Monday 16.11.2020 at 9 pm BST/GMT/UTC+1 (via Skype)
Circulation list: Carmen Sofia Brenes (CSB), Rose Ferrell (RF), Ann Igelström (AI), Rafael Leal (RL), Margaret McVeigh (MM), Paolo Russo (PR), Rosanne Welch (RW)
1. Apologies for absence
CSB
2. Minutes of previous EC Meeting for approval
All pending Action Points have been itemized below in the agenda.
The minutes are approved without changes.
3. Newsletter
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- Update re: latest issue (MM)
MM has received some responses on international meetings held this year in own language. Will have pieces from RL, RW, Claus Tieber, Paul Wells. MM to connect with previous ECR rep John Finnegan re: an event he planned/attended – and also looking to connect with Maxine Gee to see what her news is.
RW mentions three book publications to be noted in the Newsletter.
MM asks whether we shall remind people about the deadline for SRN Awards. PR has recently been in touch with the jurists for an update.
ACTION – PR to liaise with RL to update info on the SRN Website.
ACTION – PR to write a short update for the next Newsletter issue.
MM suggests coverage of publication of the Special Issue of Jos? All agreed.
PR observes the latest Newsletter issue looks a positively dense, end-of-year issue.
4. Website
PR reports a request to mention members’ publications on the website but points out that the website as an institutional platform should be about achievements of the SRN as a whole rather than individual members. The latter are best publicized via the Newsletter, JISCmail list and Facebook page.
All EC members in agreement.
Re: the future hosting plans for the website, PR reports back about his chat with Ian Macdonald re: the current situation at Leeds University: the new faculty members might no longer be fully invested/interested in continuing to host but Ian will ask formally by December. The EC will await response from Leeds on this before circulating the agreed Call for Hosting to members.
RW observes that, even in case Leeds Uni renews availability to host website, we will still face the current limitations so we might have to look for alternative hosts anyway. PR confirms that in such a case we would have to negotiate with Leeds Uni about availability of plugins and website design.
ACTION – RL to share current draft of Call for Hosts looking at formal approval at December EC meeting.
ACTION – EC to circulate Call ASAP in January so as to collect responses, possibly, for discussion/approval at the end-of-January EC meeting.
5. YouTube channel
ACTION – RW plans to have her video message ready by the end of November. Happy to talk about how the issue brought in more members.
RF comments on the good outreach of RL’s recent event in terms of recruiting in South America and that this could be made into a video as well to push for even more.
Work on the history of SRN by CSB/RF is ongoing and an update will be in the agenda for the December meeting.
6. Update on design of new slogan (RF)
Adjourned to December meeting.
7. Social Media
AI reports an increase of interest in the FB posts once again. Scheduled posts in the forthcoming weeks will include this meeting, the newsletter, the JoS special issue, Calls for Papers, etc.
PR/AI share receipt of yet another CfP for another issue of JoS which will be publicized as well.
PR suggests posting reminders re: nominations for the SRN Awards every six weeks until May. Also to avoid the jury from receiving ALL the materials at once near the deadline.
ACTION – AI to schedule regular SRN Awards reminders.
RW suggests introducing posts about archives around the world. PR notes that some archives also have Fellowships available ECRs and there are valuable digital archives for all researchers.
ACTION – AI to implement archive posts on Facebook and to hashtag them as SRN Resources via Twitter.
RL/AI report that an application for a Twitter developer’s account has been made. No response received yet, so AI will double-check and update.
8. Update on SRN2021 conference (PR, All)
PR has updated Delegates/Membership about new/current plans for 2021.
The EC will have to monitor how the situation evolves over the coming months and consider alternative scenarios and related implications in terms of costs, technology, formats. For each scenario, the EC will need to weigh pros and cons and feasibility.
Also, should SRN2021 be run in hybrid or virtual format, the EC will once again need to consider how to run the AGM. A virtual AGM might require amendment to the SRN Constitution.
PR suggests that, should SRN2021 be run in-person in Oxford after all, we should discuss and approve an amendment to the SRN Constitution at the AGM to include alternative provision(s) to be used in the future when force majeure applies.
All EC members agree.
ACTION – PR to draft memo of alternative scenarios and EC members to send notes about personal experience of attending hybrid conferences this year. To be discussed in January.
PR noticed that recorded papers followed by live discussion would minimize technical issues.
RL reports about recent event he organized in Brazil. Many questioned the decision to pre-record the speakers, but it protected against tech issues well.
Also, PR observes, live presentations require full-time technical assistance from Brookes or by the venue (at an additional cost) which is hard to acquire.
MM did attend a live virtual conference that used the registration fee (which stayed the same as in person) to invest in tech and requested pre-recorded papers as back up. MM emailed her PPT to the host and everything seemed to have worked well. The conference was in Europe but the hosts accommodated time zone changes. Every session sent a live link via email for access. There were longer breaks between presentations to allow everyone to move in and out of sessions.
This seems like a very good approach but PR notes that, should all the delegates initially shortlisted for SRN2020 attend, we would have participants from 21 different time zones, and a programme of 4 parallel panel sessions over 3 days which would be massive to handle.
PR will keep contacting all shortlisted delegates to get confirmation of attendance. Only when we have a better idea of numbers we will be able to come up with a more precise, viable format.
Re: the possibility of a new CfP, MM asks whether a reminder should be sent out about deadlines because no matter the format there will still be a presentation opportunity. PR will make sure that all reminders are sent out promptly and in due course.
PR confirms that the conference theme will remain the same so hopefully the shortlisted delegates will still be conducting the relevant research.
9. Any other business
PR is awaiting info from Hospitality team at Oxford Brookes University to confirm whether on-campus accommodation will be available for SRN2021 delegates.
RL suggests using Zoom for the December EC meeting to see if it works better than Skype
ACTION – PR to set up Zoom link for December EC meeting.
Date of next meeting agreed to be Monday 14 December at 9 pm BST/UTC/GMT (consider DST; refer to shared DOC for each country’s time zone)