CSS Committee Meeting - Minutes

Location: Online (Discord)
Date: Friday 18th September
Time: 13:30 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), Tyler King (TK), 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
  • T-shirts
    • IE has done the budget notification and sent it off, we are awaiting confirmation
    • We won’t have them by fresher’s and we probably won’t have them by societies night
    • We will have to give out the t-shirts later on in the year
    • Make sure to advertise the free t-shirts as we will have them even if it will be delayed
    • TK asks if a separate post for the t-shirts will be needed
    • JA says this is a good idea, and that if needed we can do more orders later on
  • Fresher’s Week
    • Annual RA
      • Action AW and HT: Look through and remove old events no longer run and add any new events.
        • Action completed - Submitted to guild
    • Induction talks
    • UG:
      • 11:00-13:00 (12:30-12:40)
      • 15:00-17:00 (16:30-16:40)
      • HT has made the slides from the societies night slides and sent them to Zoe.
      • JA will be there for the talk, and will aim to stay for the length if possible.
      • HT to work out who is doing each talk and put it on the rota
      • Pizza being served after the talks so as many committee as possible to be in the atrium
      • Board games directly after the second pizza, so more people should be there.
    • PGR:
      • JA will do the CSS talk 11:10-11:20
      • JS will be there for most of the talk
    • MSc:
      • 11:00-12:00 (11:30-11:40), during the fair stand
    • Fresher’s stand schedule
      • Fill in the sheet for when people are available so HT can make the rota
      • HT will make the rota in the next day to make planning the week easier.
      • EW will print some things out ready to go onto the board for the CS atrium stand
      • Action GT: Make announcement to go out with the calendar
    • EPS Societies fair
      • Setup 10:00 - 10:30
      • Quiet hour at the start (low lights, less music)
    • Skill Share fair
      • Not really viable as we can’t really run it feasibly due to needing to bring in devices for it.
  • Use of generative AI
    • HT says that generative AI is not a good look for the society as many of the members are likely to be unhappy with this
    • Multiple committee members agree with this
    • JA says that AW brought up putting it into the constitution, and this can be discussed at the EGM being run and a vote can be run, giving the members an option.
    • We will need to work out the best way to word it and get it voted in the constitution
    • GT asks how that will be clarified
    • HT mentions the discussion committee had about sponsorships from AI companies and the decision that we wouldn’t use them as members probably wouldn’t like that
    • GT asks about companies like google as they have a big AI presence
    • JA and HT agree that it would be companies who are primarily AI focused
    • HT also says it isn’t a good idea to use generative AI for logos or making website pages for example, as this is the way we present as a society and it is very visible.
    • JA asks for discussions, suggestions, wording, and anything else on the topic to be sent on discord to get as many opinions as possible.
 All
4 Committee Handover All
5 Past Events All
6 Future Events (standing item)
  • Fresher’s Week
    • Mixers
    • Board games night
      • Action JA: Contact the school about board games night
        • Action completed
      • Room sorted, alcohol ordered
      • Will need to contact papa johns ahead of time to get the large order done
      • If pizza tokens aren’t made in time, we have the old ones in the cupboard still
      • Tabletop games society will be there, but don’t want collab advertised
      • We will get some rooms for tabletop to run “blood on the clocktower”, probably the labs
      • Action EW: Contact pizza companies to find out if any would like to make a deal. We will need to prevent cross-contamination and have dietary options.
    • Pub
      • Announcement is ready to go out, and can be done today
      • Action EW: Put pub night announcement out today
      • Either in fresher’s or early in week 1 we need to book the tables in the back as we normally do
      • TK asks if we’re planning on running a walking train to the pub
      • JA agrees, and says he can be there
      • JA suggests meeting at 17:30, and setting off at around 17:45 to get to the pub in time.
      • Action GT: Book pub night from 19:00-22:00 with 4 tables.
    • Societies night
      • Waiting for timetabling to get back to us to potentially book Haworth from 18:00 onwards, as Todd couldn’t book beyond 19:00.
      • JA says someone needs to contact somewhere to get pizza from in advance.
      • JA has created the slides for it, but everyone is welcome to make any edits they think are useful.
      • Other societies have also started to add their slides to it.
      • There is a small “shout-out” section at the end for the societies who aren’t able to attend (AlgoSoc, CyberWomen)
      • GT to remove location from the calendar for now as it is not confirmed.
