Hobbits Hole SE London Roleplaying Club Committee Meeting Notes and Actions May 2021

Date & Time: 12th May 2021 @19:00

Meeting: Committee Meeting
Venue: Virtual via Zoom
Chair: Carol Cunningham
Note taker: Marco Curran
Present

Chairperson: Carol Cunningham *CC
Treasurer: Jerrie Sharp *JS
Membership Officer: Hannah Philpot *HP
Online Presence Officer: Mark Cunningham *MJC
Secretary: Marco Curran *MC

Apologies

None

Authorised as a true and correct record of meeting by:
Carol Cunningham

31st May 2021 16:02

A1 Welcome from the Chairperson

The Chair opened the meeting at 19:05 and welcomed everyone to the Hobbits Hole SE London Roleplaying Club Committee. Everyone was thanked for their attendance.

A2 Minutes

Minutes of last meeting:
There were no corrections raised by the committee.

Actions arising from last meeting:

Action 1: The Secretary shared the Just Giving page on behalf of the Treasurer
Action 2: The Secretary added an agenda point regarding the quarterly newsletter
Action 3: The OPO created a section on the club website for quarterly newsletters
Action 4: The Secretary shared links with Club Members to review pages.
Action 5: The MO provided the Treasurer with a range of costings to fund the Club promotion/recruitment.

A3 Treasurer's Report

Financial update

The Treasurer reported that we were in a good financial position with £470 in the bank made up of donations added to the Hobbits Hole JustGiving page. This will be used as follows:

£300 of this will be used to cover the first quarter’s rent at our new home at the Scout Hall in Bromley.
The OPO will be reimbursed for the money he has spent setting up the Club’s online presence.
80% of the remainder will be given to the MO to assist with the recruitment campaign with the final 20% plus any additional donations kept back for emergencies.

The Treasurer reported that, now we know the cost of the Hall and the current number of members, the cost of membership will be as follows:

Annual: £85
Weekly: £2

The Annual payments will be pro rata’s until April 2022 so the cost for members for this year will be £64. Weekly members will remain as £2. The hope is that a cashless system will be available to all to pay this.

The Treasurer confirmed that as membership increases, the aspiration is to lower these prices. This will be assessed in April of each year.

Online membership was agreed to remain free but to allow an online member voting rights (and to generally support the club) a nominal payment of £10 per year would be required.

Confirmation of required purchases

It was confirmed that, following advice and requests from members, the £200 grant that had been obtained for the Club will now be spent on safety equipment for the Club plus equipment and consumables for Club members to use. These will be distributed on the Club’s opening night

Committee members were asked to supply their contributions to the HH newsletter so that it can be completed in time for the Club’s return to in person gaming in July. In addition to this, a club member has suggested a starter flyer giving any new members an introduction to the club. It was agreed that a physical newsletter could be used that would achieve both these aims.

Action 1:

Chair, OPO and MO to provide short articles for the newsletter:
Chair: Welcome to the Club/Hall
OPO: 2 paragraphs on Online Presence update
MO: 2 Paragraphs on Membership and recruiting

Action 2:

Treasurer to produce Newsletter in time for Club Launch

Action 3:

Secretary to confirm payment details to Treasurer for 1st Quarter’s rent

Action 4:

Treasurer to provide payment method options to Members

A4 Online Presence Officer's Report

Online Presence Report

Website/Social Media Update

The OPO confirmed that all details of the games for the new rotation are now online and available for people to sign up to.
The OPO demonstrated the new online game sign up feature which will improve support across all games in each rotation. This will be used for the next rotation starting in July.
The OPO confirmed that rankings continue to improve.

Action 5:

Secretary to get mail from hall and pass onto OPO

A5 Membership Officer Report

Members Update

It was agreed that our newest Member, Noah had fast become a great club member and can now be considered a full member. A new member pack will be created and passed on in due course.

