in supporting at the MayBrawl. Emma suggested we use a local band, because they would bring in a following with them.

 

Epitaph and the Enchanted have also expressed interest in the support slot. Oliver mentioned that they were very good on Saturday. The assembled members agreed that they rocked mightily. Emma pointed out that members might not necessarily be anxious to turn out to see them twice in 2 months.

 

Jimmer said that he would speak to BlackRock to see if they were interested.

 

Emma offered to do the publicity for the MayBrawl. Elizabeth mentioned that the Junction should be contacted to ensure that Kill II This appear on their monthly 'What's On' sheet. Emma offered to do this tomorrow.

 

Andy mentioned that Kill II This still have not signed the contract. It was agreed that he should keep trying, as this impedes the might RockSoc publicity machine not a little.

 

ACTION: Andy M to continue trying to get the contract with KIIT signed.

Emma to prepare publicity and speak to the Junction about same.

Jim to ask Blackrock if they want the support slot.

Jason to ask Darkcell the same.

(Person to catch the shrapnel if they both say yes undecided :-)

 

4) Gigs at the Boat Race.

Siobhan asked if the gig on 24th May was on. The Committee said 'Yes'

Elizabeth mentioned that this was the night before Ozzfest, and so most of Cambridge's metalheads would not be in the Boat Race by reason of being in a tent at Castle Donnington that night. She suggested therefore that a genre other than metal be presented at this gig, and suggested something that would appeal to the goths, as a smaller proportion of them of them would be at Donnington. Emma agreed to organise such a gig. She mentioned that Wasp Factory are offering a new and interesting band. She mentioned a number of possible bands.

 

Emma mentioned that she met a man at Whitby who was making a short film about goth culture and wanted to film a goth gig. She suggested contacting him and offering to let hi film this one. She pointed out that this may attract customers who wanted to be filmed.

 

Baz said that he had e-mailed a dozen or so bands about the 24th gig. He offered to take responsibility, with Ben, for sorting out bands for this date. The names of some bands were mentioned. Kit said that if the Positives were hired she would volunteer to burn down the Man in the Moon the night before, as it was well known that this was the only way to get any of the Positive's followers out of there.

 

ACTION: Emma to book bands for 24th

Baz and Ben to book bands for 18th

 

5) Future Boat Race bookings

Siobhan said that the Boat Race was booked up until September.

Emma said that she would book a date for October. Baz suggested the week after Fresher's week, because Freshers have thousands of squashes to go to in Freshers week. He also mentioned that Leee Dorian had recently made a really good album.

ACTION: Emma to sort out bookings for October.

 

5) Promoting WUS

The numbers at WUS were a little better (about break even) last week, but they are still significantly down on what they used to be at the Q. As WUS has traditionally been our main source of income, this remains a worry. Hypotheses were advanced to account for this decrease in order to formulate strategies for reversing it.

 

Emma pointed out that numbers at the Calling had not fallen. She attributed this to the fact that a high proportion of Calling-goers were in gainful employment, whilst many WUS goers were students of one kind or another; as a result she hypothesised that the higher bar prices may be a greater deterrent for WUS goers. She also hypothesised that Calling-goers were more committed to their subculture than WUS peeps. It was suggested that the Kambar be approached again about bar prices, suggesting more promotions.

 

 

Kit proposed an alternative hypothesis. She said that people went to the Calling because it was a very good place to pull. (she did not mention any specific strategies for solving this problem, which perhaps was just as well :-)

 

 

Oliver pointed out that a number of regulars at the Q WUS were sixth formers; these have now gone to University and have not been replaced by a new generation of sixth formers. It was suggested that attempts should be made to get word of mouth and publicity into the 6th form Colleges.

 

There was a discussion of possible alternative venues which might do better. Toxic had offered to host WUS, but this was felt to be a bad idea because the clients of WUS dancefloor would not be separated from the clients of the other, trendy/townie /dance/pop dance floor; it was hypothesised that this ability to move between dance floors might lead to problems. The Graduate was also discussed, but although it is a lot cheaper (both in terms of cost to RockSoc and drinks) it doesn't have a late license, so this was felt to be a last resort.

