News

Greetings Adventurers,
I’m happy to announce that we held a successful Annual General Meeting yesterday. There was a great turn out and we’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to attend, especially for their patience when we overran. We’ll be introducing the new committee in the next few weeks, as we complete the handover process. The minutes, however, are ready to read here:

https://geas.org.uk/AGM

EUSA has also asked us to share the Society Member Feedback Survey with you all, as they’re looking to find out how COVID-19 has affected your experience as a member of GEAS. The form is anonymous, with the results later being shared with the Committee. All members are invited to answer the survey, regardless of student status.

The survey closes at 5pm, Friday 2nd April and can be found here:

https://forms.eusa.ed.ac.uk/view.php?id=47549

For the glory of GEAS,

Sophie Hine
GEAS Secretary

Hello there Adventurers!
This is a reminder that we’ll be holding our AGM this weekend between our usual Sunday game sessions at:

• 5pm on the 7th of March

The meeting will be taking place over Zoom, the address and password can be found on our Discord in the #announcements channel. I know this isn’t ideal, but there has been an uptick of zoom-bombing recently at the university and this keeps our details a bit more secure. A copy of the agenda, with links to the motions and annual reports, can be found here:

https://geas.org.uk/AGM

We need a minimum of 34 members to come to the meeting, regardless of whether they’re student or non-student members. This is key to the society continuing to run next year. Participants aren’t expected to have their cameras turned on or talk if they don’t want to, you are more than welcome to simply sit in and listen while you eat dinner.

It is important to remember that only student members can vote in the AGM, but any member is allowed to speak and voice their opinion.

See you there,

Sophie Hine
GEAS Secretary

Greetings Adventurers,

It’s that time of year again and time for our Annual General Meeting. During the AGM we’ll be electing committee members for the upcoming year and voting on motions submitted by the society members. It’ll be taking place on:

• 7th of March at 5pm

Due to current restrictions, we’ll be holding the AGM online again this year. However, we’ve decided to go ahead with a live meeting that will be hosted on Zoom, allowing committee nominees to directly address the members and for the discussion of motions.

It’s important to know that only matriculated students who have bought membership at least 24 hours before the meeting can vote, members who aren’t currently enrolled at the University of Edinburgh unfortunately aren’t.

However, any member is welcome to speak at the AGM, as well as submit motions for consideration. All motions must be sent to me before 5pm on Sunday 28th of February, at this address. If you’d like to raise a motion at the AGM, a guide has been put together on how to do so here:

https://geas.org.uk/proposals

All committee positions will be up for election at the AGM. While most positions are only open to UoE student members; advisory roles are open to all members regardless of student status. A full list can be found below:

• President
• Secretary
• Treasurer
• Events Organiser
• Socials Coordinator
• Conpulsion Liaison
• Webmaster (Advisory)
• Equality and Wellbeing Officer (Advisory)
• Social Media Manager (Advisory)
• Legacy Advisor (Advisory)

The committee is also currently running a review of our harassment, game safety, and complaints policies. It’s important to us to know what you think of our current policies and how they’re enacted. To take part in this review, please complete the survey at the link below:

https://geas.org.uk/annualreview

We’ll be back in contact closer to the AGM with links and passwords for the Zoom meeting. If you have any questions about the positions or how the AGM will be run, please send us an email at:

geas.committee

May the odds be ever in your favour,

Sophie Hine
GEAS Secretary

Hey Adventurers,

I hope this finds you well and warm! Writing to remind you about our upcoming Valentine’s Day stream, February Social, and a survey on reviewing the Geas policies for the AGM.

Valentine’s Stream

The committee is putting on another stream on Saturday, February 13! We’ll be running Monsterhearts, a system based on cryptozoology, awkward love triangles, and raging hormones. For this stream, we’ll be raising money for Fight Against Cancer Edinburgh, a charity supporting cancer patients and their families in the local area.

You can watch the stream on our Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/geaslive

February Social

Our monthly social is also on the horizon! We’ll be having it on Friday, February 19 at 7:00pm. As usual, it’ll be on the GEAS discord in the socials channels. Come hang out and play some Among Us, get to know your party members, or just take a break from uni responsibilities for a bit.

If you’d like to be reminded of the event, the facebook event can be found here: https://fb.me/e/2eDzM0usf

You can join our discord server here: https://geas.org.uk/discord

Geas Policy Survey

The Geas Committee is also required to review its implemented policies annually. Vivek has put together the following survey to get feedback from everyone on how they feel the anti-harassment policy, game safety policy, and complaints procedure are working. The survey shouldn’t take longer than five minutes, and it has space at the bottom for you to raise matters not already discussed. The survey will be open until 5 pm on 26 February.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeGEIigVKnOZdlT1mAItYonPF6rwkamBZbYCUcmcl1b5Ge02A/viewform?usp=sf_link

It’s really important that we get feedback on this to ensure that our society’s safety mechanisms are up to speed and fit for purpose. We appreciate your time in responding.

