2015 Finance Subcommittee
Date: Monday 1st week, Hilary 2015 (2015-01-19)Present: Duncan Shepherd (President), Aisha Simon (Vice-President (Administrative)), Richard May (Secretary), John Clark-Maxwell (Treasurer), Richard Ware (Lindsay), Gaetano Iannetta (Foody), Michael Wrathall (Foody)
Agenda
Matters Arising
Agenda
- Pantry
- The Bar
- General Finance
- Wages
AOB
Minutes
Matters Arising
The battels for finalists issue is still ongoing, and discussions have been delayed until later this term.
Pantry
Pantry is having difficulty finding new permanent staff – it’s the seventh time in a row that a new hire hasn’t showed up for their first day. The Dean has offered to let us hire staff who would work in term-time as pantry and out-of-term as porters, though this would require them to be first-aid-trained. It was unclear whether this would be practical.
Pantry’s regular loss has been halved, but revenue is down this term due to the lack of freshers’ week. They’re having trouble filling all the shifts with students.
Pantry events were discussed, including the upcoming Superbowl on Sunday 1st February. Possible means by which alcohol could be sold in the JCR by the Bar were discussed, since the bar license extends upstairs. There was a brief debate over which Superbowl teams JCR members might support.
Bar
Richard Ware observed that the bar would have done better had they opened on Monday. Revenue is down most days on last term due to Freshers’ Week, but bop day turned out very well. The new cocktails are proving popular.
Balliol Beer is coming soon! Will McCarthy is designing a label. It’s going to be a pale ale. The possibility of selling Balliol Beer via the Buttery was discussed; Duncan suggested the Development Office be asked about this.
The possibility of selling alcohol for on the quad in the summer was raised. Duncan pointed out that the College doesn’t want us selling alcohol before 6:30pm. Richard May and Duncan Shepherd expressed a desire not to have any more of the undrinkable lime beers Angus bought two years ago. The cupboard outside the gym will be used to store the Balliol beer.
More cocktails are planned. The Miss Scarlet cocktail is here to stay! Richard Ware observed that doing fancy cocktails will require a lot more ice and possibly a new ice machine.
Bar refurbishments are happening over the Easter vacation, including removing a partition and adding a new bench.
General Finance
We’re awaiting a report from the Entz officers with details of bop finances.
The state of the JCR and the TV room was discussed, along with planned refurbishments and people’s requests.  The fund shared with College has become severely depleted over the past decade due to low levies and a constant financial drain from the laundry room.
Punts were discussed. It was concluded that we should bring a GM motion clarifying that this was ordinary expenditure and henceforth punt-renting would occur automatically.
Wages
People aren’t collecting their wages. Possible causes and solutions were discussed. It was decided that a weekly email regarding wages should be sent out.
AOB
Meeting times were briefly discussed. It was decided that a fixed date and time should not be chosen for Finance Subcommittee, and that we should continue to meet as and when people were free.