SRN EC Minutes – October 2021

SRN EC Meeting – October Minutes

Monday 18 October 2021 10 pm GMT/UTC 

Tuesday 19 October 2021 7.00 am AEST (via Teams)

 

Circulation list: Rosanne Welch (RW), Rose Ferrell (RF), Rafael Leal (RL), Jan Cernik (JC), Isadora Garcia Avis (IGA), Shaopeng Chen (SC), Margaret McVeigh (MM), 

 

Agenda

 

1. Apologies for absence

Isadora Garcia Avis (IGA

 

2. Minutes of previous EC Meeting for approval

RF – Proposes approval.

RW – Seconds

 

2021 SRN Conference Follow up (All)

MM – General response?  And request to send a thank you to Paolo Russo.

RW – Very much appreciated the way online let many more members take part.

RF – Agree – need to thank Paolo for meeting the challenge.  Also, we should find a way to incorporate some of the advantages of these online events.

MM – Claus Tieber would like to meet with us next month to address upcoming conference plans.  As to online being part of in person events – we did try this for ASPERA in Australia but they wanted in person people to confirm to pay for keynote speakers and their lodging/travel.

 

RF – upcoming conference in Australia is offering one day online and 2 days in person. Also, online doesn’t have to be free.  It can attract more people to take part.

 

MM – Recent online event I attended was 350 Euros in person / 150 Euros online.  In regards to thanking Paolo shall I write thank you letter from me as Executive or mention in the newsletter?  

RW – Yes in the newsletter as some newer members might not know his complete involvement.

RF – And he had planned 2 conferences actually, with the first being cancelled due to the pandemic.

 

2021 Early Career Researchers Online Symposium  

MM – Anne has been away on school holidays but sent message – things moving along well.  RF will be morning co-chair host/Rosamund co-chair host afternoon.  Anne will send more info and would like it posted to FB as well.

RF – Will be hosted on the 2021 conference site so it should go as smoothly as the SRN conference.

JC- It’s already up on the conference site.

 

2022 SRN Conference (All)

MM – Claus will speak with us next November.  Call for Papers went out yesterday – time to plan your abstract/paper.  We expect to all be present in person.  

 

EC roles and planning (All)

  1. Inductions
  2. Status update
  3. Collaborations

MM – Time to plan for new roles in the new year and advise new members about roles and responsibilities.

RF – We could have each older member explain their role…

MM – Elections are 2 year periods. I’m starting again a second term. We agreed that I would be Chair this year through the Vienna conference – then Rosanne will take the 2nd year leading up to her conference in the U.S. in 2023.  As an Australian member I want to build on our membership from this part of the world.  Happy to have Shaopeng here to represent that part of the world and thanks to RF for all of her work as Membership member to build that.  I plan to set up a small regional conference during ASPERA this year to engage the Asian world.

RW – As Secretary I type the Minutes and sometimes ask for clarification for some of what has been said.

RF – As Membership and Inclusion Officer I help people who want to join who find us online and click the link that leads to JISCMAIL, hosted by Leeds for a few more years thanks to RL’s work on all things tech.  Then I’m listed as an administrator of JISCMAIL so I can accept the membership and then send a personal letter of welcome to new members that explains the SRN.  Then I send the form that asks for further data to get more data on who are our members. I’m the first person in contact with them.  I read all the forms and learn who the person is so I can understand what level they are at their university and what interests them in the SRN.  I want to be able to use the forms to create stronger connections between members.  I like to be in contact with academics around the world to encourage us to join – just like when MM and RL and I met in Chile and here we are involved deeply with the organization.

RW – It was RF who made sure that our JOS Special Issue on Women in Screenwriting was as international as possible so that there are now 4 people on this EC that had articles in that issue.

MM – And you were instrumental to the online interview series with past conference organizers to begin our oral history of the SRN.

RF – Which reminds me to tell SP and JC that the EC is a chance to bring any of your own new ideas to the table.

RL –  Extending SRN into underrepresented areas such as Latin America where the challenge is to make people go to in person conferences which can be very expensive considering universities don’t cover such expenses.  I have to do it on my own funds, which I have because I am also a screenwriter.  So we should look to ways to help there.  Then we need better membership in Asia and Africa.  We are woefully underrepresented there.  

