KING EDWARD VII HALL National University of Singapore
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Reports from the Publicity and Marketing Cluster 8.30pm, 10 th September 2014 Dining Hall
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Annual Report from Design 2013/2014 General Comments In the AY 2013/2014, KE Design has taken on more responsibilities in addition to its main role of producing the Hall Yearbook. These comprise of mainly new initiatives from the 57 th JCRC, such as Project Recognition and the iLiKE International Students Newsletter. This year also saw several projects commissioned by other CCAs, such as the submission of multiple drafts for IHG jersey and supporter tee designs and HPB publicity purposes. In addition, KE Design also managed to organize an Adobe Illustrator course with the generous support of the SCRC. This workshop was held over the course of two Saturdays to a class size of about 23 people, to members of KE Media as well as the design departments of SMC, HPB, Hallplay, Block Committees, and so on. It is hoped that this course proved to be greatly beneficial for all participants and that such courses will continue to be part of KE Designs lineup of events for the year. Member recruitment was a small step up from last year, with a total of 18 members contributing to various projects major and minor (11 of which contributed actively to the yearbook). Member commitment could have been improved; suggestions for how to do so will be outlined below.
Evaluation of activities and problems faced Yearbook The KEVII Yearbook 13/14 had the theme KE Galaxy as voted on by members in the first meeting. This yearbook is a refinement of previous yearbooks in having a clear theme with strong design elements to make it visually appealing.
Overall, KE Design has managed to achieve its goal of publishing the yearbook before the end of the semester. However, the aim of having it published by end of Week 13 was not achieved, falling short of one week (the yearbooks were delivered during Reading Week instead). This was due to the following issues that we faced:
Issue Suggestions for improvement Miscommunication between printing co. and design team, e.g. confusion over whether yearbook content can be changed / added to after test print (it cannot), design team not informed about glossy parts on cover (required resending some files)
Put design heads into contact with the printing company earlier to obtain a clear understanding of what is required. Brief the next design heads on such technicalities (already done).
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Delay in receiving messages from Master, SCRC, JCRC, Block Heads, Media Heads. Failure to observe word count resulted in a lot of time wasted on editing content.
Next heads to ask for messages even earlier (start of Dec holidays). Media Secretary to be firm with word count (esp with JCRC). Earlier deadline means more time to edit.
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Deadlines for work could have been earlier. Resulted in a lot of work for heads at the last minute (editing / redoing pages) Heads to communicate a clear picture of what is demanded of members (e.g. doing sample articles). Members to be more responsible for editing own articles. Timeline to be shifted earlier.
Some recalcitrant members do not submit their articles even when asked to. One factor is the long wait between assignment of pages and article upload by KE Press (members forgot to do and then just ignore reminders) Such members were correspondingly rewarded with less points (as long as they contributed to other aspects of KE Design, e.g. posters). Heads could send reminders to members + tighter deadline (e.g. 2 weeks from date of reminder) once articles are uploaded.
Project Recognition Project Recognition was an initiative by the 57 th JCRC to show appreciation towards our hall leaders for the incoming year. Hall leaders were asked to take portrait shots in a few batches (starting from end of summer holidays December holidays) and their photos were then edited by KE Design using Photoshop and put up in the dining hall. Some issues that were faced during this project include:
Issue Suggestions for improvement Initial miscommunication of requirements by JCRC (was initially approached by Kong, who had a different set of requirements than Kai Xiang who was in charge later) resulted in delay in template production.
Should not have this issue next time. JCRC in charge to decide whether they want to reuse current template or have a new design, and inform Design heads accordingly. Initial plan was to have all the photos taken before semester starts, and have them ready by CCA Fair. This plan was later scrapped due to delay in photoshoots.
