CSS Committee Meeting - Minutes

Location:	In-person (245, LG23)
Date:	Monday 2nd November
Time:	14:00 GMT
Attendees:	Joe Adams (JA) (Chair), Henry Thomas (HT) (Minuting), Idris Evans (IE), Albert Waldron (AW), Harry Wake (HW), Anna Charleton (AC), George Tong (GT), Tyler King (TK), Jacob Swales (JS), Day Jones (DJ), Saf Rahman (SR), Sofiia Rog (SoR)

1	Apologies Ayati	JA
2	Adoption of Previous Minutes Unanimous adoption of previous minutes	HT
3	Matters Arising Annual RA Finally been approved Valyfy Meeting outcomes JA, HT, TK, AW, GT, AC were present. Minutes on google drive if anyone wants to read them. TK suggests that if we apply to the grant and don’t get it, they would then be in a good position to say that since it has been rejected we haven’t got grounds to object. HT agrees. AW says we should make a big timeline about everything that happened. HT suggests checking companies house and finds they dissolved Jan 26 and started dissolution proceedings in Oct 25. AC asks what the possibility of this is, but that we definitely should go through finance. AW says he reckons they will pass us around through every guild department. DJ says that it is the best thing to try, and if it doesn’t work consider splitting from the guild and going back into school of CS. GT asks if the guild broke any rules in signing the contract. AC says we should find proof of their wrongdoing to have the best chance. AW says that the main issue is the lack of emails and going back on their word. HW suggests making sure that the sponsors from this year have actually been paid to prevent this not happening to future committees. DJ asks if we have ever lost sponsors to the guild taking too long JA says he doesn’t think so from his time on committee. New Committee General handover meeting done Should be mostly sorted Matt Leeke’s suggestion of larger quiz When thanking Matt Leeke from the halloween quiz, he mentioned he was speaking to one of the Pro-vice chancellors and she suggested CSS running a university-wide quiz, with staff support and more substantial catering General consensus is that it would be a good idea HT says he would be happy to coordinate with the school HT and JA say that christmas is too soon, but semester 2 is a better idea A collaboration with quiz soc was suggested to increase appeal HW suggests other subject societies “Big fat quiz of Birmingham University” Action HT: Reply to Matt about semester 2	All
4	Past Events Capital One careers panel Very successful event (discounting the halal pizza delay) Jen (Capital One) was very happy with the turnout Helped a lot by Madasar promoting it Pair programming workshop coming up (12th Nov) HW, HT, TK, IE, JA, SR, AC were all there Halloween quiz Started at a reasonable time, Todd let JA and JS do the alcohol because of how smoothly it went previously, and this worked well Pizza didn’t show up at 20:00 as ordered EW rings them to find out and was on the phone for ages Papa John’s hadn’t made any pizza EW tried to sort it out over the phone and it should then take an hour to arrive More time passes, EW is still on the phone and papa johns were resisting Payment over the phone didn’t work repeatedly JA had to run through Selly to pay for the pizza JA was told the pizzas would start being made before he arrived When he arrived he was asked for proof JA was severely rage-baited by papa johns while trying to prove the emails did happen Finally paid for, and they then started making the pizzas (21:30) JA finally got back 22:30 pizza still hadn’t arrived 23:00 pizza finally arrived at Gisbert Kapp JA thanks JS and HT for keeping the quiz going People start coming in for seconds and asking about thirds (offering magic tricks for pizza) Two people barge in and take pizza for thirds, JA fairly got annoyed at them, then shut the door, and brought remaining pizza upstairs for anyone to help themselves to. Left at about 00:00 Need to expense alcohol via the school. TK says soft drinks are better from aldi, but more alcohol variety at sainsburys. JS says cider is often more well received than other alcohol. HT says we caught 3 teams using ChatGPT to get answers for the questions, they were zeroed on the score sheet Todd’s team won Quiz was overall well received, ignoring the pizza TK suggests that though AI should be prohibited for cheating purposes, some may use it for translating DJ says it’s not our responsibility to accommodate people that can’t understand English, as it is a requirement to get into the university AC suggests mark schemes in the future Pub Upstairs again, even though it was booked in advance JA says we should ask for indoors in particular this time AW asks about potentially booking Joe’s but that it may not be bookable on fridays Bristol Pear and Goose have been suggested as alternatives Booking for 20 at 20:00 for Friday 13th	All
5	Future Events (standing item) Break; DJ asks if we need more snacks, JA says we should be alright JA, SR, DJ, SR will be there Christmas Meal Nearly over half of tickets sold - 52 gone, 53 left. 1 non-food ticket sold Tickets off sale on the 13th Only need to take stickers and name plates AW asks about if we’re using the same design as last year, and if so we should change the design on the back as it was a binary message GT asks if we should ask staff if they want to come General consensus is yes IE asks if they are able to buy tickets on the guild website JA will ask in theory, JS will ask in security, JA will also email Matt “Work life balance? Woke nonsense” - AW Ball Action SoR & GT: Look around for some options for hosting the ball Action in progress SoR says all the places are very expensive or too big Burlington is still the backup option Could discuss cost of alcohol with the Burlington if we are going there JA still annoyed about the cost of his gin and tonic Could consider places that are smaller or slightly too