Meeting minutes

2017-04-25

Last modified 10/21/2024

The first official meeting held for the 2017-18 committee.

Present

Qais Patankar, Elena Lapinskaitė, Joe, Cameron Sharp, Harry Reeder, Craig Snowden, Angus Shaw

General Agenda

  • Making the “CompSoc Members” Facebook group public

    • Currently a closed group - no tagging/interaction with those outside the group
    • Fast joining - multiple admins approve new additions quickly
    • Public group means anyone can post which will give greater exposure
    • It’s already easy to join and post, there is very little screening except turning down obviously fake accounts
    • Closed is easier to protect privacy of post-event photos
    • Voted all in favour of keeping the group closed
    • Issue closed

  • Events for older students

    • Most events and advertising geared towards first and second years
    • Contact other groups and ask for ideas - EdIntelligence, for example

  • Sponsorship decks

    • Need a new one to replace the one from 2016-2017
    • Possibility of more informally contacting non-tech companies - e.g. La Favorita or other pizza companies and requesting discounts in exchange for displaying their logos
    • Probably best saved for a specific meeting

  • Block Bookings

    • We won’t need to use this as we don’t plan regular use of EUSA venues

  • SlyRC

    • TechSec working on it - crossover between IRC and Slack

  • Ambiguities in the constitution

    • Constitution is open to all
    • Anyone can request changes on Github
    • We can address these at the EGM in September/October where the 1st year rep is elected

  • CompSoc merchandise

    • Hoodies/t-shirts?
      • Expensive
      • Especially since most people don’t even pay for membership
      • Possibly give tshirts out for free with membership (good draw for signing up at freshers week stall)
    • Committee hoodies/tshirts
      • General “Committee” printings on hoodies
      • Useful for events, especially fresher’s week
    • New Flag
      • Asked previous committee how the old flag was obtained
    • Framing old flag
      • Or just the logo if we cut it out
      • Where would we put it?
      • Framed in Appleton Tower
    • Stickers
      • Good to have at the start of the year
    • New logo
      • Bring back old logos?
      • ‘100 Years of Turing/Geek Pride’ a possibility (but updated)
      • Cat with sunglasses logo (doesn’t really embody CompSoc though)
      • Possibly bringing back Appleton Tower AT-AT given we’ll be moving back there
    • Card
      • Updated with new logo
      • Possibly bringing back Appleton Tower AT-AT given we’ll be moving back theree
      • Possibly upgrading design of card, although this can get expensive

Fresher's Week

  • Scavenger Hunt

    • First (and last) one done in 2015
    • Good daytime event for meeting people
    • Requires only minimal preparation

  • Pub crawl

    • Tradition, easy to organise
    • Probably no need to contact pubs in advance to let them know of our coming

  • Night of Games

    • Will need a fair amount of equipment
    • We have some older equipment (e.g. Xbox 360) already
    • Individual members needed to bring most of the equipment
    • Possibly request some equipment from members
    • Vice-President met with Neil Heatley and asked him about booking Appleton Tower, will probably be okay but dependent on the contractor - unlikely possibility of it not being ready
    • Old photos at tbrb.imgur.com
    • Collaboration with GameSoc - their secretary has asked us to contact her

  • Activities Fair

    • Need a few people to informally hang around the stall
    • Have membership cards ready for the day - allow cards
    • Have (cheap) tshirts ready, with printing, if possible
    • Possibly give tshirts out for free with membership (good draw for freshers)

Potential Future Events

  • CompSoc Trip(s)

    • Poll was done back in January - winners were Centre for Computing History (Cambridge) & Natural History/Science Museum (London)
    • Would be easier and cheaper to go somewhere closer to home e.g. Glasgow Science Museum
    • Should it be open to freshers and advertised in fresher’s week, or planned/signups taken now from existing members and then done earlier in the year?
    • Would be good to get help of SocialSec or any related SIGs
    • TripSig suggested by Joe

  • Laserquest

    • Has been done before, through Eventbrite
    • Low quality equipment is to be expected

  • Bowling

    • Last time, RSVPs were taken in advance but not many of them showed up
    • Money was taken on the day/afterwards

  • BBQ

    • Is legal in meadows (although encouraged to use designated spots)
    • Having people bring their own food is the best plan

  • PreHack 2017

    • Needs its own meeting - this is the biggest item on the event list

  • Other hackathons

    • Last year we went to StudentHack V and StacsHack, amongst others. These have varying levels of organisation.

  • InfBall & Christmas Dinner

    • SocialSec is working on this currently
    • Good to merge these into one event, given we have little experience with them previously

Community submitted issues

  • Financial reports

    • Financial report isn’t comprehensive - many sponsors and assets are missing
    • We need a bank statement-style spreadsheet of all money in and out
    • We can also use GitHub project to keep track of money due and owed

  • Concerns about ethics of big name corporate sponsors

    • Currently we have a mix of grassroots and big names
    • We need sponsorship from Amazon, Bloomberg etc, they provide much of our funding
    • We can’t afford to let them go, but will try to have local companies too
CompSoc ❤️ You!