Rocksoc minutes: Monday 17 June 2002

Index of all minutes | Committee Meetings 2002-2003

Minutes of the RockSoc Committee meeting
17th June 2002

Present: Ben, Elizabeth, Oliver, Emma, Ben, Oli, Peter

Meeting opened: 2043

1) Minutes for approval
It has been noted that Taff would be DJing at the MayBrawl, and not 'dying
at the MayBrawl' or 'DIYing at the MayBrawl'. Baz suggested that Taff
constructing a nice coffee table would be most entertaining. Ben suggested
that Taff fitting a kitchen in the bar area would be more amusing still.

Oli, who has had a whole 6 days to read the minutes, then held up the
meeting by reading them very carefully for several minutes to see if he
agreed with them. During this period, Baz said 'I'm a chili', and Oliver
asked Oli if he needed any help with the long words. Oli complained about
the formatting of the minutes, because they were only 70 characters wide and
he thought they should be wider. It's hard to please some people.

The minutes were approved.

2) The MayBrawl
Emma stated that the Junction said that there were 88 paying customers and
takings of L509 before booking fees The Junction will be giving us an exact
breakdown of all figures, which we need to get the guarantee against loss.
This is specified in our contract with them. We will not pay them the
balance of the money owed until they do.

Elizabeth said that she remembered Emma saying that there were 107 customers
in an e-mail to -committee on Saturday. Baz and Emma said that the correct
figure was 88. Elizabeth said that she counted 106 people in the venue who
she believed weren't members of the bands just after Blackrock's set. Baz
said that the bands had guest lists.

Oliver said that it would be a good idea to wait until we had the detailed
figures from the Junction.

Oli pointed out that the 1.5 per cent booking fee on credit card
transactions which Emma mentioned had not been brought to the attention of
the committee before. Emma pointed out that it was in the contract and that
she had brought the contract to 2 committee meetings but no-one had read it.

At this point Andy M came in and gave the Secretary a nice book about the
history of opera.

Oliver said that since with all the publicity blitz we had done we had got
88 customers. This number would easily fit into the Boat Race and that he
suggested that we did not hire the Junction again.

Baz mentioned that there had been some publicity problems this time.
Specifically, the Junction had not put the event on their flyers, which were
potentially one of our biggest advertising sources. Emma said that doing so
was in fact in their contract with us, and that she had given them the
information, but one of the managers at the Junction had made an error. She
suggested dealing with a different Junction employee in future.

It was suggested that the current committee compose during their time of
office a guide to putting on gigs, with suggestions about what to do and
what to avoid. Baz and Emma volunteered to write one over the summer. Oliver
said that he would do something similar for the next treasurer.

It was also pointed out that Kerrang! had not carried a listing for the gig,
even though they had been notified over a month before going to press. They
had however listed a gig at the Boat Race on the same evening. Elizabeth
said that it was her opinion that the new online gig listings form didn't
work, and future listings should be telephoned or -e-mailed in the old way.

Someone mentioned that Baz's reaction to alcohol resembled in some strange
way that of a person who drank every day. Allegedly.

The rider had a total cost of L170. This was less than Elizabeth's estimate
beforehand, and Elizabeth was glad to be very wrong about this.

Of this money, L82 is owed to Siobhan, for the beer. The remainder was taken
from the WUS box to pay for pizzas, and needs to be repaid. At present Baz
has the WUS box. Baz and Ben and Oliver offered to sort this out on
Wednesday morning. Oli questioned whether it was correct to use the WUS
float in this manner. Baz contended that it was fine as long as the money
was accounted for and written down. Emma agreed

The many wonderful advantages of local takeaways were praised, especially
those which do Chinese flavour pizzas such as crispy duck ones.

The Societies Syndicate has agreed to pay us the guarantee against loss.
They have been given the rough estimate provided by the Junction. Oliver
mentioned in connection with this that he was great and wonderful, could
sell coals in Newcastle and that we should all praise his greatness. He also
said that they required a detailed account of all transactions relating to
the MayBrawl within 3 months of the event. Which timescale even RockSoc
should be able to manage.

Hannah, who took some photo's of the gig for RockSoc, discussed the
arrangement for RockSoc getting the photos. It was agreed that Emma will
meet her on Thursday at 3pm.
The arrangements were discussed and it was agreed that Emma would get 2
copies of the prints. She would give one set of prints and the negatives to
Hannah, and RockSoc would keep one set of prints. Hannah will pay for her
prints.

