Month: March 2020

Hi folks,

This is just a brief reminder that we have a social happening on Saturday 7th of March 1900 (7pm) onwards at Sofi’s Southside!
We have the upstairs room (overlooking Buccleuch St) booked and it can hold roughly 40 people, so please get yourself along and carouse to your heart’s content! Click here for the link to the events page on fb.

As mentioned before, and again at the repitches, Conpulsion Flame is happening at the start of next month, from Friday the 3rd to Sunday the 5th of April in and about The Pleasance. I know a lot of you will have bought your tickets already but just in case you haven’t yet, I am now going to try and convince you to (yes, I am a blue shirt, so I am biased, but still)! Conpulsion is – and has been for the past few decades – an event run entirely by volunteers. Its goal is to allow for lovers of tabletop (or otherwise) gaming to congregate and further expand their passion for their hobby or, for some lucky few, their career. Esteemed guests and traders – seriously, check them out – from not only Scotland but across the globe (at least some of it) will be making their pilgrimage here to show you their cool stuff; tangible or otherwise. And what’s more, all of the proceeds will be given to charity! Obviously as a convention, there will be plenty of events to fill your weekend and of course how could it be a gaming convention without some games! RPGs, LARPS, Wargames, Boardgames, Cardgames, Demos, Tournaments, Talks and Panels, and even a pub quiz at the end written by yours truly – with hopefully fewer parentheses!
If all of that sounds good to you, the incredibly modestly priced tickets and delightful t-shirts can be bought here! Free entry to the con can be found here – cheeky I know, but the more volunteers available the happier everyone* will be!

For the glory of GEAS,
Jason Ebblewhite
Socials Coordinator

*I think the only person who will have a bad time is Sophie, if we end up having too many volunteers it might be a chore remembering all the names.

Dear Adventurers,

(In this email: Geas Members’ Experience Survey; Consultation on Game Safety Policy; Forthcoming AGM)

Geas Members’ Experience Survey
We on the Committee want to listen to our members’ feedback about the Society. We want to do what we can to improve your experience at our events and to make sure these functions are as welcoming and accessible as possible for all, especially on matters of equality and inclusion. To that end, we would like to survey all of our members about their experience at the society. This survey is anonymous and should take around 5 to 10 minutes to complete, depending on how detailed you want your answers to be. While issues raised in this survey will not be directly actionable as proposals or grievances, the data collected will give us a context within which we can implement policies to better safeguard our members’ wellbeing.

I would urge as many of you to complete this survey as possible so that we can get a sense of what our members’ experiences are and what we can do to improve. The survey will be accepting responses until 29 March 2020. You can find the survey at the following link:

http://geas.org.uk/survey

Consultation on Game Safety Policy
The Geas Committee is further considering a proposal for a game safety policy to further ensure that our gaming tables are inclusive for all. We want to develop this policy with the consultation of our members, and we hope to propose this policy for adoption at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting.

The following is a draft of a Game Safety Policy that we have put together based on templates and examples of good practice at other gaming conventions and events. We have also provided a brief explanatory note at the start on what our objectives are with this policy. I would like to invite you to give me feedback on this policy, particularly on how well you feel the draft policy would achieve the objectives we set out, and if there are any other objectives you feel this policy should have.

The following is a link to the consultation, which you are welcome to annotate via Google Docs with any feedback you may have: http://geas.org.uk/safety-consultation

We shall take into consideration the feedback we receive on the policy when proposing it at the AGM.

We will need to have received feedback on this policy by Friday 13 March so we can circulate the finalised version of the policy in time for the AGM.

Forthcoming AGM
Geas will convene its Annual General Meeting on 29 March 2020 at 5 pm in the Dining Room in Teviot. The purpose of the AGM will be to elect the office-bearers for the next academic year, as well as to consider any other motions or proposals for the running of the Society. This is your opportunity to give is more feedback and get directly involved with how the Society is run. We will have further reminders and information on the AGM in due course.

We would invite all our members to consider standing for a Committee position. (N.B.: for most core Committee positions, you will need to be a matriculated student during your tenure. However, there are some advisory positions that are open to non-student members.) If you would like to stand for a position, please feel free to contact the Committee and/or the incumbent office-bearers for more information on the respective roles. You just need to be nominated on the day of the AGM to stand for a position.

If you have any proposals or motions you wish to submit for the AGM, feel free to send them to us via email. The deadline for submitting proposals is Friday 13 March. This is to enable us to compile the agenda for the AGM and send it out two weeks in advance.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on the Society and its policies, as well as any proposals or ideas you might have for the AGM. We are especially keen for people to throw their hat in the ring for Committee positions.

You’ll Never Game Alone,

Vivek Santayana
Equality and Wellbeing Officer