Term 1 Week 5 Exec Meeting Minutes

Hey there! We had an in-person exec meeting recently, check out the minutes here!

Present: Josh, Harry, John, Keegan, Skiros

Apologies: Ella

Absent: Leo, Scott

WEEK 4 LAN RECAP:

• What went well?
  • Setup and teardown both went smoothly.
  • Friday had attendance typical of a normal FNG.
  • The smash tournament went well, although the organisation was not the best.
  • MineSoc event on Sunday went well and had good attendance. Worth seeing if they want to do something similar at the next LAN.
• What could have gone better?
  • Didn’t have a trolley to move items during setup + teardown.
  • Didn’t check that the port was live until arrival.
  • Saturday turnout was extremely low (except the quiz in the evening which had more), but the clash with Halloween weekend would seem to explain this, and coursework deadlines (e.g. Robot Maze) are in Week 5 so people would have potentially been too busy.
• Takeaways for next time:
  • Week 4 was not the best idea, but there wasn’t really a choice given the bookings of Lib2 in other weeks. Planning earlier ahead would have helped, and could have got Week 3 instead which would have been the preferred choice.

WEEK 7 LAN PLANNING:

• Action Points:
  • Skiros to contact Steve further in advance than last time
  • Skiros to make a handover document for future Gaming Coordinator/Exec in general
  • Skiros to contact MineSoc to see if they would like to run an event again
  • Harry to start advertising in future newsletters
• What needs to be done?
  • Get a LAN rota set up ASAP and fill in when possible, although people may not know their availability until closer to the date. Need someone to arrive at roughly 10 am on Saturday and Sunday to relieve the night-shifters
  • Open signups for the event ASAP, and adjust the seating plan
  • Need a new access point for WiFi
  • GeoGuessr and Smash Tournaments ran well previously, so run these again
  • Run another quiz, although get rounds to be written earlier this time so it is less painful
  • Invite more societies this time? MineSoc? Tabletop? Esports (but something small - can’t do anything massive until we have more time, i.e. term 2 LAN). Would need to pick a game popular with UWCS if we choose Esports (e.g. Valorant).
  • We need a name for it! The LAN before Christmas? Christmas LAN? I guess we’re ignoring that it isn’t even December. We have a Christmas tree to put up if this is the theme chosen.
  • Night shifts are painful. John will do one if he has to, but would rather not.
  • Board games event/zone? Potentially something specific for Women/NB?
  • VR covers have arrived, so we can bring back VR this time!

WASD:

• We want to continue this in some format.
• Definitely need to scale it down though, as we don’t have the capacity to run it as it normally would.
• Running online is easier, as the previous setup can effectively be reused and it allows for wider participation.
• Way too chaotic to do it at the same time as a LAN. Could do it late in term 2, or delay until summer and then do online/in-person/hybrid.
• Need to decide relatively soon, as it dictates things such as art design and signups.
• If doing it in-person, then we could try and secure the SU atrium (contact SU if so).
• Sleepless has offered to help out with running it.
• Ideally, we get on the front page on Twitch - either contact Twitch directly or Esports?

AOB:

• Include previous motions that haven’t reached quorum at the next AGM.
• Keegan wants to run a small programming competition/event. Looking at Wednesday of either Week 6 or 8.
• Another Women/NB event? Went very well last time + a good turnout. Maybe pub or bowling, Ella to decide when work has calmed down a bit.
• Laser Tag? Just need to pick a date and book it, and then people turn up on the day. Capacity is not explicitly known, but it must be quite large due to previous events.
• Lightning talks: Keegan has three for week 7 (1 already written, 1 spare already written, other 2 unknown, Sleepless and Felix have completed slides). Currently 2, maybe 3 additional talks. Don’t want to clash with Advent of Code if we do another set this term.
• Need to chase up CTF!
• Password manager? Surely we don’t need to spend £240 annually? Not adding this to Harmony as it is intended to be open source.
• Greenlight for ShowCode!
• Future meetings? Probably a good idea to run weekly. Would be a good idea to book a bigger room in the future, so members can attend in person if they wish to - Humanities building would be a good choice for this. Harry to get a doodle poll out soon to gauge availability & deal with room booking.

KEY QUOTES:

‘I don’t understand Warwick’ - Josh, ‘I don’t think Warwick understands Warwick’ - John

‘If you take one idea way from this meeting, let it be conditional formatting’ - Josh

‘Sorry, you’re not a person Harry’ - John