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Executive Council Meeting – August 2024

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Here’s the screenshot from our last EC Meeting held on 22nd August:

L to R: Rosanne Welch (Chair), Clarissa Miranda (to be new Web Coordinator), Anna Weinstein (Secretary), Bottom L to R: Rose Ferrell (Web Coordinator), Lucian Georgescu (Conversations Coordinator), Hugo Arciniegas (Early Career Representative).

SRN Executive Minutes – June 2024

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MINUTES

Monday, June 17,2024

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), Hugo Armando Arcinega (HA)

 

  1. Apologies–IGA

 

  1. Welcome Hugo as Asst. ECR!– Hugo is happy to join and support the organization. RW reminds him to send his photo and bio.

 

  1. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting (April)–RF motions to approve, RW seconds

 

  1. JC: Update on SRN2024. Reminder to all EC members to pay registration – soon and begin booking travel. Discussion of who is staying where and what will be a good EC meeting day during conference. Jan’s report “- Conference – I have been a bit bogged down in preparations over the last few weeks due to end of semester obligations. We have exams this week, so we will start to focus more on the conference again at the end of May at the latest.

 

Some of the things that have happened in the last few weeks include a) the payment gateway is up and running and fees are coming in, b) received a grant from the Czech Film Fund which will allow us to involve the Czech National Film Archive and the Czech Screenwriters Association in the conference, c) we have lunches arranged for the participants and are working on arranging coffee breaks.

ALL accepted proposals on the website, b) payment gateway opened for the conference dinner. Venue?

–JC reports that they are still working on funding and programming. Next step will be breaking the papers down into panels. JC reports on four keynote speakers lined up, and two movies for the evening program, which will be good to introduce the film industry. RW asks about purchasing for the conference dinner. JC says payment gateway for the dinner will be out this week or next; will be 45 euros.

—-LG asking about recording the presentations at the conference. LC wants to meet Jan’s colleague so he can find out what she’s planning to do so he can plan for how to help. LC will put them in touch.

–AGM meeting: RW reminds the EC to prepare individual reports for the first week of Aug so she can add to the PowerPoint for the AGM. RW says we’ll likely have the AGM on the Thursday during conference week, but we can decide at our Aug EC meeting.

 

  1. JC: Newsletter Update – – Newsletter – will go out in June. If you have any information, please send it to me by the end of May. Suggestions for future issues?

–JC says the letter will be ready to go out this week (Wed). Also re Heidi’s proposal: her project is not funded this year from government funding but received high points; she will apply again next year.

 

  1. JC – Suncana Tuskar email – cover letter attached to Agenda

–JC explains that Tuskar approached him via email; he hasn’t met her before, she wanted to participate in some way. AW will reply via email.

  1. IG: Update on publishing Top 5-10 suggestions/how they are being addressed from Membership Survey to listserve and also AGM.

–Will get update at the Aug meeting.

 

  1. IG/AW – Response from Craig Batty to call for Volunteers: “I’m not sure if this would be a formal leadership role or not – and honestly, I’m quite stretched for time these days to attend board meetings and suchlike – but I have been thinking about, and have been asked to consider setting up, a regular (maybe monthly or 6-weekly) drop in session/gathering for screenwriting PhD students. As you know, this is a big area of interest for me, and with my colleague over here I set up (in 2020) a similar online ‘hangout’ for creative writing PhD students. I’d say around 30 people have gone through this ‘support group’ now.

I regularly have PhD students from around the world, particularly the creative PhD students, writing to me to ask for advice. And I recently did a seminar for Romana Turina on the topic, which garnered interest. So I thought it was time to collect all of these people and queries into one international drop-in session (which over time could invite guest speakers, students presenting, etc.). I would run the group – and a colleague of mine over here, in creative writing and journalism (she currently runs the other one for Australian creative writing candidates), has offered to run it with me – we have both supervised many PhDs together and spark off each other well. It would be for PhD students only, not their supervisors, as they need a safe space to talk about what’s going on for them.”

–ALL agree this is an excellent idea/opportunity. RW will follow up with Craig.

  1. IG Membership thoughts – re: Kath Dooley’s suggestion of new ECR and RW’s suggestion of emailing our own networks to encourage new members.

–RW asks us to remind colleagues about joining the SRN. All agree.

