TAFF Minutes – Trinity Term 2011, Meeting 1 (Trinity lawns)
May 31, 2011
In Attendance: All but Shivani and Jacob; both gave notice they would be late.
Preliminary Agenda:
Re-registration of Society
Welcoming the new committee
Gel collection
Workshops
Online publication of minutes
Senior Member
Fresher’s Fair and Cuppers
The meeting was opened.
Shivani arrived.
1 – Introductions: each member of the committee briefly outlined who they were and what their job was. Geoff didn’t care who James was.
2 – Re-registering the Society: Matt asked Tom if the correct forms, signed by the senior member, had been handed to the Proctor’s office. Tom confirmed that they had.
3 – Social Events: Should TAFF be thinking about some Trinity socials? Punting was suggested, there was dispute as to ‘when’, Geoff suggested Michaelmas. General agreement was reached that social events centred around either punting or a pub trip were a good idea, and that timing should aim to be as convenient as possible.
4 – Workshops: Some controversy over the lack of a dedicated workshops rep. James and Shivani suggested that workshops might slip through the cracks if no one was overseeing them. Matt and Tom stated that the committee should still be able to organise them, even if in practise this might mean Matt as President would become effectively responsible. James expressed reservations that future Presidents might not want this responsibility. For timebeing, committee agreed to organise workshops collectively.
Question arose of ‘what workshops’: Sound workshop and Flying workshop considered. The virtues of the BT as a location for workshops were questioned – lack of complex technical facilities, definitely no flying. It was suggested that Matt might ask Dan Travers about the use of the O’Reilly, which has a lot more room for interesting workshops. Sarah advocated ensuring that workshops were kept ‘open’ and accessible to beginners, Shivani suggested repeating TAFF’s Michaelmas introductory workshop on a termly basis.
Jacob arrived. He wanted to retroactively steal Trinity’s lawn furniture for Call of the Wild.
5 – Freshers’ Fair: Tom brought up the question of Freshers Fair, Jocasta will need to start making arrangements before end of term. The confusion over a joint TAFF/UDO but separate OUDS stall from last year was recalled. Hopefully things can be more organised this year. Jacob and Jocasta suggested having some kind of ‘interactive’ feature at our stall, such as a lamp of some kind. It was agreed Freshers Fair would be discussed in full detail in the term’s second meeting.
6 – Minutes: Matt advocated publishing them on the Taff list, no objections were made.
7- Website: What is it actually for? What do we want on it? Anna, Jeremy and Sarah had never used it. Some of the content on it is outdated, some useful things that should be on there (such as O’Reilly spec, noted Matt F) are either hard to find or not present. Geoff noted that we presently pay £80 a year for our website, the committee was uniformly astounded. Geoff suggested he might contact Richard Owen who has a server of his own, perhaps he might be willing to lend TAFF some space.
8 – Senior Member: Mark Roberts will be leaving at the end of the term, and James Methven is often hard to contact. TAFF will need a new senior member in order to re-register. Jacob suggested sending a request to the TAFF list. Matt recommended that everyone keep their eyes open for any potential candidates. Agreed that this needed to get done.
Jeremy had to leave to attend a production meeting.
9 – Cuppers: will need a PM, usually someone from TAFF, Matt says that presuming it doesn’t clash with Dorian Gray, he might well do it. Everyone agrees that hopefully this year Cuppers won’t clash with a Playhouse show.
Anna had to leave to attend a tutorial.
10 – Gel Collection: Matt and James are keen for a TAFF gel collection to be begun. They have a lot of spare gel, some of it inherited from Alexes Prideaux and Dickens. There is a lot of gel here, too much for hires and venues to look after. Matt notes that TAFF has both cut gel, and uncut gel. Sarah notes that this is essentially a recycling service, not a hire service. TAFF won’t be charging for use.
Jocasta had to leave.
Jacob suggests keeping the gel in the Moser store, perhaps in a locked filing cabinet. Would a cabinet take rolled gels? James says that rolling is a preferable means of storage anyway. Matt instructs Jacob to look up the price of a filing cabinet with 4 drawers (the Moser’s present filing cabinet has 2 drawers, and no lock). It is noted that it would be unfortunate were someone to mistake the filing cabinet for a prop and use it in their show.
Other Business:
11 – Moser Store: The committee noted the lack of a Moser store manager, Matt and Jacob discussed the idea of having one and reinstating the restricted access to keys, possibility of charging deposits again. Tom noted that the present system is very helpful for stage managers – previously get outs had to be split over two days, with items to be returned to the Moser needing to wait for the store manager’s presence the morning after. It was noted that the OUDS Wardrobe runs very efficiently, perhaps elements of that structure could be looked at for a basis.
12 – The Hires and Venues Drill: Sarah has a drill but no charger, meaning that not only is it unusable, it also cannot be PAT tested and so insured. It was agreed to remove the drill from the Hires and Venues remit – Jacob volunteered to give it a new home.
13 – Playhouse TAFF Dinner Funding: A decision was made to fully refund the cost of tickets to TAFF dinner to the Playhouse staff, James will speak to those concerned.
14 – Jacob’s Workshops: Jacob suggested a means of receiving in-kind sponsorship for receiving training in the use of lighting desks etc. He will think about this. Matt and James considered the idea of workshops through the Playhouse.
15 – Stash: Shivani said she would attempt to procure stash.
16 – Final Notes: Matt reminded everyone we would have another meeting later in the term, Tom reminded himself that Geoff had taken the secretary’s folder Shivani had intended to give him.
After much deliberation, Meeting was Closed