Photos could be taken in Week 0 / Week 1. Template to be done earlier. If manpower is needed, can recruit design I/Cs from other CCAs (Media, SMC, HPB, etc) Clipping posters on strings may not be very secure, esp for far side of dining hall (posters blown down by wind) Bluetack onto walls / panels, or only use one side of dining hall (the other side is not seen by many)
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report
iLiKE Newsletter The iLiKE newsletter was another initiative by the 57 th JCRC to help international students to get around Singapore and to know more about Singapore culture. Information for each issue was given by the Welfare Secretary and then the newsletter was edited by KE Design members. Microsoft Word was used due to the simplistic format of the newsletter and also to make it easier for those new to Photoshop / InDesign to edit the newsletter and practice their layout design and editing skills.
Generally, no issues were found for this initiative.
Adobe Illustrator Workshop The Adobe Illustrator workshop was generously sponsored by the SCRC and provided by Acadia Training, with a discounted price of $2000 for a 2-day course up to a maximum of 40 participants. 26 participants signed up for the course and it was held over 2 Saturdays, 5 & 12 October, from 9 am to 5 pm. Basic Illustrator skills were taught in this course, and lunch orders were taken and provided for the participants.
It is hoped that the course proved beneficial to most of the participants, and that they will continue to experiment with and develop their skills in Adobe Illustrator. Acadia has shown interest in providing to us future workshops at discounted rates. This need not be limited to Illustrator workshops as well, but also Photoshop and InDesign.
Issue Suggestions for improvement Lack of suitable venue. Dining hall: too big and difficult to provide power sockets for everyone. Main lounge: Need to move in tables and chairs, extension cords to provide power sockets. Incubation room, meeting rooms: too small, may have insufficient power sockets.
One possible venue could be the study room, depending on the size of class.
IHG Commissions SMC had asked KE Design to submit a few drafts of the jersey, supporter t-shirt and poster designs. 3 jersey and supporter tee designs and 2 poster designs were submitted. Jersey and supporter tee
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report designs were also open to all residents in the interest of fairness. Ultimately, the jersey design submitted by Kar Yee was used, whereas the supporter tee and poster designs were not.
Issue Suggestions for improvement Difficulty in communication. Members did not respond in WhatsApp group.
Smaller group of people (about 6 people worked on this project), more meetings in person.
Designs may not have been up to standard
Vetting + feedback by heads before being submitted to SMC
HPB Open Day Ambassador Tee HPB requested some designs for the ambassador t-shirt on Open Day. 3 designs from KE Design members were submitted, but were ultimately not used.
Generally no issues were found, except that vetting and feedback from heads may be needed.
Miscellaneous Several design requests from the JCRC (William Tan talk, Movie Screening poster), CMB (Night of the Arts open mic poster) and floorball (jersey logo design) were requested. These were handled by the heads to expedite the process.
Generally no issues were found.
Closing comments Big thanks to Gan Kar Yee (vice-head of KE Design) for her tremendous help, Kai Xiang (Publicity and Marketing Secretary), and all the Media Heads (esp. Vision and Press) for their cooperation. Overall, I feel that KE Design has done a great job this year. It is my hope that KE Design will continue to become better and better with each coming year. Prepared by Mr. Low Zi Qian KE Design Head 13/14
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Annual Report from KE Design (Web) 2013/2014 KE Web is in charge of maintaining the hall website (kevii.nus.edu.sg), the KEIPS web application, and acts as a support for various CCAs like MAB, KEWOC, etc. Major events for the year There was a lot of work for us this year. First of all, we redesigned the main website for KE Hall following the requirement from JCRC. The main website is now a static website instead of a dynamic one. We also moved the new website contents onto the new server which is required by Computer Center. Some new domains were used after that. Secondly, we improved and redesigned IIVEK, the web-based CCA points system. Thirdly, we migrated KE blog to an outside server iPage since Computer Center does not allow open source CMS, Wordpress for our case, to be held on NUS server. Challenges First of all, we severely lack competent manpower. Given the situation that this year we were required for so much work, we definitely need more active people. This year, I myself was the one who did migration and web design. Only around 2 members made small contributions. Fortunately, I still managed to get help from Gerald for the IIVEK system. The second challenge is the handover issue. I was asked to become the head during week 2 or even later because there was no successor last year. In addition, I was not able to contact the head last year to do a quick handover. The solution was that I contacted Gerald, the head 2 years back, for the server information. There was no documentation for the useful information which is another reason why the handover is so difficult. Thirdly, we encountered difficulties in communicating with Computer Center with regards to some regulations. A final challenge is for the next year when Gerald graduate. Since he is the only one who knows about IIVEK, we must have someone read his codes and understand the structure. Otherwise, we will not be able to do anything if there are some problems using IIVEK system. Recommendations The handover is extremely important. The successor must understand the CCAs vision and mission and clear and explicit about the job scope. We would have documentations for all the necessary information. Leaders must recruit experienced developers and make sure they can commit time and make contributions.