For the Glory of GEAS,

Stella Segar
Socials Coordinator

Hello there, adventurers!
We’re almost halfway through the term and that means it’s time for an update on what’s happening in the next few weeks. As usual, most of our events are going to be held on the GEAS Discord server, accessible at:
https://geas.org.uk/discord
Events
Valentines Livestream – 13th February
Re-pitches – 17th and 21st February
GEAS Social – 19th February
One Shots – 27th February (More details to come)
GM Workshop – 6th March (More details to come)
AGM – 7th March (More details to come)

Valentines Livestream
The committee will once again be coming together to cause mayhem and raise money for a good cause. Join us at 6pm on the 13th of February for a night of high school romance and cryptozoology, as the players try to survive prom. This time we’ll be raising money for Fight Against Cancer Edinburgh, a charity supporting cancer patients and their families in the local area. Catch it at:
https://www.twitch.tv/geaslive

Re-Pitches
Re-pitches will be on the GEAS Discord server once again, with games filling the usual slots:

• Wednesday games from 6pm till 10pm, starting on the 17th of February.
• Sunday afternoon games from 1pm till 5pm, starting on the 21st of February.
• Sunday evening games from 6pm till 10pm, also starting on the 21st of February.

GMs that would like to pitch a game can submit their information below, with submissions closing 24 hours before their session slot is due to start:
http://geas.org.uk/pitches

Social
We’ll be having our monthly social on Friday 19th of February and hanging out in the Discord’s socials channels. With things how they are having a break and talking to friends is more important than ever, even if you just come and listen. Hope to see you there!

GM Workshop
The second GM workshop of the year will be happening on the 6th of March at 6pm, this time celebrating International Women’s Day by covering the topic of women in gaming. The panel will be announced closer to the time, but you can follow the GEAS Twitch account to receive notification when it goes live:
https://www.twitch.tv/geaslive

AGM
Currently, we’re still deciding how we’ll be running the AGM online, but we can confirm that it’ll be taking place on the 7th of March at 5pm. It’s very important that we get a good turn out for the AGM, especially among student members as this is our voting population, so please put aside time to attend.

Keep safe out there,
Sophie Hine
GEAS Secretary

Greetings Adventurers!

(Abridged version: contact me if you need anything; society policy reminders; tips for on-line play; #safe-space channel; sending feedback to Committee)

Welcome
Happy New Year, and welcome to a new term at Geas! My name is Vivek Santayana, and I am the Equality and Wellbeing Officer. I wanted to write to all of our members very quickly to introduce myself and let them know that I am here to help if you need anything.

Come Speak to Me if you Have Any Concerns
As much as gaming is great fun, I appreciate that sometimes things can go wrong. Difficult situations may arise at the table like player-versus-player conflict, distressing content, a mismatch of expectations at the table, or improper conduct. Also, we acknowledge that online interactions might sometimes attract distressing behaviour. Should you have any concerns or difficulties at Geas, or even if you need to talk more generally about how your game is going, I am here to help. If you experience any issues that could affect your wellbeing or enjoyment of the game or of Geas as a whole, please feel free to speak to me.

I can be emailed at Geas.Welfare, or you can message me during any of the Geas events or weekly games I am at. I am currently running games on Wednesday evenings and Sunday evenings. If I am around, feel free to ping me on Discord. You are also welcome to contact me via email or DM.

Society Policy Reminders
As you would be aware, the Committee is committed to making Geas a welcoming and inclusive space for all members. To that end, we have an anti-harassment policy (https://geas.org.uk/harassment) as well as a complaints procedure (https://geas.org.uk/complaints) to enable us to protect our members’ safety.

We also require all our players and GMs to abide by our Game Safety Policy (https://geas.org.uk/safety). This policy is to make sure all our GMs and players can enjoy their games fully and set a standard for what kind of respectful and inclusive conduct we expect at Geas.

Tips for On-Line Play
One of the challenges we’re all facing just now is moving our games on-line. This can pose a number of challenges, like ‘Zoom fatigue’ or other accessibility challenges of video conferencing, or even challenges on how to adapt our game safety tools for on-line play.

To help our members adapt to these challenges, I’ve written the following blog posts on our web site on adapting to on-line play:
Adapting safety tools for on-line play
Dealing with Zoom Fatigue and Other Challenges of Virtual Gaming

I hope you find these useful!

#safe-spaces channel
Over the Winter break, we implemented a #safe-spaces channel on our discord as a space for members to talk about their experiences and be there for each other. This is a space we are providing for members to talk about anything that’s affecting them, because we recognise that lockdown can be somewhat isolating.

You are welcome to use this channel on our Discord if you need. This channel is an opt-in channel, and there are additional rules regarding how we use this that you will need to accept in order to see it. More information on that is on our Discord.

Sending Feedback to Committee
Finally, the Committee is going to meet on Sunday, 24 January. If you have any feedback you’d like to send us for us to review and discuss at the meeting, you can do so using the following anonymous form:

https://geas.org.uk/support

Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, concerns, ideas, or even positive feedback or encouragement. We’d love to hear your experience of Geas, and how things are working (or not) for you, so we can do our best to make sure all our members have the best experience at the Society.

I hope you all enjoy gaming at Geas this semester. Feel free to contact me or the rest of the Committee should you need any help. You can reach us by email here, or via Discord (ping @Committee, post in the #help channel, or use the various bot commands).

Stay safe, keep well, and look after yourselves and each other.

For the Honour of Geas,
Vivek Santayana
Equality and Wellbeing Officer