SRN Executive Minutes – December 2020

Minute of SRN EC Meeting

Monday 14.12.2020 at 9 pm BST/GMT/UTC+1 (via Zoom)

Circulation list: Carmen Sofia Brenes (CSB), Rose Ferrell (RF), Ann Igelström (AI), Rafael Leal (RL), Margaret McVeigh (MM), Paolo Russo (PR), Rosanne Welch (RW)

 

MINUTES

 

1. Apologies for absence

 MM

 

2. Minutes of previous EC Meeting for approval

Approved by all.

 

3. Newsletter (MM)

MM emailed an update confirming she and RW have collated the contributions and that next issue should be finalized by the Christmas break, including a parallel text in-text version

RW will meet MM again next week to revise the Newsletter yearly schedule as follows: March/June/Sept/Dec.

 

4. Website

PR relays he has had no further news from Ian Macdonalds re: Leeds University. Given the unlikelihood that Leeds will renew, the EC moves to proceed with the Call for Hosts.

RL asks whether the EC should talk informally first with members who might be interested and in case of no takers, then issue a public CfH.

PR observes that the best practice would be to release the CfH publicly anyway so as to avoid wasting useful and precious time in case informal links don’t end in agreements.

RL notes that all universities in Brazil will closed down for holidays soon and up until mid- February so we should send out the Call now.

All agree to post the CfH before Christmas with a deadline of end of January 2021 to receive Expressions of interest.

ACTION – RL to revise and circulates draft of CfH. All to approve, so that PR can finalize by Monday 21 December 2021 and RL to send out mid-next week. If no response by end of January we can extend deadline and send out again.

 

5. SRN Content (YouTube channel, history of SRN, banner)

a. Videomessages for YouTube channel (RW, RF, RL)

RW thanks RF and RL for doing the tech/editing to complete the announcement of the upcoming JoS special issue on “Women in Screenwriting” edited by RF and RW. The EC takes note that JoS was created by early SRN members as a way to share research beyond the annual conferences and therefore it seems appropriate to have a videomessage on that.

RL has already posted the video on the YT channel and will share the link with AI for announcing on the FB page.

b. Ongoing history(ies) of SRN (RF, CSB)

RF is currently training on Zoom to prep to record these histories. These will be itemized in future agendas when further news become available.

PR suggest that, should SRN2021 Oxford have to be moved online, we could hold a virtual round table interview with former organizers in the lead-up to the conference. To be discussed, if any, at future EC meetings.

c. Design of new slogan (RF)

PR has liaised with RF and RL and proposed to keep “We Welcome All” as opposed to just a generic “Welcome”, pointing out the importance of using “We” (standing for SRN as a whole). PR also points out that issues regarding gender declination in adjectives and other words in some languages cannot easily be sorted out and we should leave it to the Members to suggest the best options in their own languages.

RF and RL have prepared a form to collect responses from Members.

ACTION – RL to share form with all EC for feedback so it can be sent out to Membership by end of year or ASAP in January. If, after collecting responses, we are still short on specific languages we can use an automatic translator.

The EC thanks RF and RL for the work done so far in regard to this activity.

d. Use of JISCmail list (All)

PR sums up recent exchanges on JISCmail and reiterates that, overall, no members have breached the netiquette. RW has enjoyed the recent threads and reports that one of his Graduate Students who is studying the pedagogy of screenwriting has gained much insight from it. RL found those email conversations were very useful as an ECR and he is happy that such information is available to and sharable with other new academics in the network. RF too found the conversation extremely useful, with arguments around different topics by experts who have had such long experience.

PR thanks RL for posting info on how to filter posts. RL – who now sits once again in the council of the Brazilian Screenwriters’ Association – reports of a similar question they faced about the use of their mailing list. Sometimes the list became too busy and people overused contacts to send Instagram links. Subjects can be combined into digests and groups.

e. Facebook (AI)

AI was asked by Members whether we could start a forum to deal with the kinds of questions raised in the recent JISCmail exchange. PR reiterates that the email he sent out recently reminded all members that they can use the FB page as well to initiate discussions on relevant topics.

ACTION – AI to remind members that they can post questions and topics for debate on FB publicly and then follow up privately with the actual discussion thread.

AI updates the EC on the schedule for the upcoming posts: next up is the YouTube new video.

AI asks whether the post advertising the upcoming slogan/banner should specify that we are asking to offer up translations. RF confirms that the new form (see above) will allow members to offer them up so they are appropriate.

ACTION – RF to post call for translations to JISCmail first, AI to follow up with blurb post on FB.

f. Twitter (RL, AI)

RL reports that the developer’s account set up recently is working well – i.e. whatever posts on WordPress website is added on Twitter so they feed each other.

AI observes that Twitter is still much underused as there isn’t much traffic there. She will work on trying to gain followers.

PR remarks that Twitter tends to be busy before/during/after a conference. After all, our social media outlet are made available to the Membership but it is up to individual members to make use of them.

 

6. Update on SRN2021 conference

ACTION – PR to email shortlisted delegates soon to assess availability for SRN2021 at present.

PR suggests he will draft a new memo outlining alternative scenarios next month.

 

7. Any other business

The EC approved the use of Zoom (preferred over Skype) for all future meetings.

 

Date of next meeting: Monday 18 January 2021 TBD, 9 pm BST/UTC/GMT (consider DST; refer to shared DOC for each country’s time zone)