Prepared by: Mr. Zhou Yiming KE Design (Web) Head 2013/14
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Annual Report from Hall Publicity Board 2013/2014 General Comments The purpose of the Hall Publicity Board (HPB) is to bolster external communication, in terms of the halls public image; and to amplify internal communication efforts such as through the construction of an improved hall-residents relationship. Ultimately, HPB aims to brand the hall as a premium choice a hall that is unified and loved by not just its residents, but the public.
We started out the year 13/14 with a change in our committee name from the Hall Marketing Committee to Hall Publicity Board. The purpose of this adjustment was to re-brand our committee and re-emphasize the job scope of our members. Following suit with what was done in previous years; we directed the focus of HPB to be on NUS Open Day, Internal Hall events and KE7s social media. NUS Open Day 1314 The theme to this years Open Day was Home. Working with this theme, we streamlined the concept of KEs Open Day booth to be a walk-in exhibition of the multiple scenes in KE7. Using bright and colourful artwork, KE7s booth was attractive in catching the attention of the public while displaying the selling points of KE7. Unlike previous years, HPB had invested much more in merchandize this year. The merchandize contributed to the vibrancy of our booth mainly through its novelty concept that other halls did not have. The Balloons bought had its dual usage as a gift to the public and a decorating material to our booth. The tattoos were unique while the pamphlets were informative and attractive in publicising KE7. However, there were few concerns raised in response to the merchandise purchased. Mainly on the issue of wastage, a thousand copies of pamphlets were insufficient as they were given out hastily. Measures to control and ration the distribution of merchandise should be taken in consideration for future events. The ambassadors were enthusiastic and friendly in interacting with the public. They brought up the liveliness of our booth to a whole new level. Apart from the ambassadors, we had also introduced the seven characters of KE7. The purpose of these characters was to add a little bit of humour to Open day by acting as a walkabout advertisement for KE7. Unfortunately, the idea was not well received by the public as the characters were not salient enough to stand out from the crowd. With regards to the administrative work leading up to the actual day, HPB did not do a good job in allocating manpower for bumping in and out of Utown. It was negligence on our part to source for well- bodied members days prior to the actual day. In all, KE7s Open Day 13/14 was a success. However, there are rooms for improvement which HPB can achieve in the subsequent years. Internal Hall Events 1314 The agenda behind organising an internal event for hall is to provide a platform for residents to mingle and interact outside of NUS campus. With this, we launched Bus Supper as a new initiative. Bus supper
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report was popular among the residents because it provided convenience for hungry residents to satisfy their hawker cravings. However, the greatest pitfall to this project will be that it is hard to source for novelty in every rounds of Bus supper HPB does. In improving Bus Supper round 2, it was difficult to find a hawker place that could accommodate large amount of our residents while making sure that there were varieties in the hawker. On the other hand, networking was important for us in ensuring that we worked well with the hawkers and not caused disturbance to them. It was also difficult to brainstorm for games that could integrate everyone while in public. Working with an external vendor in chartering buses was also problematic as we had to make sure that they could allow us to play music and arrived at our desired time. Given the multiple challenges in planning bus supper, I would advise the succeeding HPB team to start planning early. Oblivious to many residents, the foosball tournament held in semester 1 was also another project organised by HPB. Crediting Lok Bin Hao(HPB member) for his idea, the foosball table was an investment to bring in the soccer culture into hall, an additional activity to bond residents. The purpose of the tournament was to further educate and publicise foosball in hall for fear that it loses popularity and become a redundant purchase. Fortunately, the foosball idea was very well received by hall residents and despite months after its purchase, residents did not stop playing with it signifying foosballs popularity in the hearts of the residents. As such, the HPB team has been serving well as a dedicating committee going beyond its boundaries in sourcing for new ideas that would contribute to the vibrancy of KE7. Social media 1314 HPBs social media team had been working hard over the year in updating and maintaining Whats up