CSS Committee Meeting - Minutes

Location:	Online (Discord)
Date:	Thursday 20th August
Time:	17:00 BST
Attendees:	Joe Adams (JA) (Chair), Henry Thomas (HT) (Minuting), Idris Evans (IE), Albert Waldron (AW), Harry Wake (HW), Anna Charleton (AC), George Tong (GT), Evie Wilson (EW), Jacob Swales (JS), Day Jones (DJ)

1	Apologies	JA
2	Adoption of Previous Minutes Unanimous adoption of previous minutes	HT
3	Matters Arising Hoodies Action GT: Put message out for hoodie pickups in September Action completed Most have now been collected, can send a message later in the term if any are not collected later on Membership renewals New renewals - probably majority in fresher’s week from the events Fresher’s Week Societies Fair Stall (23rd & 24th September) Action GT: Create calendar for this year using the template Action completed Action DJ: Find out how much new banners would cost - EPS Exhibitions Action completed Would be £50 + VAT (down from £75) HW says look at other places as seems expensive Annual RA Action AW and HT: Look through and remove old events no longer run and add any new events. Action in progress UG talks 11:00-13:00, 15:00-17:00 In new Munrow lecture theatre Societies Fair Put availability for fresher’s on spreadsheet Add comment if not available at any point EPS College society fair stand in week 1, will need to wait for timetables to be out MSc Induction talk 10:00-12:00 Same place as UG talks PGR talks No reply about times yet Committee Bios Will be pushed on the 31st August Meet the committee in early September	All
4	Committee Handover	All
5	Past Events	All
6	Future Events (standing item) Fresher’s Week Mixers First Year Mixer GT and HT say it was directly after one of our lectures last year JA posits pub night fresher’s and mixers week 1 AC says pub night and mixers were different, but could be very similar depending on how they’re run which may make one pointless PGR Mixer Are running it jointly with the school’s PG Reps to get better attendance International Mixer Unlikely to be doable as we don’t have an international rep, and the school run one of their own IE says the school does run one AW asks for a volunteer to go to the school’s international student mixer Board games night Need to contact the school about use of the building and games and purchasing alcohol Tabletop society said they might be there but have not confirmed yet AW will ask person he knows who knows the current president if no reply from them soon Action JA: Contact the school about board games night Pub JA suggests Soak as the food is better and better for getting to know people DJ suggests Joe’s is cheaper JS and AW say Joe’s will be rammed on friday night in fresher’s HT says it was in week 1 last year HW suggests doing both JA says this could be one at both (Joe’s and Soak) AC says it could put people off if we don’t have enough committee and have things on too often JA says figure out the day we are going to do it on, but week 1 is probably better GT asks what time it would be JA says it is usually earlier than the regular pub nights so probably 7 Societies night Action AW: Contact Robotics and OStem Action completed Activity done on guild website Fresher’s Quiz Action HT: Create a smaller quiz for first week to get people in the building Action completed Action AW: Message Todd for alcohol and booking the atrium Action carried forwards Could be done on thursday as nothing else is planned No rush for times, but need to let the school know Scavenger Hunt Guild activity submitted Not got questions for it, as the same one was used for 3 years Action HW: Create scavenger hunt question sheet about the university GT asks when it will be JA says pretty much throughout the week HW asks about publicity for it, and suggests a QR about it on the stand we have JA agrees, and says it needs more advertising Park/Winterbourne Going to an outdoor place for a casual sober meeting at a weekend JA says fresher’s week is packed, so this would be good for a weekend JA suggests the park and continuing with winterbourne in the second semester Suggestions: Selly Park - Longer walk Green space on the vale Green space behind the guild, but will probably have the tent up still Space behind the Watson building CSS Lunch Alfred Works have replied about doing Tuesday but needs £100 deposit Deposit is converted to bar tab or QR vouchers JA will email again to confirm what that means, and try to convince them to change their idea JA says it is doable with the sponsorship incoming St Paul’s have replied but can’t do Tuesday Hopefully can get more people this year with more advertising Need to wait for them to respond to decide next steps Other events Action ML: Reach out to VGS to ask about an early collab Action pending Break; Will figure out day and time, and the source of the food and drink for it soon Won’t start it immediately as people won’t have much