Also I think we should continue the oral histories because history matters so that our information won’t disappear into a data hole.  We need to interview them while the have photos and fresh memories. Those are my 2 most important goals.  We talked last term about revamping the website but the more I use it, the more I think it’s fine.  It suits us now.

RW – I agree. Why revamp what looks fine? Better to build up the YouTube Channel and other social media areas (TikTok) to keep us connected to newer and younger members.  

RF – Can we share the Google password for us all to access?  

RL – The security alerts make that difficult because it requests the SCMS confirmation which makes it difficult.

JC – Does the Google Drive allow us to share files anyway?  

RL – You don’t have to log in to upload to the GoogleDrive.

MM – And you upload the Minutes after each meeting…

RL – Yes.

MM- From last meeting Jan and Isadora will do the newsletter together.  I forwarded them the templates which came to me form Carmen, using Pages.  Then SC as ECR will look after the social media.  Also, you both have new ideas to share – but first I wanted to put on the table that we have a bunch of communications channels but they don’t always talk to each other.  A marketing master I know offered some advice on what she thought – she saw a newsletter as a permanent consolidation of information and social media as updates.  Would you both like to address that going forward?

JC – We discussed newsletter with Isadora and proposal to update it.  We don’t use Pages and aren’t graphic designers so we want to create a new version. We are thinking of using MailChimp.

RW – Yes I use that in my MFA.

RL – Yes it is good.  But I also suggest Canva. I use it for my presentations.

JC – We will try Canva.  I prepared a draft newsletter for this meeting. I will share now.  We want to include more images/less text and have it branded so it matches our social media as well.  This edition is about the past conference – highlights, winners of SRN awards, news from the Council, etc.  Then there can be permanent sections on Call for Papers and such.  We wanted to keep those older sections and maybe a new permanent section – a short interview or a Q&A we found from older newsletters.

ALL MEMBERS – Much approval of new design/new ideas.

JC – As non-native speakers we’d need proofreaders so if MM, RF or RW will help that will be great.

RW – That’s another reason that more photos/less text is a great idea.

RF – More than happy to proofread.

MM- It should appear 4 times a year.  All it needs is Issue # to separate them out.  One issue with images – in Australia we are very big on trademarks – we’d need official permission for use of images in emails. 

JC – So everyone will receive this in an email – we can make it a pdf for posting. More people will click on links in their inbox.

RL – Pdf can also have clickable links but it’s friendlier in email.  To post to the website HTML is easier and more friendly.

MM – So it will be permanently on the site for new members to see. 

JC/RL – Yes it can be done.

RF – Question – Where will the original document live?  I’m wondering about the long term if Leeds stops being our host?

RL – Then we will move the entire website to another server and copy all the media that is stored.  But it would also be wise to save sensitive stuff in the GoogleDrive. I’ll investigate that.

MM – All approve new newsletter set up.

JC- As to sharing info for the newsletter I can share it and you all can propose what should be in the newsletter.  We can have it ready in beginning November.  

SC – First, apologies for missing the last meeting due to technical difficulties. I worked with RF during my article in the JOS and read the one written by MM and it was indeed wonderful.  So it’s a great honor to serve as a member of the EC.  

As to social media Anne sent an email handover guide on what to do about ECR – very comprehensive, detailed document.  I read it all. The biggest work of posting on FB and Twitter I have the question about the fact that those are banned in China. I can access them but software can be unstable. 

Second question, same as Jan, I’m not a native speaker of English so if I need some copyediting. 

MM – I want you to be comfortable in this role.

SC – Yes, I believe it is possible.

RF – We don’t use Twitter very much at all.  FB is more important.

RL – I just posted to Twitter because when I post Minutes it automatically posts to Twitter so it’s not dormant.

  1. Admin matters

I plan to send out a call for new Agenda items the Monday the week before our Monday/Tuesday meetings and would hope for added items by Friday so I can send out the full Agenda.

 

Other business

MM – We are asked to have 9 meetings across the year – we need to think about the Christmas and summer holidays – and have the last meeting pre-conference (which will be in Vienna). I will send out a list of proposed dates for the year before our next meeting.

 

Date of next meeting: TBD 

November 22, 2021