this week to remind residents of the upcoming activities in hall. Spending the extra time in making sure news disseminate fast in hall, the HPBs social media team is inseparable to hall residents as its serve as the most important centralised platform in connecting every residents in hall. Acknowledgment I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude and thanks to: 1. All HPB members for their hard work and dedication to HPB. 2. Ms Quek Xian Yun and Mr Lee Jia Jin for their courage to take on the role as HPB heads in the subsequent year. 3. Mr Goh Kai Xiang for your patience and never ending encouragement to HPB. 4. All KE Media Heads for your valuable assistance throughout the year. Prepared by, Miss See Shuting Head, Hall Publicity Board 2013/14
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Annual Report from KE Motion 2013/2014 General Comments KE Motion is a committee under KE Media that takes charge of recording and publicizing hall life, in terms of event shooting and post-editing, doing promotional videos for different CCAs and so on. KE Motion AY2013/14 was a big family with an initial 58 members from which half were quite active and others participated in activities occasionally. With a new semi-professional video camera purchased this year, our members got more chances to film videos this year. Besides the Mini Project in which most members participated, we have added training sessions by more experienced members to improve the video editing skills of interested members. Supplementary trainings were made available for more careful and appropriate handling of the cameras. In addition, most members devoted to 3-4 events coverage in terms of filming and editing.
Major Projects Mini-projects in first semester for internal training purposes. After tutorials on equipment and basic skills of post-editing, members worked on a micro film in groups of 4-5. Training sessions by experienced members to teach new members regarding filming and editing videos. Coverage of official hall events, like IBG, Block Supper, ICN, etc and some major events, such as IHG, DND, Chinese Drama, Hall Play, XQRJ etc. Miscellaneous requests from CCAs to do promotional videos.
Major Problems Encountered and Recommendations One major problem is lack of people to carry out video editing. Though we had quite a lot of members this year, most of them had no or inadequate knowledge in video editing. Though training sessions were made available to members, most still preferred filming video to editing it, as filming video is much easier. Our recommendations for next year are to increase incentives in video editing tasks and, if possible, get external tutors to give professional training sessions.
Prepared by, Mr. Li Ziye, Mr. Liu Siwei KE Motion Heads 2013/14
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Annual Report from KE Press 2013/2014
General Comments
If a hall event happens and KE Press did not report it, did the hall event happen? wise man from F5
KE Press is in charge of providing press coverage for hall-related events. We produce articles in English and Chinese. KE Press works closely with KE Vision, which provides us with photos for our articles, and KE Design, which is reliant on KE Press for articles for the annual yearbook.
KE Press is divided into two divisions, Chinese and English. The editor-in-charge of the English division was the Head of KE Press, while the editor-in-charge of the Chinese division was the Vice-Head of KE Press. This is a break from previous years tradition, where the Vice-Head position went to another English division editor. This change was meant to reflect the independent management and control of the Chinese division by the editor-in-charge of the Chinese division.
In each division, there were several clusters, with each cluster comprising of an editor and several writers. Each clusters editor was responsible for the management of the writers in that cluster. The responsibilities included editing and administrative tasks, for instance, conveying work delegation. Editors were also expected to write articles.
Due to a shortage of manpower, each writer and editor in KE Press put in a total of 22 hours. This figure does not reflect the immense amount of effort and time put in by the wonderful editors, who, on average, put in 60 hours into KE Press, with the highest putting in 82 hours. This was far above the writers average of 18 hours. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the KEIPS system, KE Press was not able to reward the editors adequately despite appealing to the JCRC. (please note that the hours put in are meant to be used only for determining the relative amount of work done by each KE Press member, and is likely to be an underestimate)
New Initiatives
KE Press started placing quotable quotes in front of each post on Facebook promoting the publication of an article. This was started spontaneously in the middle of IHG, and was continued after it was found to be very well received.
