SRN Executive Council Meeting
(via Zoom)
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Circulation list: Rosanne Welch (RW), Rose Ferrell (RF), Jan Cernik (JC), Isadora Garcia Avis (IGA), Anna Weinstein (AW), Lucien Georgescu (LG). ECR Clarissa Miranda (CM)
- Apologies / Take group photo
- Approval of Minutes of previous meeting (November)
–Jan and Isadora
–Rosanne approves, Anna seconds
- ECR position update after the AGM: Meeting Marco Ianniello, recommended by Craig Batty. marco.ianniello@nd.edu.au – Times don’t line up so will look for other 2nd ECs
- JC: Update on SRN2024! (via email) We have accepted 104 proposals. In addition to the classic topics like teaching screenwriting, we also had proposals dealing with AI and virtual reality. I’m very happy about this, because it shows that we have a strong community that has the ambition to tackle current issues.
- We are also dealing with financial resources from the Czech Cinema Fund.
- Donat Keutsch, Peter Krämer, Alice Nellis will be keynote speakers at the conference. We are still negotiating with Agniezska Holland, but she is making a film and we will definitely confirm this in the summer.
- The conference will have its own social networks. I would like to ask Clarissa to contact my colleague Anna (simakova01@upol.cz) to arrange to share posts on our network’s social media.
- Please ask Lucian if he has received confirmation of the acceptance of his proposal.
- JC – Newsletter Update – (via email)
- I have compiled the information for the newsletter but have not had time to prepare it for mailing. Hopefully I’ll get to it next week.
- I’m so sorry for the delay with finishing of newsletter, but I couldn’t make it through work and family obligations. I’m fighting with time management…
- AW/RW: No new news on Statement regarding Oxford Brookes slashing of Arts and Humanities programs. Expect update by end Feb. Will email rather than wait for next meeting.
–Rosanne updates on Paolo’s situation.
- RW: Update on Awards:
Teaching Award Judges: (Ian MacDonald, Anna Weinstein Rosamund Davies.
Jan will post in newsletter/RW or AW will post to listserve?
Book/Monograph Award Judges – Need to post to listserve as well:
Carmen Sofia Brenes csbrenes@gmail.com
Leslie Kreiner <leslie.kreiner@pepperdine.edu>
Jayalakshmi, Garrabost G.Jayalakshmi@napier.ac.uk
“ Runner-Up TAPS British writer of the year (2004 or 2005)/in China for four years setting up a film school and working with Chinese filmmakers”
–AW will send out another announcement via the listserve about the Teaching Awards, moving the deadline to May 1.
- IG: presentation of email for members on Top 5-10 suggestions/how they are being addressed from Membership Survey. For listserve and also AGM.
–Postponed until March meeting.
- CM: Presentation of the report of monthly results of social media, and possible conference in Brazil in five years in the city of Florianópolis, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
–CM updates on her discussion with Carmen on the mid-year conference, how the translation worked (dual-language) with headphones and a translator. CM is aiming for 2025 or 2026 because she would need a lot of sponsorship to run the conference. Ideally aiming for April due to weather. Would like to bring Anna Muylaert to do a keynote.
–CM has been putting the emails into posts. Every three days posting something new.
- RF: Thanks to Rose for adding the international list of Writers Guilds to the webpage of Website. NEW IDEAS: Post list of members produced credits? Collect e-booklets of abstracts from each conference to post on website?
–RF suggests that a collection of credits would take too much bandwidth on the website as well as workload, especially since credits are constantly changing. RW agrees
- AW/RF – Took over the list of all the books mentioned in the December listserve email about books to use in classes? Add that to the website. Build off of Camila C A Agustini: “I copied all the suggestions from this list in a Google Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BTjkzeZ_OYCMJCaaABAO0SJbFvTPJt-tT9IakIUiA18/edit
- RF: SRN Conversation #3 now on YouTube – need someone to organize Converation #4 with Kerstin (since she was sick) and who else?
–RF is still working on determining who will be a part of the conversation. RW suggests that it would be ideal if we could have another conversation in the next three months. RF suggests that we need someone to help organize. CM says she can help to organize. LG says he can help as well. RW explains that one person can organize, and another can do the interview. LG says he’s happy to interview Adam Ganz, and RW explains that they will interview Adam as well as Kerstin. RF suggests that this might be an ECR job, RW agrees that makes sense since this is social media related. RW says that by March they should nail down the dates they are aiming for.
- ALL: Election planning for 2025 – who needs to run again/how do we encourage more involvement in EC? Start conversation on Succession planning/encouraging more members to run for EC. Ask each EC member to suggest two academics from their home countries / related countries to consider running to have a bigger pool for voting.
–RW points out that RW, RF, and AW would need to run again to stay on the board. RF says that she is inclined to step down. RW suggests that rather than stepping down, she could stay on as a website mentor for the new person who comes on board. LG seconds this. Jan and Isadora are continuing for the next two years since they were voted in last year.
- The EC should consider creating a small FAQ to keep this institutional memory available for future conference organizers.
–RF would like to collect the abstracts. She will determine which books she still needs and let RW know, and then RW will send out an announcement to the listserve requesting missing books of abstracts from past conferences.
- Working Group Update: Invite group leaders to March meeting for updates.
- Other business
–RF asks if LG wants to have a specific role as now he is a member at large. RF suggests that he may be in charge of the Conversations. LG likes the idea as he has a background in journalism, reluctant to commit until he has more details about the time requirement. RF, LG, and CM will connect offline before the next meeting to discuss the next Conversation.
Date of next meeting(s): Tuesdays same time – March 19, April 23, May 21, June 18, July 23, Aug. 20, Sept. 13 (in person at SRN2024).