Minutes: 2002-2003/2002-06-24

Minutes of the RockSoc committee meeting

24th June 2002

 

Present: Baz, Elizabeth, Oliver, Emma, Oli

 

Meeting opened 2030 on time again bloody hell

 

1) Minutes for approval

By some mischance, the Secretary had arrived early at the public hostelry,

and had already consumed a considerable quantity of wine before the meeting

opened. Therefore thee minutes are liable to be even less accurate than

normal. Good job nothing important happened. That I remember anyway.

 

The meeting began with a discussion of the relative gorgeousness of James

Marsters, Paul Darrow, Alan Rickman and Christopher Lee, which became quite

heated. It was followed by a discussion of Iron Maiden posters. Baz said

'order!' to the agenda.

 

The minutes were approved.

 

2) Treasurer's report

The treasurer duly reported that James Marsters is the most gorgeous man in

the world, and that he disliked Status Quo songs. After some further

prompting, he was persuaded to give a report on the condition of the

Society's finances as well.

 

No cheques have been paid out this week. Oliver has received a cheque for

L200 for Wacken from Baz, which he has not yet paid in by reason of only

receiving it about 6 minutes ago. He Has also received L6 in cash from

Siobhan to pay for the punt party.

 

Baz asked if Geared 4's cheque had been paid out yet, since there is a

chance that it has been rejected because of the problems with the mandate.

Or possibly because it doesn't make any sense, depending whether or not

Oliver has worked out how to write a cheque yet. Oliver offered to find out

on Wednesday.

 

Siobhan said 'You owe me L82, pay me please' Oliver said 'Bugger, I haven't

got the chequebook.'.

Elizabeth said 'And pay me L30 for the punt party.' Oliver said 'Bugger, I

haven't got the chequebook.

 

HSBC have not yet processed the mandate. Emma has been yelling at them some

more, and today she received a phone call to say 'Sorry', and promise to do

it today. Oliver will go in to the bank tomorrow and yell at them about

mandates too. This process will continues until the mandate is processed.

 

Baz said that he abhorred the Skipton Building Society rather less now that

they had actually paid him the L7000 that they owe him.

 

The possibility of moving the account to another bank was discussed, since

in the opinion of the committee HBSC are clearly a bunch of incompetent

twats. It was agreed that ethical banking IS NOT VERY ROCK 'N' ROLL, and

anyone who suggested it should be beaten to death with a baby seal.

Elizabeth suggested finding a bank which could show documentary evidence

that it invested its money in struggling rock bands. But no-on had heard of

one.

 

The WUS box needs to be topped up; this has not been done because 1) due to

the mandate problems we can't actually get any money out 2) Baz has been too

drunk for the last week to do anything about it. Allegedly. He also claims

that he has slept for 10 hours since the last committee meeting.

 

ACTION: Oliver to hassle the bank some more about the mandate, and also to

determine whether Geared4 have been paid.

And to pay Siobhan.

 

Interlude

Oliver said 'This is supposed to be fun'. Emma said something about

actresses and Bishops. Baz stated that he has a fabulous pair of bright red

trousers. The meeting was then delayed by the Chairman going to the bar to

purchase beverages containing ethanol. Kit said that Baz's trousers were

awful; Emma disagreed; Kit said that red trousers were not metal. She also

said that in order to be metal one should always wear union jack spandex

naked to the waist. Whether this would look better on males or females was

debated.

 

We commiserated with Emma, who once had to share a bedroom with a sister who

liked Whitesnake. Poor thing.

 

Emma stated that she had forgotten earlier in the meeting to mention the

important fact that she lusted after Dani Filth. Also Ozzy and Nick Cave.

Elizabeth jumped up and down and praised the utter gorgeousness of Lemmy.

Everyone else said 'Yuck!'. She also said that she fancies Glenn Tipton. Kit

suggested that it was only because he had amazing 80s fluffed up hair.

 

Emma said that Gene Simmons was too furry. S Siobhan stated that she fancies

Slash. Kit and Oliver fancied Dead from Mayhem, apparently, even after he

blew his brains out, which is worrying...

 

Baz completed his purchases and said 'Order' to his beer. He also said 'Oh

dear this has degenerated hasn't it?'

 

The meeting got back to some semblance of order at 2048pm

 

3) The MayBrawl

The final figures have not yet been handed over by the Junction. Emma should

repeatedly hassle the Junction till the figures appear. She said that they

will have to produce them, because we owe them L450, and won't pay up until

they do. I pointed out that they owe us L508, which may weaken Emma's

argument and reduce their motivation.

