2019 Executive Meeting Minutes

Tuesday 30 July 2019, 4:30 – 6:15 pm
Held at Education Support Hub, Hindmarsh

Present: Grant, Tim, Steve, Alex, Harry, Karen, Jayne
Apologies: Hal, Laura, Guy, Zora

1. Acceptance of minutes of last meeting (15 July 2019)
   Moved: Alex, Seconded: Harry.  Carried
   Corrections: A date needed correcting, the minutes had typed today's proposed meeting with yesterday's date (Hal).  Accepted
2. Media Matters conference:
   1. Grant brought in an interactive funding spreadsheet from CEASA (a sample printed version was provided), to evaluate costs and to work out what to charge for attendance fees.  (Could link to it, here, if it's available on-line.)
   2. We've missed the CEASA funding deadline (was in January).  So no financial support from them, but can offer in-kind help (e.g. posting information for the conference)
   3. Catering costs still a concern.  UniSA has its own cafe (Aroma, private, needs booking)
   4. Is SAAME prepared to take a financial hit to fund the conference?  The consensus was yes.
   5. Networking:  Market the conference to other related faculties:  English, Drama, Creative Arts, Technology.  Alex had a technology-related subject he could refer it to.  Also mentioned: Ed Tech SA, English Teacher's association.
   6. This Friday (2 August) 1 pm Jayne has meeting with Magill UniSA regarding the venue.  Need to ask about internet access, do we need to pay for their IT support staff, catering options.
   7. Guests:

      Sophie Hyde has agreed.  SBS has given permission to screen an episode of The Hunting.  They asked if there's a speaker's fee, Harry wonders if we should see what they say about offering $200.

      Who will host the Q & A?  Grant suggested Sonia (BTN?).  Harry put forward Rebecca Sparrow (motivational speaker).  There was a suggestion to see if any UniSA lecturers would be interested.  Harry mentioned Collette Snowden (from facebook, Jayne(?) said she was in Brisbane).  Grant suggested BTN hosts: Sarah Larsen, Amelia Mosely, or Nathan Bazley (Grant's seeing Amelia on Thursday).

   8. Day 1:

      Sophie Hyde intro screening of episode 1.  Brett Lamb to appear for drinks & intro, but only working on day 2.

   9. Day 2:

      Morning: Two 45 minute presentations.  After lunch: workshops.  See the Google Doc for fine details (via the same link as was previously emailed to exec members).

      (NB: The google doc link isn't being provided here, as the document isn't access-restricted.  Our website has two access-restricted areas, one for exec and another for general members, we can put links and resources in there that we don't want public, such as unfinalised planning.)

   10. Considering notion that not all the workshops are to be repeated, to be able to fit in more different workshops.  Ask on MEET for feedback on our offered workshops, and suggestions for others.
   11. Seems to be a big concentration on secondary, not much on primary school (Karen has some workshops to address this).
   12. Should we have an indigenous perspective?  Are we doing a welcome to country? (Which would be expensive to do.)
   13. Expo:  What vendors having displays?
   14. Concern about the end of conference event being important enough that everyone will stay for it.  See if any industry sponsor would offer a prize that might encourage people to stay on.
3. AIYFF:  Jayne wanted a commitment from SAAME supporting the festival.  Sponsorship would be monetary (e.g. an amount per person, or funding a prize for the winner).  Harry supported the motion, saying we need to build the SAAME brand.  Consensus was that we should fund a prize (e.g. a podcasting USB microphone).  Tim asked if that kind of prize (podcasting) would be fitting for a film festival entry, Jayne said yes.  Exec majority agreed to funding a prize.  $200 prize value was offered, Harry moved, Karen seconded.
4. SAAME website:  Jayne has expressed misgivings about the website being too old-fashioned.  Grant expressed the point of view that minimalism works, and we should be able to see through flashy presentations, past the tricks used by the media, to the real content (one of the core teachings in media studies).  And that we also save ourselves money by not paying for web-designers.  Tim argued the point that the website has to be useful and useable.  That as a starting point the material from the old wikispace website has been used to create the new one, that content is needed first before we can create a website, and that there'd been minimal input from others beyond we want a website, and wanting something whizzy.  There's still little feedback about what we want on the website, or even why we want one.  And if we don't want clipart constructions, we need to generate some of our own graphics.  We need to be cautious about creating fancy websites, as a large proportion of people use smartphones, where fancy sites don't work well (the browsers are simplified, the screens are tiny).  Alex brought up the point that could entail a secondary, mobile version.  Tim asked if the old wikispace website was collaboratively maintained, or just one person.  Grant said it was managed by one person, and the suggestion was to continue in that fashion (having a webmaster manage one for them), though with a bit more collaboration (i.e. a small team).  A professional web-designer would be expensive (and on-goingly so), Karen says that Ed Web Solutions isn't in that league (but still around $600).
5. Media Matters webpage:  Tim brought up that we need to add content to the media matters webpage.  At the moment it's barren, with only a small amount of information of what's confirmed, a bit more about what might be, and little else.  He needs more info that is okay to publish (can't tell from the google doc what bits are ready to publish, and which parts are still in flux).  The webpage is most likely to be the “for more information see the webpage” type of resource for people who've found out about the conference, through some other means, and want to find out more information than will be on the advert (flyer/poster/etc).
6. Logo:  Some members not happy with the old logo (it's actually not clipart, it was designed for us), others are happy to keep using it.  Tim brought up that we're not being given many submissions of alternatives, some of which have a fascist 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 feel to them (they have the look of a “you've been caught doing something wrong on the internet” vibe to them).  The stylised logo Harry showed on his mobile (submitted by Jayne?) has less of that vibe.  The butterfly from the existing logo could be said to be representative of the “butterfly effect” meaning (quite appropriate to studying the potential effects of the mass media).  There was discussion of, in some situations, just using the word SAAME using an attractive font.  Alex showed some examples of unencumbered Google fonts that we could use, or we could hand-edit a graphic that was created from one of them.
7. Media Moves:  The next show will be 8 pm Wednesday 14th of August.
8. MEET:  The facebook group now has 89 followers.
9. Next meeting:  Proposed Tuesday 13 August (need to check with Laura), at the Education Hub, again.
10. Meeting closed 6:15 pm.