Baz said that he was immensely happy that this hadn't gone even more
pear-shaped. Oliver expressed a wish to embrace various committee members,
especially Baz. Baz said lets' have a piss up at his house on Saturday, and
that the entertainment would consist of the committee members hugging each
other.

ACTION: Baz and Emma to write a guide to putting on gigs for the next
committee
Oliver to write a guide to being treasurer
Baz, Ben and Oliver to get the money repaid into the WUS box on Wednesday
morning
Emma to meet Hannah 3pm Wed by the NatWest bank to sort out photos.
The committee to get drunk at Baz's house on Sat. They should find this
easy.

3) Treasurer's report
The WUS takings for last WUS have not yet been paid in. Ben has also found
L35 WUS takings to pay in from his first WUS. Baz needs to give the WUS box
to Ben.

This week the following cheques have been written:

L100 to Blackrock
L150 to DarkCell
L450 to Kill II This
L205 to Jimmer Waterman, who paid Kill II This L200 in cash for petrol and
spent L5 printing flyers

The subject of the mandate has again raised its head. We thought it was to
good to be true that it was done so well this year.

Baz said that [long list of inventive swearwords] HBSC were complete [long
list of even more inventive swearwords]. He also said that when he went to
get bank statements for the Proctors the bank discovered that they have not
processed the mandate yet i.e. that cheques written by the current committee
won't be honoured. This is the fault of HBSC. Emma asked when we finished
doing our bit on the Mandate. Elizabeth looked at her trusty minute book and
found that the last person to go to the bank and show ID was Oliver, on May
22nd, at which point the bank should have processed the mandate. They
haven't. Surprise. Emma will try to get them to display some semblance of
competence later this week.

Baz said that the Skipton Building Society had L7000 belonging to him and he
wanted it back. He also said some swear words. These included 'fucking' and
'cunts'

ACTION: Baz to give the WUS box to Ben
Baz, Ben and Oliver to regularise the amount of money in the WUS box and pay
in the takings.
Elizabeth to send a copy of final minutes concerning the mandate to Emma. so
she can show them to the bank.

4) Proctors
At this point, the minute book records that Emma will pay herself.
Meanwhile, Oliver displayed persistent problems remembering the difference
between a Treasurer and a Tutor. Several people found this rather worrying,
as it suggests he may be trying to show concern for the general welfare of
the account book, rather than fill it in.

Oliver will write the summary for the Proctors on Wednesday morning, with
the help of Emma. The Oliver will phone the Senior Treasurer and try to met
him to sign the damn things.

ACTION: Oliver and Emma to meet Wed morning and prepare the summary for the
Proctors

5) WUS
WUS tomorrow is cancelled as the Kambar is unavailable. Ben has not yet
spoken to the management about what to say to people who turn up expecting
WUS. He will do so on his way home tonight. It would be helpful if the
Kambar would explain, and say that next WUS will go ahead.

Flyers were given to everyone at the MayBrawl which have the correct dates.
Ben will put it on -official tonight.

WUS publicity was adjourned until next meeting, when it will be discussed at
length.

ACTION: Ben to speak to the Kambar.
Ben to mail -official with details of the cancellation.

6) Punt party
The punt party will be held on Wed 19th June. Start will be 1.30pm at
Magdalene Bridge or 2.15 at the rollers. People may join later if they can
find us. Everyone is to bring their own food and booze. It doesn't look as
if we've got any offers of College punts, so we may have to use Scuds.

ACTION: Elizabeth to sort things out on the day.

7) Picnic
Several members who work on weekdays have expressed unhappiness with the
fact that the May Week social events have been scheduled for weekdays. Oli
therefore suggested moving the RockSoc picnic to Saturday. The committee
agreed to do this.

The picnic will therefore take place:
Saturday 22nd June
Jesus Green
Starting 2pm

If we can arrange a stereo we will. Oliver has an appropriately sized
stereo. Elizabeth will produce some batteries which belong to RockSoc and
reside among the Secretarial objects of office, to see if they are still
alive, and if they fit Oliver's stereo

ACTION: Oliver to bring stereo
Elizabeth to give him batteries at the punt party

8) Gigs next term
Baz pointed out that at present we have 5 dates booked at the Boat Race for
next term. At present, our cash flow situation is rather tight, and so we
cannot afford all these gigs. Oli asked what the cost to RockSoc of a gig
was; Emma replied that it was typically L300-500. It was therefore agreed
that we should cancel 3 of these dates, and that the ones to keep should be
the October gig and the late November (end of term) one.

