10th meeting (January 2021)

Introduction

BRaS academic committee met online on Friday, January 29, 2021, at 2 pm (Berlin time) to discuss general matters of the organization. Anna Bennech conducted the meeting, and Giovanna Imbernon was in charge of the minutes. Professor Doctor Thomas Kestler, Matheus Zago, Matheus Hebling, Cláudia Pires, Anna Bennech, Eric Nogueira, Jayane Maia, Luíza Cerioli, Luísa Turbino Torres, and Lucas Fraga also attended the meeting.

The meeting started with a general discussion on the tasks assigned on their last meeting in December 2020 and proceeded to discuss the following agenda:

• Draft of the Annual Report and Internal Processes
• Research Groups Updates
• Communication and PR Updates
• BRaS-J Updates
• BRaS-Blog Updates
• Research Funding Updates
• General Issues

Draft of the Annual Report and Internal Processes

Before starting with the agenda, Anna Bennech consulted the Committee on Eric Nogueira being the Deputy Head of the RG Committee. The committee voted and approved the decision unanimously. After, she proceeded to an overview on the Annual Report and provided the group with some general aspects on how the Secretariat will be dealing with each department’s files (evaluation, standardization, etc.) until March 15, so the final version can be presented to the group on their monthly meeting in March.

Matheus Hebling commented on the subject and added that since the department started to be outlined now (e.g., RG), his report is a general report. Anna Bennech pointed out that this is the first version, and it can be further discussed. Also, Giovanna Imbernon commented that this kind of document serves to guide our decisions and it needed to be constantly reviewed according to the changes made to their work.

Research Groups Updates

Anna Bennech presented Jayane Maia’s RG proposal (proposal previously e-mailed to all BRaS members) and the committee unanimously voted to approve it.

Matheus Hebling asked to withdrawal all the references to the RG from the website and Author’s guidelines since the members agreed to change the way they will handle both, fields of research and groups, and having in mind that all the processes in this department (RG) are not outlined yet.

Communication and PR Updates

Anna Bennech presented the group with an overview of the numbers of visitors to BRaS website and social media (Instagram and Twitter), and she also remembered that BRaS is on LinkedIn and recommended that all members include their position in BRaS on their profiles.

BraS-J Updates

Thaís Cavalcanti sent Anna Bennech the current work and tasks BRaS-J team is doing, as follows:

• Finishing editorial policies;
• Complete platform;
• Approval of license and Copyright;
• Approval of Editorial Board;
• Next steps:
  • Invitations to Board Members;
  • Invitations to the authors of the 1^st issue;
  • Internal document for evaluation flow.

BraS-Blog Updates

Matheus Hebling provided the group with some updates on the Blog. He said that the critical point on the blog is still regarding the issue of posts from people outside BRaS, so he will think about other strategies to attract the attention of more authors. Also, he informed the numbers of visitors, and BRaS-Blog is divided as 50% of new readers and 50% of regular readers.

Acknowledging the need for new articles, the blog will open a call and Jayane Maia created a list on that.

Research Funding Updates

After Jayane Maia and Cláudia Pires presenting their arguments on the Research Funding proposals, the committee agreed that from now on all the RF proposals will be directed to the RF Department and will be published on a different section on the website (on the RF section and not Opportunities anymore).

General issues

Mathes Hebling pointed out that BRaS needs an SEO specialist to improve numbers and visibility online, however, since this is an expensive service, this matter will be later discussed or when BRaS has some sort of funding to spend on this.

On the new members’ issue, Anna Bennech informed the group about Guilherme Souza’s current situation (not being able to attend the meetings) and this led to a debate on the acceptance of new members.

Professor Thomas Kestler recommended the following: a. creating two levels of filiation, and b. a mailing list with a subscription. He said that this would avoid discussing matters like this, about members of the board not being able to stick to the minimum attendance, and would ensure new connections and contributions from other people interested in the group/subjects.

Luíza Cerioli recommended creating a list to build up a network, expanding so BRaS can connect to other scholars/authors/ interested people. She pointed out that it should be a community and that people should be encouraged to contribute somehow to BRaS (Blog, Journal, etc.).

Both Anna Bennech and Professor Thomas Kestler think that to fulfill the positions on the committees a call should be opened and that BRaS should run in these two levels.

Matheus Hebling agreed and thinks all members should have a profile.

Luisa Turbino supported the two-level option and thinks it is a good idea to have this database with people interested in contributing to an executive-level to whom they could invoke first when needing to fulfill any position.

Anna Bennech remembered that we already have this structure on the website (form for new members) and Matheus Zago is responsible for changing it. All members agreed to change the way of filiation to a two-level system.

As usual, the next monthly meeting will take place online on February 26, 2021.