Due to Computer Centres requirements, KE Press had to change its website from http://kevii.nus.edu.sg/blog/ to the current http://www.kevii-blog.com/.
Major Projects
Articles related to hall events
All major hall events were covered. Delegation of work to the various writers was done beforehand. The major change was the removal of block suppers from the list of events covered. This was done due to the lack of newsworthy events occurring during most hall suppers (people eat, talk, and leave, nothing much else). We also managed to cover sudden notable events, like Evergreen Night, despite the lack of prior notice.
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report
Sports Coverage
IBG IBG coverage was also used to examine each Press applicants English standards so as to determine whether they should be a writer or editor. Not all IBGs were covered well due to the writing standards of some budding writers and a lack of manpower.
IHG Due to a lack of committed manpower, KE Presss core group of editors and some writers had to shoulder an extra heavy workload during IHG. This extra workload was above and beyond what was common in previous years. Coverage for all sports was provided in either English or Chinese, depending on the makeup of the teams playing.
KE Press is proud to say that we have mostly been able to adhere to our internal guideline of publishing 24 hours after the game. Moreover, persons from other halls read our IHG articles as well.
Yearbook
KE Press did not assist in the editing of the blurbs found in the Yearbook as we were not asked to do so by KE Design. This led to some editorial errors appearing in the Yearbook. As per past practice, KE Press supplied edited articles for KE Design to incorporate into the Yearbook.
Lifestyle Articles
Lifestyle articles were comparatively fewer in number this year due to the shortage of manpower. Some lifestyle articles were nonetheless very well received, with HS1101: Introduction to Hall Survival, written by Shervin Lim, circulated in other halls as a good guide to Hall life for freshmen.
Challenges faced and recommendations for the future
Lack of Manpower, especially during IHG Due to an unexpectedly low signup rate for KE Press, we had too few members to cover the intense IHG season comfortably.
In future, it would be helpful if KE Press were able to start advertising during KEWOC and market ourselves as an interesting CCA. Unfortunately, as a CCA, KE Press can only attract a limited pool of people, given that the number of students interested in writing is generally very small. KE Press attempted to recruit ad hoc writers for IHG. Unfortunately for the editors amount of sleep, the number recruited proved too few.
Vetting of Yearbook KE Press was not involved in the vetting of the blurbs in the Yearbook. While lesser work is of course preferable, editing the blurbs is a task that KE Press is very well placed to handle.
In future, KE Design and KE Press should work more closely so as to ensure that KE Press is able to contribute to the editing of the Yearbook.
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Differing writing standards Some writers abilities were passable at best, while others turned out work suitable for publication in magazines.
This problem is impossible to solve fully. At best, it can be alleviated by weeding out writers who are incapable of writing and placing the passable ones under the tutelage of more competent editors in the hopes that the disparity in skill will be evened out by excellent editing. Editors should also place emphasis on coaching their writers and not just focus on editing away the mistakes. Feedback, both positive and negative, would be useful for the budding writers.
Technical problems with the blog KE Press was unable to upload photos for a period. Closer to the end of the second semester, KE Press was also instructed by Computer Centre to move the blog to another site. KE Press was not consulted on the address of the new site.
Thankfully, these are likely to be one-off events. The best that KE Press can do is to deal with such sudden problems as they crop up. Entropy will always increase. The unexpected will always appear to shock and awe even the best-prepared.
Ticketing for hall events Due mostly to the KE Press Head, who will accept the blame that comes with the position (although, he must add, the event directors were at least contributorily negligent), some events tickets were sold out before KE Press could acquire a ticket.
Coordination with the JCRC and various event directors should be improved. In future, ticketing queries and issues should be answered and resolved much earlier.
Certain events reluctance to give KE Press complimentary tickets is also unfortunate. Various events should understand that KE Press is not looking for free tickets, but is looking to provide free media coverage. The JCRC should endeavor to procure complimentary tickets for KE Press, especially since KE Presss operating budget is $0 for the entire AY. A few tickets worth of expenditure is a small price to pay for the quality service KE Press provides. Alternatively, a small fund (perhaps $100?) could be provided to KE Press for the purchase of tickets for its writers.