 

We can't do anything further about the Societies Syndicate until we have the

final figures.

 

Baz has put the photos in to be developed, and they will be ready on Friday.

 

ACTION: Emma to hassle the Junction about figures.

Baz to get the photos developed

 

4) WUS

We need to do some serious publicity about this, as takings have not been

too good, and in the summer numbers are usually lower.

 

Elizabeth suggested that a good first step would be to make a large number

of flyers and posters for distribution. Emma volunteered to do this. Next

week she will bring them along, and we will organise getting them put up.

 

We also need to do some good publicity in October, to encourage more

students, who the committee thought were probably our core market. This

should include posters in the Colleges (though probably in 3rd week or

something because the half life of posters in Freshers week in about 20

mins), adverts on CU radio and listings in Varsity

 

Other potential markets include 6ht form Colleges and language/summers

schools. Elizabeth suggested sending a letter addressed to the Student

President of each 6th form, mentioning WUS in glowing terms. Since Ben is

WUS officer, it would be appropriate for these letters to come from him, but

Elizabeth will prepare a suggested draft version.

 

The NME listings for the next 2 months have been sent in.

 

Oliver pointed out that word of mouth was often the best publicity. He

suggested that we ask the management if we can put up a poster on the exit

door of the Kambar saying 'If you enjoyed it, tell your friends'. Elizabeth

mentioned that at present there is no advert in the window of the Kambar,

although there are posters for several other events. Emma will make one and

se if they will put it up.

 

Oliver suggested an orchestrated poster campaign, on which would make people

look, rather than one with a lot of info. He suggested 'Listen to Rock and

drink beer' with the time, date and venue below. Elizabeth suggested that a

good one for the colleges would be an outline of the periodic table, with

the non-metals labelled BAD and the metals labelled GOOD.

 

It was pointed out that the function of the society is not known to all who

have heard of it. He has seen RockSoc mistaken for the Geology Society

several times, while Elizabeth has been asked if her Society studies samples

of copper, aluminium etc. Sigh. Elizabeth also mentioned that she has

encountered a number of 15 year olds who are unfamiliar with the word

'Metal', and were interested to discover that this was the name for music

like Korn, Slipknot (which they had believed was grunge). It was therefore

suggested that our publicity needs to make it very clear what we do.

 

Emma plaited her hair diligently.

She suggested that an article in a council publication, emphasizing the good

work we do to help town and gown relations. She suggested getting someone

who worked for the council to suggest it :-)

 

ACTION: Emma to do the printing

Baz to look into Language/summer schools

Elizabeth to draft a letter to 6th form colleges

Emma to see about posters at the Kambar

Emma to see about article about WUS in council publications.

 

5) The Proctors

The document required has been produced and typed. So far, attempts to

induce the Senior Treasurer to sign it have been unsuccessful. Some swear

words were mentioned at this point.

 

Oliver showed us the statement, which he said was not unrelated to the

actual accounts. Elizabeth, who has just seen the Governor's statement of

accounts to the parents (all sums suspiciously multiples of L1000 and many

miscellaneous expenses) said that it looked very accurate.

 

Other possible Senior Treasurers were discussed, but unfortunately no

candidates sprang to mind.

 

Encouragingly, Oliver has in the intervening week learned the difference

between a Treasurer and a Tutor.

 

ACTION: Oliver to harass Senior Treasurer some more.

 

6) Freshers' Week

Oliver mentioned that he has the T-shirts, and we should sell them to get

more money. He will buy a few himself.

 

Jimmer came in at this point. Elizabeth cried that here was a man who had

stated that he chose football over metal, and demanded that we cast him out

at once. The rest of the committee declined to cast out Jimmer.

 

CUSU have finally got around to arrangements for Societies Fair.

Unfortunately, these are now on a website (forms etc) which can only be

accessed by people with herpes accounts. See point 11 below.

 

Elizabeth has had a rant at CUSU, calling them elitist bastards who wanted

to enlarge the town/gown divide. This should make them wriggle a bit, as if

there's one word that upsets CUSU hacks, it's elitist. Baz suggested calling

them fascists too. Or that they are members of the conservative party.

 

I will hassle them a bit more, and if nothing shifts by the end of the week,

pass the material on to Baz or someone else who does have a herpes account.

 

Kit said that I was very good at using a patronising voice. She's right

there.

