mclarissa

SRN Executive Council Meeting

(via Zoom)

February 17, 2025

7am Los Angeles

Circulation list: Rosanne Welch (RW), Jan Cernik (JC), Isadora Garcia Avis (IGA), Lucian Georgescu (LG).  Clarissa Miranda (CM), Romana Turina (RT), Juan Carlos Carrillo (JC).

ECR Hugo Armando Arcinega (HA)

 

1. Apologies for any absences

Isadora, Romana

 

2. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting.

Point 4 – JC will email adjustment to Secretary. With that donem JC approves and Hugo seconds.

 

3. IG/JCC – Update on Membership email transfer and numbers of new members since SRN2024.

Tabled for March meeting

 

4. Take group zoom photo

 

5. JC: Newsletter Update –JC Thanked for all the time put on this project. ALSO, for collecting list of previous Keynote Speakers for placement on the website. JC reports that all info minus a few abstracts is in for placement on new section of website.

 

LG – can use the information gathered on previous conferences to add into edits for future Conversations.

 

6. RT: Working Groups Update – Organizing Script Reading Working Group Zoom for Feb 28 to see how many SRN members are interested.

 

7. GROUP decides to choose a month to invite Working Group Members to attend an EC meeting in the next couple of months. Maybe March or April. Also to invite Craig Batty to an EC meeting for update on SRN2025?

–Will he be free to visit?  RW will email.

 

8. JC –”Sustainable Screenwriting Working Group” within SRN

2 people answered with interest – JC will continue – not tied to current research.

 

LG – still has monies for another small conference

 

9. IGA – Update on when to post about Annual Award Nominations (Teaching, Books and Articles)

 

10. LG: SRN2024 Video production update.

 

LG – conversation with Steven Maras, keynote speaker at Copenhagen in 2010, available for uploading. Other interviews are nearly an hour long. Plans are to release Conversations with previous Chairs, EC members, then move on to full coverage of Vienna conference, then the Oxford online conference Conversation by summertime.

 

RW- Has idea about naming a Historian as new position in EC? – Group agrees it’s worth putting up for vote to add to Constitution during next AGM

 

11. CM: Conference in Brazil in the city of Florianópolis, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Fall Semester 2026?

Meeting is set up with 3 screenwriting teachers at the uni – ideas: all students could join the conference at no cost; numbers who may attend/add it as a hybrid so those who can’t pay to attend can still attend.  Will have meeting in March with uni. Cinema born 15 years ago.  For hybrid they are used to it. All agree hybrid option helps academics whose unis don’t offer travel funding and exposure to new perspectives help us all.

 

12. Formally accepted bids for sites for:

 

Oxford 2026 (in hand) / (AND Florianopolis in April – forthcoming)

Mexico City 2027

Milan 2028 (in hand along with email from Armando Fumagilli moving from 2027 to 2028)

Navarre 2029 (forthcoming)

 

13. HA: Presentation of the report of monthly results of social media –

HA – Lots of good material to post.

 

 

Date of next meeting(s):  March 17.

Future Meetings: Apr 21(Easter Monday), May 19, June 16, July 21, Aug. 18, Sept. 19 (in person at SRN2025).

 

EC MONTHLY MEETING MINUTES

 

Date: Monday 21st October 2024

 

 

In attendance:  Rosanne Welch (RW), Jan Cernik (JC), Isadora Garcia Avis (IGA), Juan Carlos Carillo (JCC), Lucien Georgescu (LG), Clarissa Miranda (CM), Romana Turina (RT), Hugo Armando Arciniegas, ERC (HA). Also in attendance, non-EC member Marius (DP responsible for recording SRN 2024).

 

1. Apologies (N/A)

 

2. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting (September, in person at SRN 2024).

(September AGM to post to YouTube Channel). Also attached History of SRN for EC members to read.

RW approves/ LG seconds.

 

Also as Election update – Fully Welcome Clarissa, Romana, and Juan Carlos. Discuss changeover of responsibilities:  Decisions during SRN2024 = Rosanne/Vice Chair,  Isadora/Secretary, Juan Carlos/Membership, Jan/Newsletter, Clarissa/Website Coordinator. Per Constitution shall we name a Treasurer?

 

3. Update on documentary about SRN2024.

 

LG – The first version of the video will be ready very soon, along with a teaser/trailer. Paolo Russo and Armando Fumagalli provided lots of pictures and materials from their respective conferences, which will be integrated into the video. LG and Marius conducted 8 interviews with previous conference organisers, and 6 of them were very long, so they have a lot of material to work with. More material than LC and Marius expected, so they need more time to edit everything.

 

RW – No need to apologize! This is volunteer work, and editing takes a lot of time.

 

LG – Hopefully by next meeting they will have a more complete version. For now, they will show the EC a brief teaser.

[Marius shares his screen and plays a draft version of the teaser.] In spite of some technical problems with the Internet connection, the teaser looks really good!