    • Fresher’s Quiz
      • Action AW: Message Todd for alcohol and booking the atrium
        • Action transferred to JA and completed (decided against alcohol)
      • JA says it should be basically ready to go.
      • HT agrees and says the questions are all ready.
      • JA says that as the announcement doesn’t include pizza we can decide nearer the time if it’s worth it.
      • Zoe will be there, so we’ll need to ask her for access to the AV system for the quiz.
      • HT says we will need to print out the picture round ready for the quiz.
    • Scavenger Hunt
      • Action HW: Create scavenger hunt question sheet about the university
        • Action Completed
      • Still waiting for guild confirmation that estates are happy with our risk assessment.
      • Other than that the event is mostly ready to go.
      • Scavenger hunt meeting time is set on the calendar for Wednesday 13:30.
      • We will need someone at CS as well as the guild fair for the scavenger hunt.
      • Probably an hour to give teams time to get back and give stickers to them for completion.
      • Stickers can be given out at the CS atrium stand, or other events that we are running.
      • HW asks if it is better to have the scavenger hunt only released at the meeting time on the Wednesday.
      • AW agrees, saying it makes the in-person event seem like it’s already happened.
      • HW suggests keeping it open over the weekend after to give people more time if they want to do it on-demand.
      • JA says to have a printout of a QR code in the Atrium to the form so it is easy to access from the Atrium.
      • Action HW: Print out QR code to the form and make a short announcement to go out on the wednesday for it.
    • CSS Lunch
      • Lunch starting at 12:00, but aim to meet at the CS building at around 11:00, to leave by 11:20 at the latest to get the train.
      • Encourage everyone to buy train tickets outside of the CS building as there is no signal there.
      • Aiming to get the 11:26 to New Street, to get there by around 11:30.
      • Can buy from the bar or using the QR code on the tables to track how much we spend.
      • We can take some earbuds in case people need them for the loud environment.
    • Other events
      • Action ML: Reach out to VGS to ask about an early collab
        • Action pending
        • Break;
      • Weekly alternating with pub
    • Starting week 2
    • Friday 09:00 not a good time for it
    • Monday 13:00, but second years aren’t able to go
    • Thursday 15:00, to allow final years to attend for half
    • Thursday 15:00 chosen as it is similar to the time last year
    • In Sloman lounge as usual
    • Can discuss food and drink in week 1
    • Announcement in week 1 or 2 about it
  • CSS Plush Making
    • Action AW: Message Fearne to start planning it if possible
      • Action in progress
      • Will need to find money for it as the grant has run out
  • PUB
    • Weekly alternating with break
    • Starting week 3 (fresher’s pub night in week 1)
    • JA and HT agree that friday is best
    • AW says it was usually booked 20:00-22:00
    • TK and HT say that there weren’t any bookings after so we could just stay, and that we gave tables to other people when they weren’t being used.
    • Could change to Joe’s later on, but start with the Soak for now.
    • AW says he still doesn’t know how Joe’s is going to be booked
    • TK and EW happy to do the weekly roundups each week for upcoming events
  • Christmas Meal
    • Provisionally Friday 4th December at 18:00
    • Agree that we are good to go ahead with the Green Man and consider prices
    • Action HT: Email Green man to start process and let them know provisional time
  • Outlines for major events
    • Halloween quiz
      • Action HT: Make quiz
        • Action pending
      • Thursday after EGM
      • Alcohol decision after Board games to see what we have left
      • Will need to do prizes and book atrium
    • EGM
      • Advertising:
        • First year rep
        • International rep
        • PGT rep
        • EDI Officer
      • Will open applications 2 weeks before
      • Can wait until after fresher’s, but need to make activity and RA, and do website
      • JA needs to make chair slides, and IE needs to make treasurer slides
    • Ball
      • Action GT: Look around for some options for hosting the ball
      • Could do with somewhere with cheaper alcohol to host the ball
      • Previous years: Burlington hotel, council hall, industrial place
      • Botanical gardens doing renovations so won’t be able to host it this year.
