2019-02-06 Committee Meeting Minutes

• Bruce Turner (Building Supervisor)
• Phil Hulse (Deputy Building Supervisor)
• Adam Powrie (DoES)
• Paul Lancaster (SSC Entertainments Convenor)
• Lucy Brook (Entertainment Space Manager - Deputy Head)
• Spencer Percival (Secretary)
• Will Thompson (Performance Space Manager)
• Polina Sevastyanova (Social Secretary)

• Natasha Maurer (Technical Coordinator)
• Tom Groves (Technical Coordinator)

Meeting begins: 16:00

Previous minutes accepted.

• Weekly event run-through
• RAG wants to light up the Union in purple
• Concern about letting Bindi back in to do an event because at their last event there were reports of at least one of our speakers being dragged to the centre of the room, put on it’s side and people dancing on it
• We need to encourage people to book time for rigging in addition to their events
• DJ training will now be happening on a Friday from 14:00-16:00
  • The first hour is for people who are completely new to it

• We got a replacement screw for the broken projector
  • Will says he thinks there was more wrong with it
• Projector 7 (house mid-right downstage) is pointing at the ceiling because the screw was removed and will be repaired soon
• Projector 4 and 5 are turned off and will be taken down when Phil has time and after giving people enough warnin
• The two mid downstage projectors in Club 601 have unplugged cables and the 4 furthest from the door do not have new cables yet
• Receiver for projector 8 has been taken down to be replaced
• There was not a receiver available to use for the Refreshers Fayre so Paul pulled one out of the rack and has requested for a permanent HDMI link to be installed on the stage
• 2 receivers will be coming out of the rack because they no longer get used
• The switcher is completely full and has unlabelled cables so we need to have a look at that
• The rack is a mess and needs to be organised
• We repaired one of the Alpha Spot Claypaky’s at the cost of one of the Alpha Washes
• There is a broken Rogue from the stage in the tech box which makes strange sounds and Paul has not been able to find a fix for that
• There is a Rogue in Club 601 which has a broken LED
• We need to discuss whether we will be moving any intelligents for the Catwalks
  • The problem is that we have 5 lighting systems which all need to be updated

• Adam says that he is open to us getting money for things we need
• Discussion around why there are less people signing up as of late
  • Fewer people are able to commit to doing large numbers of events during the week because of degree pressures
• There are suggestions that the booking system should be automated so that outdated information is not circulated
• What should we do when people don’t come to Users’ at least two weeks before – discussion
  • Let Adam know so that he can cancel events - Adam
  • Cancelling events would teach people to plan in advance and that they cannot sneak events in at the last minute - Spencer
  • If we have less than 2 weeks notice then we end up scrambling to try and find ents for events - Paul
  • Remind people when it approached the 2 week mark - Polina
  • That would require automating the system because staff do not have the capacity - Paul
  • We cannot allow a booking to continue if a booking has failed to fulfil their obligation of attending an Ents meeting at least 2 weeks in advance - Bruce
  • We will receive a lot of backlash in the first few months after that - Paul
  • The Association has an obligation to look after its volunteers which fall under its HR department, unless they make the decision to employ someone for technical matters. The Association should note on the booking sheet that they reserve the right to cancel any bookings. - Bruce
  • Adam, Paul and Spencer agree
  • People do not understand that even if they put everything in their booking form, they still need to attend a Users’ meeting - Lucy
  • A room booking guide was released recently which doesn’t even mention Ents Users’ meeting - Will
  • It’s all good and well, but our biggest problem is the University trying to force events to happen - Paul
  • A technical assistant has been recommended time and time again - Bruce
  • If we have sufficient time to plan then the Ents can continue to provide the service - Paul
  • Let us go to the operations meeting and bring up that a clause needs to be added stating that not attending an Ents Users’ meeting will jeopardise a booking. It is in our own interest to have advanced warning to do events properly and to get a decent audience - Bruce
  • If we approve a booking two weeks in advance then users only receive confirmation emails after that, meaning they can only attend Users’ meetings a week in advance - Adam
  • Our biggest problem is in The StAge where people expect more than in the other venues. The clause should be added to guard us (the Association) against reputational damage. - Bruce
  • What about the time delay between proceed, provisional and approved? - Adam
  • To put on a show, people need to put in a booking well in advance to make it worthwhile putting on - Bruce
  • Our problem is not doing the tech, it’s finding the people to do the tech at short notice - Paul in reply to Adam
  • Bruce described a full-time technical assistant to repair equipment, pack up and make equipment available
  • All agreed that that would be amazing
  • We need to add to the booking form what is expected at the Users’ meeting - Spencer
  • The booking form is really bad at prompting people - Paul
  • We need to agree in advance about what we need - Bruce

Meeting ends: 17:30