 

Methods of publicising WUS were mentioned.

 

FLYERING: Baz said that when the flyers appeared, members of the committee should carry them in their pockets and hand them out to every metalhead they saw in town.

He also suggested putting flyers in pubs. Oliver said that it would be better to put them in appropriate, selected pubs where our customers were likely to be, such as ones frequented by metalhead and those commonly frequented by motorcyclists.

He also mentioned Kevvlar's method of hiding them in the metal racks at record stores.

 

POSTERS: Posters also needed to be put up in various places. Oliver said that he had noticed that a lot of places that would take Panic posters wouldn't take ours. It was mentioned this is partly because some of these people who organize Panic have relatives in the places in question. However it was suggested that when the posters were ready, Oliver-Michael go round trying to post them, as he works in the customer service industry and has a respectable haircut and no beard. He is also reputed to own some respectable clothes.

 

PERIODICALS: Elizabeth has (tried to) place ads in Varsity and AdHoc for the next WUS. It isn't possible to place ads directly in the listings of the CEN; one needs to talk to the editor nicely. Elizabeth will do this. Ben will put the listing in the Cambridge Student.

 

Baz will phone Kerrap! to see of they will sponsor a clubnight, as they have been doing recently in other university towns. He will also ask other metal magazines if they ever feature clubnights.

 

ONLINE: Emma will do all the online metal sites and all the Yahoo groups.

 

ACTION: Andy to make flyers and posters

Ben to distribute at WUS

Elizabeth to speak to CEN

Baz to speak to Kerrap! and other metal mags.

Ben to put listing in Cambridge Student

Emma to mention WUS in lots of places online.

 

6) The Cancelled WUS

We need to be sure that our members know that there will be no WUS on 21st May due to the Kambar's being closed for staff holiday.

 

Flyers are needed saying 'There's no WUS on 21st April' to hand out at this next (7thMay) WUS, with details of the alternative event.

 

It was decided to hold a playback night at the Graduate on 21st May.

 

ACTION: Emma to book the Graduate

 

7) The Sick and the Dead

This will be held Friday 10th.

The hire of the venue will be L50. A further L25 will get us the use of the upstairs bar, so we won't have to go downstairs for our drinks. It was felt that this would be a good idea.

 

It was agreed that for one of the events there would be a charge of L1, but the meeting was so disorganised and people were talking about different topics so freely that I was unable to determine whether this was The Sick and the Dead or the WUS-alternative night.

 

During 'The Sick and the Dead it was agreed to raffle off the Rock Soc record library in aid of charity. It was decided that the raffle take to format of 'winner chooses a CD' rather than 'ticket 27 wins this albums' because that way there was less chance of people getting an album they hated.

 

Baz said that we needed to catalogue the collection before we disposed of it, as we had been mandated to do so last year.

 

ACTION: Emma to get back to the Graduate about the bar.

Someone needs to kick Andy.

 

7) Festivals

Baz said that he would kick Andy again.

 

Baz asked if anyone would like to arrange a trip to the Italian thing next month, as he would like to go. Jester suggested that we stow away in a lorry.

 

The possibility of a minibus to Donnington was raised. It was decided that depended on having 2 things 1) a minibus 2) a driver.

 

 

Andy said that a bus for one day costs L70. A bus for 2 days costs about L150. Andy suggested driving to Donnington on the day. Elizabeth said that it was an established that traffic jams at Donnington snarl up most of the county, and that anyone wanting to hear anything before the headliners ought to camp. It was mentioned that some members had not found this to be problem in 1986. It was also pointed out that this was not 1986, and that traffic had got worse since then.

 

The treasurer stated that there was not much money available to subsidise trips to festivals this year, because the MayBrawl, gigs etc had to be paid for, and it was pointed out that WUS, which has long been laying golden eggs, is now laying the regular kind of egg.

 

Elizabeth suggested that we hire a minibus and charge cost price to the occupants thereof, which if there are 15 of them should only work out at about L15 a head including petrol, which is probably cheaper than if you drove yourself given current petrol prices, and sure as hell beats public transport.

It was agreed that Baz would ask on -official if anyone was interested.

