Trinity Hall Computer Society

Minutes of the THCS AGM, 12th March 2005

Present:

Apologies: Adam Biltcliffe, publicity officer

  1. Ratification of minutes from last meeting:
    • The minutes were agreed to be ratified.
  2. Report on finances, given by the treasurer:
    • We have no money, we spend no money.
    • Hence we get no money from the JCR (the procedure is to claim for each year's expenses at the end of the year)
    • It was noted that we get money for hal which is distinct from the money for THCS.
    • We have hardware in lieu of money from Eric [TH computer officer], when needed.
    • The publicity officer some time ago requested coloured pencils; it was noted that this request has still not been honoured.
    • We still don't have a bank account for hal.
  3. Report on publicity, submitted in absentia by the publicity officer
  4. Report on membership, given by the secretary:
    • We have more new members.
    • A number of first years have been persuaded to join, despite the best efforts of the publicity officer
    • It was noted that none of the first years have attended the AGM.
  5. Report on hal/ito status, including backups, given by the Matt Johnson on behalf of the hal admins:
    • The new hardware for hal purchased last year has been installed, is in use, and is working fine.
      • Summary of what new hal is: new hard drives, 1.4GHz athlon, new memory, new case, and a sane filesystem layout.
      • Neill suggested we mod hal's case; we are disinclined to aquiesce to his request.
    • The old hardware has become ito, a machine for use primarily by alumni.
    • We will shortly transition alumni accounts from hal to ito.
    • ito is running nstxd (IP over DNS).
    • Ian has failed to fix it falling over randomly so far, but this will be fixed soon.
    • We still have no backups, however the donated hardware (see below) has a tape drive and lots of hard drives and could possibly be used for backup purposes.
    • We could possibly ask the JCR for money for backups.
    • Ian complained about the "hal" script, specifically with regards the bug where it prompts for a society name and a GPG passphrase simultaneously; Matt owned up to writing the script but claims he can't reproduce any of the reported bugs.
  6. Report on moose, given by Jeff Snyder:
    • THCS has not gained or sold any moose.
    • However, the competition between the departments of Moose and Fish was cited; Fish made considerable losses over the past year, so Moose has done well by comparison.
  7. Election of new committee:
    • Matt proposed impeachment of the publicity officer for gross incompetence; seconded by Chris; thirded by Jeff
      • It was noted that he has done more than previous pub officers, though.
      • Vote: 4 for, 4 against, 1 abstention, casting vote by Ed for, carried.
      • President Banichi impeached Adam.
    • Election for president:
      • One nomination received: Malcolm.
      • Vote: 10 for Malcolm, 0 RON, 0 abstentions.
      • Malcolm unanimously elected as next president.
    • Election for treasurer:
      • No nominations received before the AGM.
      • Jeff nominated Ian; Ed seconded; Ian accepted the nomination.
      • Vote: 9 for Ian, 0 RON, 1 abstention (Ian).
      • Ian therefore continues as treasurer.
    • Election for secretary:
      • No nominations received before the AGM.
      • Jeff nominated Martin; Ed seconded; Martin accepted the nomination.
      • Martin made a statement that he "promises to do everything he has pledged to do before the election, and to uphold the constitution and the constitutional role of secretary".
      • Vote: 8 for Martin, 0 RON, 2 abstentions.
      • Martin therefore joins the committee as secretary.
    • Election for publicity officer:
      • No nominations received before the AGM.
      • Chris nominated Stuart Rowan; Malcolm seconded.
      • James nominated Ben Maraney; Jeff seconded.
      • Matt nominated Rob McQueen; it was pointed out that he's not a member, and his voice status on #thcs was summarily removed by Jeff and the nomination retracted.
      • Ed proposed a motion to give Rob McQueen honorary lifetime membership; Jeff seconded; vote held: 7 for, 2 against, 1 abstention; the honorary membership was therefore granted, and his voice status was reinstated by Jeff.
      • Matt renominated Rob McQueen for publicity officer; Ed seconded.
      • Vote: 0 for Ben Maraney, 6 for Stuart Rowan, 2 for Rob McQueen, 0 RON, 2 abstentions.
      • Stuart therefore returns to the committee as publicity officer; it was noted that since Stuart is currently travelling the world, someone should e-mail trip at strr.org to inform him.
    • Ian made the insightful comment that "hal has root on Jeff".
  8. Donation of new kit by Neill Smith:
    • Neill obtained some kit, which filled room and made it too hot, so he decided to dispose of it onto THCS.
    • It is a Sun SparcServer, with 8 processors and 35 disks.
    • It will probably be hosted in Wychfield House attic.
    • Neill informs us that we cannot sell it due to a promise made to person who provided it to him (or at least not on #debian-uk).
  9. Planning of future events:
    • A LAN party has been proposed repeatedly; the committee should organise this at a later date.
    • Some sort of event was suggested for May week, e.g. a garden party or barbeque, possibly in conjunction with JCN/SRCF. The planning of this was put off until nearer the time, and should be organised by the new committee.
  10. AOB:
    • Activities of James as assistant mascot:
      • "Life has been stressful"
      • He is now living further away from hal, making his duties more difficult.
      • He attempts to hide the number of times which he actually performed his duties, i.e. zero, with statistics.
    • Choice of mascot:
      • Options suggested: keep Static; Eric the killer penguin (provided by Ben Maraney); Matthew Garrett; Eric Marcus.
      • Neill suggests that Matthew Garrett should be THCS Project Leader; Jeff suggests angrytpl.com; suggestion ignored.
      • Ed suggests that he should be THCS Stuart Rowan; suggestion also ignored.
      • Vote: 1 for Static, 3 for Eric the penguin, 0 for Eric Marcus, 4 for Matthew Garrett, 2 abstentions.
      • Matthew Garrett is now the THCS mascot.
    • Ed proposes an emergency motion to select a new assistant to the mascot so Matthew doesn't have to actually do anything; seconded by Chris.
      • Nominations: Eric the penguin; James
      • Vote: 10 for Eric the penguin, 0 for James, 0 abstentions.
      • Suggestion of having two assistants for the mascot discarded as "just silly".
    • Neill noted that we just lost the game.
    • Chris mentioned that "goat" has not yet been mentioned during this meeting; Matt pointed out that Chris said goat earlier when talking about the previous minutes.
    • Malcolm proposes the appointed post of THCS Webmaster; Ed seconded
      • Vote: 9 for, 1 abstention
      • It was pointed out that a vote shouldn't happen for an appointed post, so Malcolm appointed himself as webmaster anyway.
      • Malcolm therefore continues his maintenance of the website, having redesigned it early during his year as secretary.
    • Nomination of new hal admins:
      • Nobody has asked to become an admin.
      • Matt proposed that the new committee recruits new hal admins for next meeting, as some admins will be leaving at the end of this year.
    • Jeff proposed a motion that statistics cannot be mentioned at any THCS meeting, and that anyone who mentions it should be ejected; Chris & Ian seconded.
      • Vote: 7 for, 3 abstentions
      • Carried.
  11. The meeting was closed at 15:04.

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