 

  1. LG/RF: SRN Conversation #4 progress: Potsdam, London (& Leeds?) Need one done in the next month/6 weeks.–LG reports that it’s been challenging with so many people, been trying to get everyone together. They plan to have a conversation mid-July. Will have more to report at the Aug meeting.

 

  1. 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 is waiting to hear about the location, nobody will talk during the strike. Should have more details soon. (Profa. Dra. Gláucia Davino) Re social media, CM updates that she and Hugo are working together to prepare the posts.

 

  1. ALL: Election planning for 2025 – who needs to run again/how do we encourage more involvement in EC? AW – will/has email about running for positions in EC with stress on web management. Ask each EC member to suggest two academics from their home countries / related countries to consider running to have a bigger pool for voting.

–RF reminds us about Sandy Cameron from Australia, interested in running for the EC. RF says she will share his email with everyone on the EC. AW will send out a note today with an August 1st deadline. AW will not run for the EC again but will remain on the Teaching Innovation Award committee. LG has one more year, RW and RF will run again for another year. RW reminds us that someone has to be chair, and it shouldn’t be someone brand new. She will run for this year just to support the new chair (which should be someone already on the EC).

 

  1. AW – Teaching Awards – May 1st is deadline – Update on when decision expected?

–AW reports that she, Ian, and Ros met early June to discuss applications and firm up criteria; will review independently and meet again early July to make decisions. AW will email applicants July 15 to notify whether they are awarded. Announcement will be made at the Sept conference, followed by an email announcement to the membership. All agree that AW should ask the winners not to share the news publicly until after the Sept announcement.

 

  1. Take group photo

 

  1. RW – Book awards Update: Emailed for more article submissions – Paolo Russo nudged contributors to collection to submit. All submissions in both categories should be made directly to all the members of the Jury (see contact details below) by 15 July 2024. One new article came to judges.

 

  1. Start conversation on Succession planning/new ideas for EC. Good to invite Working group leaders every few months. Create a small FAQ to keep this institutional memory available for future conference organizers.

–RF reports re folders for the past conferences, photos and books of abstracts; Google drive, she sent an email with the link and password; drive has the documents and the photo app has the photos. She has set up the folders for each year. Reminder to sign out completely once we log out.

 

  1. Shall EC meet in July – optional for those who are free? August mtg will be to collect info to prepare AGM presentation.

–Group decides to meet July 22.

 

Date of next meeting(s):  Mondays same time –July 22, Aug. 19, Sept. 12 (in person at SRN2024).

 

SRN Executive Minutes – March 2024

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SRN Executive Council Meeting

(via Zoom)

Tuesday, March 19,2024 (Happy St. Joseph’s Day in Italy!)

 

7am Los Angeles (Daylight Savings Time has Begun in the U.S.)

 

Visiting Working Group Chairs

Chris Neilan

Romana Turina

Maxine Gee

 

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)

 

  1. Apologies / Take group photo

 

  1. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting (February)–RF approves, AW seconds

 

  1. AW/RW: Beginning with the Good news from Dr. Russo on the Statement regarding Oxford Brookes slashing of Arts and Humanities programs! (Add his letter into the Minutes)–See below for attached letter from Dr. Russo to SRN membership.

 

  1. Working Group Update from Romana Turina, Chris Neilan, Maxine Gee.

–Comparative Screenwriting Working Group: Romana shares that they have had 10 sessions so far, currently working on the 11th. Five to 10 people attend each session, with another 20 viewing the videos each month. Romana and Paolo will be writing a statement (hoping to include in the journal) on the field of comparative screenwriting and what it means. Romana has also been working with a colleague on a book concept on comparative screenwriting. RF asks whether we can include a link to the comparative writing seminars on the YouTube site. Romana would appreciate that. Max asks about time zones and what has been working best. 10am LA/6pm UK but will be shifting it to accommodate scholars from Australia as well.

–Romina has an event in Italy in July and wondering about supplementary funding for bags etc and use of the SRN logo for her event. RW says no problem to use logo but no funding available unfortunately, as SRN doesn’t charge membership fees.

 

–Practice-led/Based Working Group: Max updates that they are figuring out the scripts they will run for the table reads at the Sept conference. She and Jan have been exchanging emails about how to set it up. Deciding whether/how to collaborate with Czech actors or screenwriting students for the table reads. JC has connections; he and Max will connect offline to discuss. Max is working on a virtual work-in-progress table read session, possibly in May, aiming to host over two days so it’s useful to colleagues in Australia and UK.