 

Elizabeth asked if we were going to have a squash. Baz said that usually the

arrangement was to have a free WUS by way of a squash, plus the Freshfest.

WE also usually do a pub crawl. It was agreed that we should do these again.

Elizabeth suggested that we make the WUS free only to non-members, or better

yet 'Free with this flyer' handed out at the Societies Fair, because we

can't afford a completely free WUS.

 

It was suggested that over the summer we offered a discount on entry with a

WUS flyer. We need to discuss this with the WUS officer when he returns.

 

7) Punt party

This took place last Wednesday; 7 people attended. Oli Wade organised an

alternative punt party on Saturday; 5 attended. A good time was had by all,

and Oliver learned to swim faster than anyone I've ever seen before. It took

him about 1.5 seconds.

 

Elizabeth paid for the hire of punts on Wednesday; RockSoc owes her L30. Jo,

Kit, Oliver and Tristan owe RockSoc their share of the punt hire. Oliver

promised to pay me at the next meeting.

 

ACTION: Oliver to hassle members about punt party costs

 

8) Festivals

Graspop is ongoing. No problems reported.

 

Oli has mailed -announce about Bloodstock, and is organising that. At the

moment there are 3 interested parties.

 

Emma suggested we start thinking about Whitby in November.

 

Elizabeth suggested buying tickets for the bus to Stansted. These cost L10

each, and it's safer to buy them in advance. Although at 0310 it doesn't

seem likely that we'll _need_ to book.

 

Baz said that the new Bal Sagoth album was very good and instructed Oliver

to buy it immediately.

 

ACTION: Oli to buy 5 tickets for the 0310 bus to Stansted on 31st July.

 

9) Countrywide RockSoc

Brunel RockSoc are proposing organising all the student RockSocs (and any

others too) into a kind of countrywide alliance, in order to give membership

benefits to people from other RockSocs, be able to organise bigger gigs etc.

This sounds like a good idea, and the committee is in favour in principle.

 

No-one had managed to print out a copy of the exact proposal, but one will

be brought next week and discussed.

 

Oliver said that he has once been given a lift by a very drunk policewoman.

 

10) -committee list

This has been trimmed to the current committee members. Elizabeth has mailed

John Sullivan to remind him to add Peter to the list; Baz pointed out that

Andy Hudson probably doesn't want to be on the list any more.

 

11) Abhorring CUSU and all its works

The committee has agreed and would like to confirm

 

a) That we abhor CUSU and all their works, especially ones which don't allow

for townies to be on committees. (Subject to change if they provide free

rock music at Cindy's)

 

b) That we abhor, detest loathe and vilify HSBC with acid tongues and whips

of fire, and all their works, or rather their lack of them.

 

c) That we abhor Status Quo and all their works. In favour:3 against:2. Baz

pretended that he thought Kit was on the committee to try to affect the

outcome of the vote, but we noticed his duplicity and refused to count her.

 

Richard Watts also abhors Rob Halford and his most recent work, which came

out today and is apparently shit. It is possible that the committee abhors

Rob Halford too, but we aren't really sure. Oliver referred the committee to

his comment last week about wanting to do Rob Halford. He now has a Rob

Halford hairdo, but disappointingly was not wearing his black leather cap.

 

12) CD library

Ha bloody ha!

 

13) AOB

Baz alleged that Oliver likes small girls

Oliver said that this was wrong, and he liked small boys

Peter said that he liked small furry animals.

 

Kit said that we have a September date booked at the Boat Race that we

agreed to cancel last week and asked if she could take over the date as a

wedding reception. Several people said 'Congratulations' to Kit and Oliver.

Emma will cancel the booking.

 

Emma had a nosebleed.

 

I asked if RockSoc would pay for a printer cartridge, as I'm running out and

the minutes have used a lot of it. Baz said yes.

 

Oli Wade arrived

 

Oli Wade's Barclaycard bill is due in a week or so, and he would therefore

like the Wacken money. When asked how big his bill is, he said 'L1500' in a

hopeful way. Oliver said that RockSoc was only going to pay for Wacken

expenses, not beer and motorcycling lessons. Oli asked for two separate

cheques for some reason, one for the flights and one for the tickets.

Meeting closed 2128

Baz insisted that I minute the following commandments for some reason

probably related to beer:

1) Love the monkey

2) Thou shalt not diss the King

3) Thou shalt not question the spork

4) Enormous trousers, obviously