There should be a clear breakdown of the EM role and what additional roles an EM can fulfil
Paul requested for everything that everyone says to be recorded
Paul - what are everyone’s thoughts on what they should be doing?
Lucy - have a typed up version of thoughts from Summer
Will - EMs should have a basic knowledge
Lucy - the level of information an EM can provide will vary with an EM’s competency
Paul - should an EM have to have a specific competency?
Natasha - that makes it harder for someone to be an EM
Paul - if you come in to be an EM and you’ve never touched a soundboard is that okay
Lucy - not for the events we do because the EM for us ins’t about event management, that’s more the event organiser
Will - you need basic knowledge because you need to be able to assess the situation
Lucy - EM is point of contact between event organisers and tech
Paul - so do you think that’s what they should be because they’re not? Right now they’re the health and safety officers
Lucy - the EM should be speaking to the event organisers and keeping them in the loop
Only want one person speaking to event organiser so that they aren’t getting mixed information
They need to be able to convey only the relevant information to event organisers and provide realistic timelines
Need to be able to properly gauge how long problems are going to take to fix
Don't need to be the most knowledgable but need to be able to know what’s gone wrong
Paul - so they need to act as the interface?
Tom - that’s kind of been Adam so far with external acts
Lucy - Adam’s act management
Paul - external acts will forever be to DoES’s job because that’s literally why we pay them
Paul - lets go around the room to get everyone’s views
Polina - I mean everyone’s like said everything already
Paul - so you believe the EM should be the interface between the techs and the organisers and if you’re on a crew and everybody’s competent, what should the EM be doing? Like assuming there is no tech issue and everything is happening, what should the EM be doing?
Polina - make sure everyone is working together as they should be
Paul - genuinely asking because the role has no defined thing at the moment. We’re doing that now and trying to work out what people think but
Will - at least they should be acting as a liaison
Polina - should be communication with security
Will - there definitely should be
Paul - a basic level
Lucy - we talk to
Paul - if there isn’t one now, do you think there should be?
Polina - why should there be?
Paul - at the moment nothing exists for EM. However you’re EMing depends on the EM. So Tom basically same question?
Tom - there should definitely be a link to security
Paul - let’s say there’s an event where a specific lighting design has to be followed, does the EM have to tell everyone what the LX person wants, or should the LX person be the point of contact?
Tom - asked what Paul meant
Paul - would like to know who the crew should be talking to for an event about where lights should be and the structure of the rig, should the crew be talking to the EM and the EM to LX or should they go directly
Tom - if it’s in terms of what’s ebbing rigged where, the EM should know that
Will - thinks both
Paul - talking about who you’re actually talking to
Tom - should both do it at the same time
Paul - when the EM is not there, you don’t need to consult the EM as the tech leading that bit?
Paul - gave example from Catwalk last year where the EM had to tend to a situation in a different venue
Tom - if LX knows what they’re doing
Will - doesn’t think they should be making any changes without consulting the EM
EM might have set it up so that they have a certain amount of time, bearing in mind when run-throughs need to happen
The LX doesn’t know what’s doing on with everybody else in the room
Lucy - there might by asymmetric levels of information.
If sound doesn’t know what’s happening then that’s fine, but the EM should be kept in the loop
Just shoot them off a text to say what you’re doing
Paul - Natasha what do you think? We’re going in a circle.
Natasha - was under impression that EM was already supposed to be the liaison between users and techs
Paul - the role hasn’t been defined
Natasha
At generic base level EM should be responsible for everything
If they choose to delegate the role it should be their choice
They should know lighting and sound plans in advance
Paul - so you’re saying that the EM should have a base level of competency even if the problem that they’re coming to is very complex?
Lucy - the job that needs to get done is still the lighting person’s
Paul - does the EM have to remain central? What happens if the user is talking about something they want outside if there are massive issues going on?
Natasha - EM can delegate the role outside to someone
Paul - is that what the people think? The EM is not allowed to go and has to remain central?
Will - yeah
Natasha - if the want to go
Paul - I know that it’s obvious but they’ve never been a thing yet
Lucy - they need to be kept in the loop, however, if there’s an issue that is not directly lighting or sound that they have to help out with elsewhere, and they need to go help out with that then your lighting and sound operator should be competent enough that they know how to fix problems that arise, and as long as you are kept in the loop as an EM (by using a group chat) they therefore know what’s going on. And should be competent enough they don’t need someone to say
Paul - we’ve had three different suggestions:
EM should be consulted on everything
EM should be consulted unless they delegate
EM should be told, but that the LX, sound and projector people already have default authority over their areas
Lucy - The EM should be consulted on matters not relating directly to lighting or sound
Paul - Who makes the call
Lucy - the lighting/proto makes the call for lights and sound/proto makes the call for sound
Will - but EM makes the call that lighting guy is okay to do what they want to do
Paul - let’s say something within StAge breaks and the EM is somewhere else in the building, dealing with something (e.g. lower college lawn for grad ball), who makes the call? I’m using lighting but sound also. Something breaks like a profile, you’re the sound, do you have to go find the EM to ask them ‘can we make this fix’ and the EM says yes, do you go to the LX and the LX says yes but wait I’ve got to ask the EM, or do you just have to ask the LX?
Lucy - if it’s vital and the show can’t go ahead without this, you do it
Will - I disagree, I think the EM should be consulted even if it’s urgent.
Lucy - if the EM’s about, yes, but what if the EM is not about?