The MO provided a list of various avenues she is pursuing to recruit new members.

Community message boards (clubs, newsagents, supermarkets etc) were deemed to be cost effective.
MeetUp, though pricy was considered to offer value for money as many current members joined the club through this method
Newspaper ads were found to be expensive and Committee agreed, not worth the money.
FreeAds/Craigslist etc are also being considered
Online ads (FB/Instagram etc) are currently under investigation
WarBoar are being spoken to with a view to offering some mutual support and advertising

It was stated that a simple design for flyers would be created to put on Community boards. The OPO offered to provide a QR code to add to the flyers to give people direct access to our website. The Committee agreed to help the MO with the distribution of flyers.

The MO also hoped to add additional events between rotations to drum up new interest.

Bring a friend day
Trial days (One shots)
International TableTop day
Scout day (to gain their D&D badge)
Cake sale

Action 6:

MO and Treasurer to produce new Members pack

Action 7:

MO to provide the Treasurer with a range of costings to fund the Club promotion/recruitment.

Action 8:

MO to task Committee members as required to distribute flyers

Action 9:

OPO to provide QR code for MO to add to flyers

Action 10:

MO to make decision on MeetUp drive by June

A6 Secretary Report

Correspondence

The Hall has remained shut so it has not been possible to pick up the Club’s mail. It is reopening in Mid-May and the Secretary will speak to the Scout Master about getting access after that date.

Hall Update

It has been agreed with the Hall that our rent will be paid quarterly in advance with the first payment due in the second half of June. As stated earlier, the first payment will be covered by our fundraising.
The Hall has purchased more tables and now 10 will be available for our use in July
Our own hall keys will be provided once the new Front Door has been installed

A7 Any Other Business

Scout Logo

The Secretary was asked to see if the Scouts would like their logo advertised on our website.

Action 11:

Secretary to speak to Scout Master

Suggestion Box

There were four points in the box:

Do we want the Annual Trophy to continue at all?
Do we want the Trophy to change to an award style ceremony (best player/GM etc)?
For the above two points the Committee felt this was a good source of camaraderie and so agreed that it should continue in its current form for now.
Should Online member rights be added to the Constitution?
It was agreed that minor adjustments were needed to incorporate Online Membership. An SGM will be called in due course
Split membership fee from venue fee.
This has been covered by the Fee structure outlined by the Treasurer.

Action 12:

Secretary to add Suggestion Box to main Agenda points

Action 13:

Secretary to remind Members about fund raising page

Action 14:

Secretary to remind Members about Suggestions Box

Action 15:

Secretary to give notice of SGM to add Online Membership details to Constitution

Action 16:

Secretary to ask Members to add reviews

A8 Date and Time of the next Committee Meeting

Currently the Committee will be meeting once every month up until the first week of July 2021.
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, 9th June 2021 at 19:00

Invitees and attendees of this meeting should be aware that the minutes of this meeting, inclusive of names, may be made publicly available under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, or the Data Protection Act 1998.

Must be RACI compliant (RACI - Responsible, Accountable (one person), Consultation, Information

Running your combat in "Theatre of the Mind" a different Roleplaying experience

First off this is not just limited to Dungeons & Dragons, but can be applied to all systems. How To Run Narrative Combat For those used to running RPGs using a gridded battle map and miniatures, running narrative "theatre of the mind" combat can feel both terribly strange and strangely familiar. If we're used to running combat on a 5 foot per square grid, the switch to combat in the theatre of the mind can easily make us feel like something is missing. How can we really know what's going on in combat if we can't see it? The answer lies in the other two pillars of our game—exploration and interaction. We don't set up battle maps and lay out miniatures when our characters have a discussion with an NPC. We likely don't set up a big map and start counting off squares when the characters explore an ancient ruin (although we can!). We don't have visual queues when we're describing how a thief narrowly avoids a poisoned pin while attempting to disarm

Voting for December to March rotation is up