work DJ says they might be able to get a costco card and will have a car at uni to get food GT asks what food? JA says usually biscuits, crisps, and other foods, but milk is a problem. UHT has been suggested as an alternative. GT asks if costco is likely to be much cheaper HT asks if the fuel for the trip has been accounted for when working out which is cheaper IE might be able to run it depending on time CSS Plush Making Action AW: Message Fearne to start planning it if possible Action in progress Message has been sent but no reply Fearne did send a list of the items required previously Could reach out to members to see if any of them know how to crochet PUB AW and HT will try to run it between them Making sure pub is booked and publicity done Outlines for major events EGM Roles to fill: International Rep First Year Rep PGT Rep (Maddy stepping down by then) EDI Officer Anyone is welcome to step down if they need to at any point, it is a lot of work If anyone wants to swap roles, let JA know ahead of time Need 2 weeks in advance and a room booked Need to set up the website, and everyone who has worked on it previously is not on committee Was week 4/5 last year, before halloween quiz Will confirm with Matty about the guild’s view on the website Wed 21st October, 13:00 onwards provisionally Halloween quiz Action HT: Make quiz Action pending Thursday 29th October, 18:00 onwards provisionally Need to get good prizes for it Have too many halloween TeX stickers Have holographic TeX for costume competition Always get blahaj for the winners, but could look at others depending on price Will need to make the school aware for the microphone system and Todd for alcohol Small blahaj is £5 10cm alien is £2 Christmas meal TNMOC Hackathon Ball NQ64 Publicity GT will do calendar EW says separate posts for each event and can do discord and instagram for that HW will do scavenger hunt announcement EW will send link to formatter website Make event in discord when doing an announcement Need to make sure announcements are out early	All
7	Sponsor/Industry Update (standing item) 2026 sponsorship collateral update Outreach strategy and committee involvement in the sponsor selection process Pipeline and active discussions New proposal - Adding the name and certain details into the proposal to personalise it per company Also made a video to show we are serious Have contacted (nearly) all the past sponsors Have done a large amount more this morning for second round: Various tech companies in Birmingham, including some startups The companies who are regulars at the careers fairs	HW
8	Finance Report (standing item) Most recent statement balance: £250.15 Actual working balance: £255.49 Pending incomings Memberships Pending outgoings Server rental Stickers Draft of a grant application written Other grant applications also in progress, deadline is 31st August IE asks about purchasing the t-shirts JA says probably early September as all sponsors before the 1st September need to be on them JA says that smaller orders more often is better, to save having too many left over IE asks about asking for a grant for half of the money, and the school paying the other half JA agrees this is a good idea IE says there is a grant for the server and website costs which he has calculated based on last year School say they will give a set amount of money, which we spend and then ask for specific things to spend that money on rather than being given a lump sum GT suggests asking for more money as the number of students is increasing (and we had no sponsors last year)	IE
9	EDI Report (standing item)	All
10	Committee Suggestions (standing item) Action DJ: Make the poll for it in announcements, pinging the minecraft role Action pending Do a poll for if people want it, and a poll for mod packs and other options so people have a choice 4 cores and 4-8GB of RAM to run on Hetzner probably IE says last year’s cost is on the bill so can be included in the grant request DJ says they might be able to run it locally JS says Hetzner have roughly tripled their prices since last time so alternatives may be better	All
11	Any Other Business (standing item) Tex bot changes Action JS: Organise discussion outside meeting and plan the potential changes Action carried forwards Other meetings over summer Action AW: Poll for potential meeting or availability Action completed Publicity Action TK: Make graduation graphic soon Action completed Next meeting At some point not long before fresher’s week Action JA: LettuceMeet link for next meeting Email to all students Can’t do postcard to students Original message was too long but has been cut down Has some dates and times in but they may change GT asks if the school will be able to advertise us nearer fresher’s week JA says he thinks Todd is the person to ask	All

Actual start time	17:03 BST
Actual end time	18:37 BST
Duration	1 Hours 34 Minutes