expensive 150 tickets is probably a good amount to aim for Aston Webb is another possible place to look Trip DJ suggests Natural History museum and sea life centre “Wibblea bubblea buh” - AW JS suggests Manchester science museum DJ suggests Jodrell Bank HT suggests National Space Centre, could be done joint with AstroSoc DJ suggests the beach, but this is very outside JS suggests black country living museum DJ says we are quite close to Ironbridge DJ suggests RAF HQ museum (Shropshire), and they have war things there Teasoc collab Details incoming, meeting soon to plan it. Other events NQ64 Two week publicity due a week on thursday, TK will do that Walking train would be a good idea, but would need more chaperones 19:26 - 19:33 University to New Street train is the best one to recommend Bot-a-thon Action DJ: Contact Mo for use of the lab 12 - 4 Saturday, 10 - 5 sunday Action completed External speaker form for Matty is done Need people there to judge, and to find out if Matty can do the saturday 21st - 22nd JS can’t do sunday, but will help on the saturday if he can Sponsor events Pair Programming workshop: Thursday 12th Nov, in UG04 if possible, Action HW: contact Madasar to book a room for it and do publicity Bar Crawl Action GT: Look into bar crawl Action in progress GT was in contact with Vodbull but then got locked out of his guild account They were asking about adding some of committee to a whatsapp group to discuss further TK doesn’t think going to clubs on the bar crawl isn’t a good idea, and that some people he has spoken to would prefer not to go if it’s predominantly clubs GT says all other societies seem to do Broad Street AW and TK say that we could do different things TK says he was unaware that they often operate as pubs/bars earlier on, and so other people might be AW says a lot of the same places as last year wouldn’t be a good idea as most of them weren’t great, also some of the stops were too quick HT says that the Harborne run is another option: https://www.barcrawl.co.uk/pubcrawl.aspx?Crawl=8943 A lot left to discuss about the bar crawl Cheese soc collab Action GT: Reach out to cheese soc for alternate dates Action in progress Workshops Python Workshop Action EW: Publicity for workshop by wednesday (include mention of the bot-a-thon). Action completed Action JA: Make slides for workshop Action in progress Ice Skating HW has emailed them again to hopefully get the booking sorted Provisionally: Wednesday 2nd December at 17:00 Booking for 25 would be a good idea Potential to go to the Christmas market afterwards PhD Info Session JS spoke to Hamid about an idea to drive engagement for postgrads School committee for research are fully behind the idea JS spoke to head of PGR admissions who is also on board He would like to do the info talk if he can JS has also spoken to one person in security who is happy to give a talk His plan is to have one talk from each research sector Provisionally Monday 23rd November 12:00-14:00 JS will try to get an RA done soon and get emails sent out Would like to have some snacks and soft drinks Esports collab AC considering a collab with esports Bouldering event Provisionally suggested for Wednesday 25th November at the Depot GT says it is cheaper for students on a monday Date still being considered	All
6	Sponsor/Industry Update (standing item) Pipeline and active discussions Action HW: Double check the guild have received payment from all our sponsors DJ starting to look for hackathon sponsors, HW happy to help contacting them when a list is made	HW
7	Finance Report (standing item) Most recent statement balance: £ 3,284.60 Actual working balance: £ 2,100 Pending incomings Memberships Guild open day funding Xmas meal tickets Capital One pizza reimbursement Pending outgoings Alcohol Action JA: Speak to Zoe to confirm how the alcohol is being paid for Action transferred to (stolen by) HT and completed Football booking Being chased by the guild for the 4th November, but awaiting Habiba for the payment to go through New key Xmas meal payment Pizza - Capital One Panel Halloween Quiz Pizza Alcohol EPS Community Fund Would need to come under one of the criteria for the trip Valyfy lost funds See above section	IE
8	EDI Report (standing item) Action SR: Write announcement to go out on 8th Action in progress Should be sorted soon, in discussions Trans visibility week idea: Blahaj design website HT says he would be concerned by the copyright issue	SR
9	Committee Suggestions (standing item) VONC and VOYC hammer After committee discussion, these were decided against as they would not be a good use of society funds. Dark blue role colour After committee discussion, this was decided against as it would look too similar to committee and committee-elect roles in the discord which could cause confusion. Role/channel for guild CS reps After committee discussion, it was decided to implement this, as it would be a good way for reps to reach more people, and would give committee more communication with the reps to improve events for members. Meccha Chameleon JS happy to respond and run this	All
10	Any Other Business (standing item) Minecraft Server Tex bot changes Action JS: Organise discussion outside meeting and plan the potential changes Action in progress Hoodies Design discussion - committee vote returned going back to the previous design Suggestions made to combine parts of the two designs to improve them Committee shirts/hoodies Committee vote in favour of committee merch of some sort Action JA: look at options Action pending CSS Running tops Action HW: Gauge interest for tops on Tuesday’s run. If there’s sufficient interest then contact a few companies for quotes, including Bludog. PhD Grad stickers (Todd’s suggestion) Committee vote in favour of PhD Grad stickers Cost discussion	All

Actual start time	13:03 BST
Actual end time	14:55 BST
Duration	1 hours 42 minutes