Will - it depends on how not about the EM are, like if you can get them on Facebook messenger
Lucy - if they’re completely not contactable
Will - okay, yes
Lucy - if there’s a society there and a light smashed and there’s glass everywhere then you go and fix it
Will - yeah, okay, that’s a different, if the EM’s nowhere near contactable
Paul - yeah, reactive is different. When the ceiling fell in in main bar, I wasn’t about to find Will and ask him if I could clean up the dust
Lucy - no so those types of things should go ahead. It’s like the situations where we’ve had to make the call that this is not the best situation but it gets the job done and we need to open doors. That’s happened quite a lot
Paul - Yip, that’s a fact
Lucy - yeah, so in that situation if it’s not vital, wait until you talk to the EM, because doing this might mean that we have to open doors half an hour late and the event organisers are very much against that
Will - yeah, like anything that affects logistics needs to 100% be communicated
Lucy - through the EM
Paul - so if we have this situation where something’s broken, consult with the EM, speak to the EM, do we therefore then have to make it that the EM has to be contactable?
Will, Lucy - yeah
Paul - Polina? If you don’t care either way I’m not gonna lie, I’m not gonna keep you here
Polina - I mean it’s like 4 past and people are waiting
Paul - I know
Will - This is important. We’ve got an hour for crew and it takes 5 minutes
Paul - we’re just trying to work out guidelines. Some thoughts on whether the EM, so should the EM be always contactable. Is it reasonable for them to be contactable? And is there a reason for them to be non-contactable, but telling someone
Tom - I feel like they should always be contactable, but then you can’t really foresee a reason why they wouldn’t and then it will happen.
Paul - there have been times when I’ve been EM, something’s gone wrong on lower college lawn and something like gradball, for one hour
Will - if there’s a moment when you’re going to be uncontactable, I feel like you should bestow the power of your role onto somebody else
Natasha - say it to the next person in line of command
Paul - there’s no line of command
Natasha - well you know what I mean
Will - you can get LX or sound guy on tech temporarily
Natasha - yeah, what I’m trying to say is that you have your EM, and then you have your people doing the sections like projections, light and sound, and the EM has assigned those jobs to get done for you, so you trust that the sound person will do sound, that lighting will get lighting done, trust that projections person will get projections done
Paul - but you don’t have to explicitly tell them that, or are you saying you should tell that should be by default
Natasha - that should kind of just be done by default. That’s why we have the roles now when people are signing up
Paul - that’s different to what we’re talking about over here
Natasha - but what I’m trying to get to is that if the EM does disappear and an issue occurs in like sound or lighting or projections, that then you can’t contact the EM, whoever’s jurisdiction it is under, it falls to them to fix it and then say this is how we’re gonna get it done, this is how we’re gonna fix it, things like that, do you know what I mean
Will - well it should be, well the EM should delegate somebody to be new EM and then that person should confer with the person whose department it is
Lucy - and the EM should have a phone on them
Will - the proper EM should be told what’s going on too
Lucy - don’t wait on a response, if you’ve sent a message, you’ve sent the message. That’s your part done. That’s your bases covered. Whether the EM sees that or not is then on the EM that they should have a phone on them that they can be contactable
Polina - no but surely the EM should always be contactable, because then they wouldn’t be doing a good job of
Will, Lucy - that’s what we’re talking about
Paul - is that what we’re then agreeing, that the EM can never basically be out the building?
Spencer - what happens if they lose reception?
Will - they shouldn’t be leaving
Paul - that’s what I’m saying. Does that basically mean that the EM has to stay? So when the event starts, the EM technically has to be in the venue the whole time? But we’re saying that goes for the whole setup as well?
Lucy - well for us the event starts when setup starts. For us that is the same thing.
Will - yeah, it’s all very much dependent on the evening too, if it’s setup for a BOP then obviously…
Paul - There are different, but obviously the try has to be general because if it’s a one person, two person event
Will - you’re fine
Paul - also, EMs leaving with the entire crew is also…
Will - yeah, exactly
Paul - I think fine. There are issues where the acts wouldn’t have someone to contact, and that’s why I sometimes get phone calls, but
Lucy - or just give users or the act management a way to contact you, like I gave HotDub my number
Will - and Radio 1 had mine
Lucy - yeah, like you just give them your number, then if you’re not contactable, you’re still on your phone
Paul - so the EM does have to be contactable at all times
Will - with no going home
Lucy - or if you go homeWill - you delegate it
Lucy - or you put your phone number on like you know the health and safety forms if you’re not staying, you put your name and a phone number
Paul/Will/Lucy - EM should be in the venue at all times
Lucy - if not staying then give phone number, same context
Paul - does anyone have anything to add to the point of the EM should be central or is that all and like has to be communicated and has to be in the building. Is that what people are kind of agreed on on that one or?
Natasha - the central one is quite mmmm, it’s mmmm. I like central but it’s also very hard to stay central. If you can’t stay central, at least stay contactable.
Paul - so I think we fairly agree that they EM has to stay central unless they absolutely can’t
Lucy - and has to stay contactable unless some weird foreseen reason means that you can’t
Paul - a phone isn’t enough on a club night because you can’t feel your phone on a club night and you definitely can’t hear it
Spencer - so is there anything instead of a phone?
Paul - no you have to stay central. You can’t be like on the floor
Lucy - no no
Paul - you can’t be like backstage, you can’t be, you could be in the green room or at reception, basically you have to make sure that you definitely are contactable
Lucy - yeah
Paul - or you delegate it
Will - yeah
Paul - is basically what we’ve come to
Lucy, Will - yeah
Paul - and we don’t have time to do the rest so we’ll have to do that next week
Will - we need to so SM as well at some point
Paul - we’re doing this next week as well