 

Jimmer said that he would drive if he was able to wangle it, but wasn't sure of his eligibility. He also said that he wanted his ticket paid for, as he thought the bands were shit.

 

ACTION: Baz to look for interest on -official for Donnington.

And to kick Andy again.

Jester to prepare a scheme for stowing away in Italian lorries to present to the committee.

 

8) Wangling money from the University

Emma suggested we seek a grant from the University, since we are an official University Society, to be used to promote new talent in local DJs and bands (to help pay for WUS and gigs), particularly mentioning to them bands from within the University.

 

The committee looked around for a member of the University. Baz was selected. Emma said she'd look into what he had to do.

 

ACTION: Emma to tell Baz how to be nice to the University.

 

9) Mandate

Oliver said that the bank require proof of address, photo-ID and proof of signature. The bank will hold the mandate and the people who need to sign it will go in. It was agreed to postpone this until next week, when it will be first on the agenda.

 

Andy asked how^H^H if the bands on Saturday had been paid. Baz said that they had.

 

10)Termcard

Emma expressed her opinion on the proofs of the termcard which Matt had had prepared. Forcefully. The substance of her remarks was that she did not like them, and that they were more expensive than they needed to be. She also commented on layout, weight of paper, lamination, the font used for WUS, the web address, and various other things.

 

The committee agreed that as she felt so strongly about it, perhaps she ought to go to Mail Boxes Etc. and sort it out herself. This she agreed to do.

 

ACTION: Emma to talk to the printers about the proofs of the Termcard.

Elizabeth to kick Elise again as there's little point having termcards if you don't know where to send them.

 

11)Website

The website is now largely OK. Baz and Oliver congratulated the absent Oli on his excellent work. And said that it needs prettifying. And pictures of Oli in a dress.

 

Elizabeth said that yesterday it gave the night of Committee meetings as Thursday. Baz said that hew thought that this had been fixed.

 

12) Nottingham on Saturday

It was decide not to bother with any official trips till the summer. Emma proposed a series of visits in the summer to different Rock Venues. Oliver asked her to suggest some dates and events for July which we could visit. Jester mentioned a promising event in the Newcastle Arena.

 

ACTION: Emma to put before the Committee a list of possible visits to clubs in other areas of the UK during the summer.

 

13) CUSU training for running societies

Baz and Emma stated that they abhor CUSU and all its works. Baz tabled a motion for the constitution next AGM: This society abhors CUSU (the Secretary fully intends to take him up on this next March. She wants to see his face when he gets the agenda). With reference to CUSU, Oliver suggested a use for a red hot poker. And the National Grid.

 

It was decided not to take CUSU up on their offer of training.

 

14)Membership cards

Elizabeth has ordered these. They are currently being printed and should be 1-2 weeks. The cost is L145.12. Elizabeth gave a receipt for half of this amount to the treasurer.

 

15) AOB

Matt (who was at a barbecue) asked Elizabeth to ask the committee to return to him the L30 he put in the float on Saturday night at the gig. He also passed on a receipt for sandwich material (the rider) for L11 odd. Oliver agreed to pay him L41odd next committee meeting. Emma suggested bringing the events box and paying him from that

 

Epitaph and Enchanted tendered their thanks for Saturday's gig to the Committee.

 

Dimmer said that there were a few places in his car for Nottingham next Sat. He would be leaving at a time to be determined by the participants in the World Cup i.e. when they finish playing.

The committee agreed to mock Jimmer roundly on Saturday night when his team lost. Jimmer offered the Committee some advice about chickens and hatching.

 

Emma stated that she owned a packet of Opal Fruits.

 

Baz said that John Sullivan wanted clarification of the position on .committee. It was agreed that ONLY those on the incoming or outgoing committees should be on this, as the list currently has a number of random people on it.

 

ACTION: Emma to bring money for Matt to the next committee meeting.

Baz to confirm about .committee with JS

Everyone to mock Jimmer roundly when his team lost the Cup.

 

 

ACTION: Emma to arrange for use of the upstairs bar.

 

Meeting closed later than it opened, Secretary apparently asleep, so no record of the exzact time. Bugger.

 

 

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