Oliver suggested that if the bands were free we could afford to put on more.
He suggested a Battle of the Bands, but it was pointed out that this would
probably annoy most of the other promoters and venues who already have well
established Battles.

At this point Baz took a phone call

Baz reintroduced the lamentable fact that this Society really does need to
make money.

Jester suggested that he sell his body. Baz said that this would not make
much money.
Siobhan suggested a slave auction. Ben suggested that Baz in a corset would
make an appropriate lot for this auction.

Ben said that CUSU had approached him with a proposition for a Kerrang!
sponsored clubnight at Cindy's, with the promotion shared between CUSU and
RockSoc. The deal would be that we don't need to do anything and we share
the take on the door with CUSU. We would supply the DJs.
IN favour of such a clubnight:7 Enthusiastically. Against:0 ABstaining:0

Baz no longer abhors CUSU and all its works.

Next week we should discuss ways of getting a sensible float in earnest.

9) Freshers' Week
Elizabeth went to CUSU's office and asked the clerical personage who mans
reception whose salary is paid by student welfare money what was going on,
as CUSU were saying 'next week' 2 months ago. The clerical person was very
polite, and the substance of her remarks was 'What the fuck do you expect.
They're CUSU'. There is a possibility that CUSU may get their arses in gear
at some unspecified time in the future and organise a Societies Fair. If so,
they may remember to ask us if we want a stall.

Baz abhors CUSU and all its works again.

Elizabeth asked how we get an entry in the Fresher's Handbook. Oli said that
this was usually arranged in the same form as the Societies Fair.

It was asked whether the CUSU website was up to date with RockSoc details.
Baz, Elizabeth and Emma said that it was. It now only has a link to our
webpage and nothing else, so there's no possibility of its getting out of
date again.

ACTION: Elizabeth to poll CUSU periodically and find out if they've just
forgotten to mail RockSoc or if they have in fact forgotten to organise the
Societies Fair as a whole.

10) Festivals
Bloodstock: Oli has forgotten to organise this.

Dungeonfest was raised by Baz. Akercocke are said to be playing. Many
members pronounced authoritatively on when this festival was to be held,
even though none of them had any good information to back up their
assertions. Elizabeth told the committee when her mother's birthday was, in
the hope that this would clinch it. Eventually, it was agreed that looking
it up might be more productive. Elizabeth agreed to do this.

ACTION: Oli to make a concerted attempt to remember that he's supposed to be
organising a trip to Bloodstock this year.
Elizabeth to look up date and bill for Dungeonfest.

11) Decks
Ben now has these. He will take them to his parents house (where they will
be covered by his parent's home contents insurance) when he goes down. When
he comes back up for the next WUS, he will give them to Baz, who will take
them to his house, which is covered by home contents insurance. Have I made
it clear enough that it is insured this time?

Jester had nothing useful to add :-)

12) Cd library
As usual

13) Membership books
Andy M has returned the book which he had in his possession. It is now with
the secretary. The books were circulated among those who need to have them.
The treasurer has one now too.

Oli suggested sticking up to date 'return to' stickers on the books. He made
some of these last week. Baz asked where they are. It was agreed that the
committee has lost them.

Elizabeth stabbed Oli with the end of her pen. Serves him right for failing
to organise Bloodstock.

14) Contracts for future gigs
Elizabeth requested that in future contracts with bands and venues be more
carefully read and discussed at committee meetings, so that no more facts
like 'credit card booking fees' and not being allowed to make announcements
from the stage are known only to the events officer. It was agreed that in
future contracts would be discussed and not just put on the table and stared
at, and that individual committee members would show them to the committee.

15) AOB
Oli said that the minutes should be printed double sided to save trees. The
committee said 'Fuck off'.

Oliver said that he had had a sensible idea. But he has forgotten it.
Elizabeth stabbed Oli again. Ooops.

The committee noted that Slayer play very fast.

Meeting closed 2147