 

LG – Will send a low-resolution version of the teaser to all members of the EC via e-mail, so that we can see it better. For next meeting, LG plans to have a list of deliverables and schedule regarding the documentary.

 

4. Future SRN Conferences

 

RW – In the next few months we need to decide the upcoming conferences, from 2028 onwards. For now, the ones that have been fully confirmed are:

• 2025 – University of South Australia (org. Craig Batty)
• 2026 – Oxford Brookes University (org. Paolo Russo)

 

RW – Potential upcoming bids: Milan, Mexico City, Bucharest.

 

JCC – It would be Mexico City, at Universidad Panamericana. We also need to consider if conferences should alternate between Europe and North America every other year.

 

LG – Rector of LG’s institution in Bucharest (Universitatea Nationala de Arta Teatrala si Cinematografica “Ion Luca Caragiale” din București) is very enthusiastic about hosting an SRN conference. However, he is in his second mandate, and while he supports the project, by 2028 there might be a different rector, which might make it more difficult.

 

RW – We need to check with Armando Fumagalli, to see if he is tied to 2027. Maybe he can do it later, since Milan has hosted before?

 

LG – Maybe we can consider two universities as organisers. Bucharest + Milan. Not two venues. Just one venue, but two universities organising the conference. We would have to talk to Armando and see if this is possible.

 

IGA –  We also have a bid from the University of Navarre in Spain. They might be able to host the   between 2028 and 2030. We would have to check with them.

 

JCC – Mexico can adapt to whatever dates are more suitable for everyone.

 

RW – By the end of the year we should have 2027 and 2028 figured out.

 

CM is waiting for a final answer from her university regarding a potential conference in Brazil, in the city of Florianópolis, at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Hopefully we will have an answer by next month.

 

JC has realised, after hosting SRN 2024, that money is not a problem to organise a conference. Even with a limited budget, it can be done just with conference fees. If you have extra funding, you can get more prestigious keynotes etc, but the basics can be covered by conference fees. Also, post-SRN2024 Update –150 participants/30 countries/31 panels/budget in the green/Erasmus participation helped.

 

RW agrees. It’s not about money, it’s about having lots of volunteers, students helping out.

 

JC – Because of inflation, in future years we might consider higher conference fees.

 

5. Dates for upcoming meetings

 

RW – We will keep meeting on the third Monday of each month, at the same time (7:00 am in LA). Each person will have to consider DayLight Time Savings.

 

IGA – To confirm for the minutes: Next meeting will be on Monday, Nov. 18th. We are skipping the one in December, because of the holidays.

 

6. New roles within the EC

 

JCC and IG – Re: Membership and Inclusion Officer, the transfer of duties has been made. We are waiting on the e-mail change so that JCC can become the JISCMAIL admin.

 

CM had two long meetings with Rose Ferrell (previous webmaster) to learn everything about the website.

 

RW – Romana (RT) is a member-at-large, but since we need a treasurer, maybe she can become the treasurer, even though we don’t collect any fees. It’s a required role.

 

RT- I will help in any way that I can.

 

RW – We also need a member to liaison with working groups via the working groups leaders. Maybe this can be Romana as well?

 

RT accepts this role.

 

RW – Therefore, Romana will be both Treasurer and Working Group Liaison.

 

JC – We need a native speaker to review and proofread the newsletter, now that Rose is no longer a member of the EC.

 

RW – I have realized that we now have more people in the EC with Spanish as a first language instead of English… The SRN is truly international!

 

RW – We also need to consider who will be the next Chair. I will be staying for a year as ViceChair, but next year someone else should step up. I will be staying for an additional year to help them out, then I will leave the EC.

 

LG – I can also liaise with the working groups. And I can assist as ViceChair if necessary.

 

RW – Great. Next role would be Social Media. Where are we on Social media, Hugo?

 

LG – Excellent, he is doing excellent!

HA – Clarissa and her friend Bianca gave me great info on how to plan and programme posts on social media. I have been learning how to programme 3 posts a week across all social media, mainly on Instagram and LinkedIn. I’m now learning how to better use Instagram stories. Everything is going well.

 

 

RW – We always try to keep meetings to one hour. Any other topics?

 

JC – As per the agenda, we also needed to discuss the possibility of posting keynote speeches from conferences on the website.

 

RW – Yeah, not to give Clarissa extra work, but that is a wonderful idea.

 

JC – It could be an expandable option on the website menu, where we could upload the speeches and papers (if they have been published).

 

IGA –  Just to confirm this for the minutes, EC members will hold the following roles this year:

 

Vice Chair – RW (until new Chair next September)

Vice Chair – LG

Membership & Inclusion – JCC

Treasurer & Working Group Liaison – RT

Secretary – IGA

Website Coordinator – CM

Newsletter Editor – JC

ECR (Social Media) – HA

 

RW – See you all next month, on November 18th. And remember to read Ian McDonald’s wonderful article on the history of the SRN!