    • OSM Mapathon
      • Matt says he wants to run this again
    • NQ64
      • Not too expensive, usually a different group of people
    • Hoodies
      • On sale around christmas if possible
    • Discord bot-a-thon
      • Two day event (weekend)
      • Saturday - workshops to learn about bots
      • Sunday - Create a bot in teams
    • Bar crawl
      • First or second semester
    • Workshops
      • Want to bring these back
    • Film night
      • Easy for us to run, different event
    • Collabs
      • TeaSoc
        • HT in discussion with one of committee about this
      • Bad film society
      • Cheese society
      • Cocktail society
    • Sports
      • Football
        • Wednesday 13:00 is the time given in the poll
        • This will be 11-a-side
        • It will be around £200
        • HT asks if we have enough money for that
        • AC hoping to book it as soon as possible
        • IE says we can probably do it sooner
        • AC says it needs to be done in the sports and fitness app
        • Probably going to need to be a personal expense
        • JA says this is good as it is quicker
        • AC says sports and fitness are running a trial before the sessions start and she is hoping to ask them there what is going on
        • JA suggests reaching out to Sumeet to ask how it works, and he is often helpful as he was sports secretary two years running
      • 5K Run
        • HW says RA is very long but has been approved.
        • CS building to Vale along roads and then back along the canal to the CS building
        • Aims to be a sociable, fun, run
        • Not a particularly fast pace
        • Only alteration is removing sign-up and instead having the committee’s email on the publicity
        • HW will give a briefing at the start for safety
        • Being run on Tuesday of week 2, at 17:00
        • HW has the publicity written and ready to go
        • HW suggests setting up a society strava page as it would be nice to have
        • JA says that would be good to launch with the 5K run
        • HW says he will make a start on the RA for it
 All
7 Sponsor/Industry Update (standing item)
  • Pipeline and active discussions
  • Three sponsors basically confirmed:
    • Capital One at gold
    • TPP at tailored silver
    • Interrupt Labs at bronze
 HW
8 Finance Report (standing item)
  • Most recent statement balance: £535.86
  • Pending incomings
    • Capital One sponsorship
    • TPP sponsorship
  • Pending outgoings
    • T-shirts
    • Server costs (on grant) - To be spent before December 11th
      • Money already spent can be retroactively put on the grant
    • Football booking
  • Valyfy lost funds
    • In March 2025 we had a sponsor, Valyfy, for Birminghack..
    • The company dissolved so they couldn’t pay the guild and the guild decided not to follow up
    • As a result £225 was taken from our account
    • JA has emailed Habiba to arrange a meeting to decide on the best way forward, as it came from a committee most of whom have moved on
  • Grants
    • Other grant applications were not mentioned so we are awaiting a response
 IE
9 EDI Report (standing item)
  • Black History Month
    • Action EW: Prepare an announcement ready for October
 All
10 Committee Suggestions (standing item)
  • Minecraft server
    • Action DJ: Make the poll for it in announcements, pinging the minecraft role
      • Action completed
    • DJ has figured out how to get the server made and has started to make a custom modpack
    • DJ thinks they have got the server running
    • JA says there is no desperate rush
    • IE asks if there is a RA required
    • JA will ask Holly if another RA will be required but it will hopefully be covered by the annual RA
    • TK says no-one has suggested a modpack and just individual mods so a custom modpack should be good
    • All that should be left is adding the last few mods and checking nothing gets broken
 All
11 Any Other Business (standing item)
  • Tex bot changes
    • Action JS: Organise discussion outside meeting and plan the potential changes
      • Action in progress
    • JS says he is working with Matty to make the changes
    • JS asks anyone to put any suggestions into the TeX channels
  • Nav Bar Rework
    • GT says he hasn’t worked on the feedback he’s had yet, but he will do that soon
    • JS would like some eyes on the nav bar rework as only two people have given feedback yet, and this is both technical and aesthetic.
  • Email access issues
    • EW and TK unable to access emails due to guild changing email names to respect name changes, and passwords apparently haven’t been changed but aren’t working.
    • JA suggests to try using unused emails if needed, and AW says he can ask as he works in IT at the guild.
  • Costco card:
    • DJ says they should be able to get one by November
  • Weekly meetings:
    • JA says we will go back to weekly meetings where possible, and please attend whenever you can
    • Will be hybrid to make attendance easier
    • JA will send out a LettuceMeet poll
    • Will be set starting from week 1
    • Might try to fit it in during fresher’s if possible
    • The meetings should then get shorter
 All
Actual start time 13:33 BST
Actual end time 15:42 BST
Duration 2 Hours 9 Minutes