 

–Max shares that she is part of Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRIDGE) – concerning the responsible integration of AI into script production. Max wonders if the EC would like to have a one-off online session to gather viewpoints from colleagues so we can record it and categorize it. JC offers that there will be two AI panels at the conference in Sept. RF suggests that a pre-conference virtual workshop/panel (over the summer) will be useful to SRN members, possibly inviting AI experts to share their perspective/opportunities for ethical integration of AI in screenwriting. AW suggests that a focus on working with students/teaching would be useful, particularly as faculty are prepping their syllabi for the fall. Max agrees to facilitate this.

 

–Creative Play Working Group: Chris updates that though the group started out strong with many people wanting to attend and run the sessions, 7-10 people in the first two sessions, the third session had only one attendee (end of January). He is working on the next session for the end of April. RW and RF suggest that he use social media and the listserve to get the message out. CM offers that she can post about it on Instagram and FB; she would just need some details from Chris. IG suggests that we include in the newsletter a reminder about the current working groups and opportunities for getting involved. RW agrees that this is a good idea. Chris asks whether he could come up with a panel for the conference. JC says there is room for his working group at the conference. They will connect offline.

 

  1. ECR position update after the AGM: Matt Kirton, Lecturer in Creative Writing, DMU is emailing offline with Clarissa about the work load OR we could ask book reviewer: Amanda Allen <aj_allen@live.com> (finishing my PhD at Falmouth, UK.

 

  1. JC: Heidi Philipsen from Denmark is preparing a big international project and would like to include SRN. It could be done through a working group (which would have to be set up after a discussion with the EC…Discussion tabled to next meeting.

 

  1. JC: Update on SRN2024!–JC updates that they are working on the payment gateway for conference participants. They are keeping the payment to $120 / 100 euros. Waiting on money from the Czech Film Fund, hoping to hear back soon.
    –LG asks about cameras to record the sessions. JC says it’s a possibility. LG says if he has some budget funds he will bring a camera person, so they should discuss offline. RW says she was hoping to do that for the Missouri conference but it was difficult to getting enough student volunteers. She thinks it’s an excellent idea but a lot of work. JC suggests that he would first ask all of the participants if they are interested in being recorded. LG clarifies that he meant a mini-documentary rather than recording individual papers. The EC agrees that this would be an excellent idea — great to include on the YouTube channel. IG suggests that we ensure we have permissions in place from anyone in the video.

 

  1. JC – Newsletter Update – thanks for the latest issue – next deadline? Suggestions for future issues?–JC shares that end of May is the next deadline.

 

  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.–IG organized suggestions from SRN membership. The most requests had to with screenwriting discussion and feedback. She has created a list of volunteer coordinator opportunities that we can send out via the listserve or newsletter. One suggestion included an online discussion forum. Though this would be more challenging/time-consuming to coordinate, the EC agrees that it’s worth putting out the ask in case an SRN member is interested in facilitating.

 

  1. 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.–To discuss at next meeting

 

  1. LG/RF: SRN Conversation #4 progress: Potsdam, London (& Leeds?)–IG agrees with LG’s ideas detailed in his email. LG will meet with RF offline and send an update to the EC.

 

  1. 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 –Also, Update on collecting e-booklets of abstracts from each conference to post on website?–To discuss at next meeting

 

  1. 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.

–To discuss at next meeting

 

  1. The EC should consider creating a small FAQ to keep this institutional memory available for future conference organizers.—To discuss at next meeting

 

  1. Other business

–AW forwards email from SRN member in Spain who needs a letter to confirm participation in SRN. IG offers to reply and take care of this in Spanish.

 

Date of next meeting(s):  Tuesdays same time – April 23, May 21, June 18, July 23, Aug. 20, Sept. 13 (in person at SRN2024).

 

—

Letter from Paolo Russo:

 

Dear SRN colleagues

 

I’ll keep this brief and go straight to the point.