Acknowledgements
KE Press wishes to thank its awesome editorial team (Sarah, Shervin, Hui Xian and Shalom) for their sweat, tears, time and words. We also wish to thank KE Vision for their (almost always (we know, perfection is not possible)) prompt uploading of high-quality photos. We are deeply grateful to KE Web for their help and support when the lacking-in-IT-skills KE Press team encountered problems with the blog.
Prepared by: Mr Ng Shu Chin KE Press Head 13/14
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Annual General Report from KE Vision 13/14 General Comments KE Vision has carried out its duties and lived up to expectations of the hall and its members. Being able to recruit members with the earliest opportunity available as soon as the academic year started has benefited us greatly as we were able to provide multiple photographers to cover even the events that started before the CCA fair itself, such as the Inter Block Games. With a total of around 60 members accepted into the CCA, we were barely able to support our members with our available photography equipment as we had many enthusiastic members wishing to cover events, even when they had to rely on their own personal equipment to get the job done. Photography lessons were also conducted weekly during meetings to provide as much knowledge as possible to the members with topics ranging from camera basics to photo editing and much more. These lessons has been fruitful to many members who attended as the results can be seen from the improvement in their work as published on our social media platform. Although we had up to 3 days to ensure that the events photographs are published on Facebook, most, if not all events have the photographs up within 24hrs and many of them were uploaded within 3hrs of event completion. It is a culture for KE Vision to upload photos quickly to the Facebook page as always from previous years and we were glad to still be able to uphold this.
Problems faced and Recommendations for the Future 1) Occasional issues with loan of equipment from Office As all KE vision equipment are loaned out from the office, we had situations where we were only able to loan out equipment on the day of the event itself, due to the office staff not being able to handle the loan outs except for Mr. Yap, our hall manager himself to carry out the loan. Thus, we were only able to loan equipment only when he is in the office and this caused panic and scheduling problems with us heads as we also had our daily classes in school and we could not visit the office during work hours. Therefore, we suggest that the other office staffs such as Miss Wei Fuen, to be able to handle the equipment loan so as to provide more access to future KE Vision heads to be able to retrieve equipment better.
2) Last minute request for photo coverage from event organisers Most of the CCAs heads adhere to the rules of asking for coverage 2 weeks in advance but there are still a handful of them who asked last minute. It would cause a confusion within members as they may be allocated for other duties or coverages and often we do not have enough manpower to support last minute requests.
3) Photobooth is not a privilege, its an entitlement The maintenance, manpower and cost of setting up a photobooth is of a huge amount. That is why people outside could charge $400 easily for any simple studio shoot. Please understand if KE Vision turns down several request for photobooth. However, KE Vision will still provide photobooth services for major events i.e FHD1. One alternative that we thought of is to use flash guns instead of strobe light, and getting the organising committee to prepare a backdrop instead of using the studio savage paper, which seems to have good response from residents as it is not the usual plain solid background plus the lighting is not as bad when compared to strobe light.
57th JCRC, King Edward VII Hall Annual General Meeting Report Final Comments KE Vision is an important and essential CCA in hall as we capture every activity and happening in hall and provide access to the moments, happiness and joy of the residents, to every resident in hall. Even for those who were too busy in their work, or were participating in another activity in hall, all of us are able to see, feel, and share the joy of our friends just by scrolling through the many photographs taken at every event. This has always been the drive and motivation for our work and we hope that the hall will continue to provide the CCA with excellent support and care as shown this year, throughout the years to come so as to bring KE Vision to greater heights. As we take our leave and pass on the baton to great hands, Zong Xian and Eric to lead this CCA to the next higher level, we are glad to say that this has been a very hard fought and challenging year for KE Vision and were very proud of what our friends have accomplished, achieved and gained throughout this journey together.
Prepared By: Mr. Ryan Goh and Mr. Quek Jun Jie KE Vision Heads 2013/14