 

I simply want to update and inform everyone that yesterday I was notified by my university that I am no longer at risk of losing my job. Of course, it’s difficult to know for sure, but I am quite confident that Rosanne’s letter on behalf of the SRN played a significant role in pushing for a positive resolution of what (I have to admit) has been a rather brutal and distressing experience. One thing I know, is that the recipients of that letter, starting from my Head of School, were beyond impressed by the sheer number of signatures – and I for one was blown away by it.

 

So, thank you, to each and every single one of you, to Rosanne, Anna and the whole EC (Jan, Rose, Isadora, Clarissa, and Lucian) – not just for sending the letter but also for the dozens of supportive/concerned/friendly/cheering-up emails and messages over the past few months: one might think that simply dropping a line to someone going through a rough patch does not do much to resolve much bigger problems, but one would be wrong. I will cherish every single word all of you were so kind to send my way. I will email everyone individually next week and I can’t wait to thank many of you in person next September in Olomouc.

 

One more thing: if, in any way, this shows that I can be used as a guinea pig so that in the future the SRN might do the same to try and support any other colleagues anywhere else who find themselves facing similar adversities, then this has not been for nothing. As Anna argued on behalf of the EC, higher education is facing a troubled present and an even more uncertain future in many countries – and the arts, humanities and media in particular have become a favourite (and easy) target despite much evidence to contrast any (often ludicrous) excuse behind each and every attempt against them. While we are happy that at least for now the worst seems to be over, the situation at Oxford Brookes is far from being resolved for good, as in many other universities. With that in mind, let’s do our best so that the SRN can keep being the amazing community it has grown to be.

 

With heartfelt gratitude.

Take care!

 

Paolo Russo

SRN Executive Minutes – February 2024

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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)

 

  1. Apologies / Take group photo
  2. Approval of Minutes of previous meeting (November)
    –Jan and Isadora
    –Rosanne approves, Anna seconds

 

  1. 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

 

  1. 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…

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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

 

  1. 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

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. 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.

 

  1. Working Group Update: Invite group leaders to March meeting for updates.

 

  1. 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).

 

 

16th Annual SRN Conference, September 2024 – Olomouc, Czech Republic

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The central theme for the 16th Annual SRN Conference in 2024 is

“A Conversation Beyond Script”

Through this theme we seek to encourage a broad exploration of dialogue and communication within the world of screenwriting and beyond. Although we emphasize the role of dialogue, monologues and polylogues in scripts, films and television, we also invite you to interpret this theme metaphorically, considering filmmakers’ discussions amongst cast and crew, amongst cultures, and other related topics.

Call for Papers – SRN Conference 2024

We accept the following:
Traditional 20-Minute Papers
(Proposal should include: Title, Author’s name, Affiliation, Contact details, 300 word abstract, 4-6 keywords, 150 word bio)
Pre-constituted Panels
(Proposal should include: Title of the panel, 100 word outline of the overall topic, Abstracts of 2-3 presentations following the abstract guidelines listed above).
Posters
(Proposal should include: Title, Author’s name, Affiliation, Contact details,300 word abstract, 4-6 keywords, 150 word bio)

Please send your proposals to srn2024@upol.cz

Submission Deadline: January 12, 2024. Always wait for confirmation that your proposal is registered.

For further enquiries, contact the Conference organizers: Jan Černík, Anna Šimáková, Filip Faja

Details and further information about the conference will be available online as the conference draws nearer.

The Conference website has been active since November 2023. Access it here.

SRN AGM Minutes – Columbia, Missouri USA September 2023

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MINUTES OF THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Sept 22, 2023

Held in person at the 15th Annual International Conference

Stephens College, Columbia, Missouri, USA

 

General Updates

–RW updates on the activity of the EC in 2022-23.

 

Constitution Addition

–RW shares with members that the EC would like to recommend extending ECR (Early Career Representative) position so they may be on the board two years beyond their ECR position to allow for continued knowledge on the EC.

–Members vote “yes” to add to the constitution

 

New Teaching Award

–RW and AW tell members about potential new teaching award. Consensus from members that this is a good idea. One member suggests that we consider the parameters of the application (not make it too involved).

 

2024 Conference

–JC presents details re dates and location.

SRN Inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award 2023

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Our inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to Screenwriting Research goes to Dr Tom Stempel, Professor Emeritus at Los Angeles City College, presented at the Annual General Meeting at the 15th Annual Conference held in Columbia, Missouri, USA. Presented on 22nd September, 2023.