TEI Technical Council Teleconference, 2021-05-13

Meeting times:

• 11am-12:30pm PDT/2pm-3:30pm EDT/7pm-8:30pm BST/8pm-9:30pm CEST
• Started: 18:10Z    Ended: ~19:25Z

Present:

• Helena Bermúdez Sabel (HS)
• Elisa Beshero-Bondar (EB)
• Meaghan Brown (MB)
• Hugh Cayless (HC)
• Janelle Jenstad (JJ) -- on Minutes this month
• Jessica Lu (JL)
• Martina Scholger (MS)
• Magdalena Turska (MT)
• Raff Viglianti (RV)

Apologies/Not Present:

• Syd Bauman (SB)
• Peter Stadler (PS)

Next Release: August

• Release techs: MS and HS, checking with PS if he is also available.
• Possibly 2nd week of August.

Meeting times:

• See doodle set up by MS on May 11.

Report from Computer Mediated Communications SubCommittee (CMC)

• Meeting last Wednesday, May 5.
• Group is drafting the chapter (Harald Lüngen, SB, JL, PS).
• One member on sick leave until the end of June.
• Next meeting will be at the end of July.
• Hoping to share the full chapter by next F2F.
• The group noted inconsistencies in chapter structure across the Guidelines; ended up not picking any one chapter as a model but rather modelling the new chapter to the content.
• Need help drafting examples in other languages, esp. East Asian languages
• MS: Also discuss with the internationalization group and ask for help with examples.
• Hoping it will become the new Chap. 9 because it follows logically from "Chapter 8: Transcriptions of Speech".

Council work: time management, priorities, voluntary work

• Concerns about free labour, esp. for people who are less experienced and/or in non-research positions.
• This year is additionally onerous because there's no compensation in the form of travel.
• There are 11 of us for a reason. We need a big team with different skill sets.
• No one should feel guilty because we are all doing a lot of work.
• Long-term concern about the labour model and how it affects the long-term development of TEI. Free service model excludes people who are not in a privileged research position.
• Should Council consider paying people and/or what it means to not pay people?
• HC: Could we pay for free conference travel for those Council members who have missed out on travel during the pandemic?
• JJ: Other organizations do have bursaries, support for alt-ac and contingent employees to help participate. (But of course, this shouldn't just be for conference participation.)
• HC: Not sure that we make it clear enough that travel is paid for.
• MT: Should not be exclusive. Would support a motion to do some work on this issue.
• HC: There have been conversations with the Board about bursaries for people who would otherwise not be able to attend conferences.
• HC: Board is receptive to the idea of bursaries for Council members (this has been under discussion) -- this discussion is already underway.
• RV: Concern that resources will go to the already-privileged.
• RV: reflects on TEI's origins: we do a lot of work to learn things that benefit us, and we love the organization and what we build. This is how the TEI began, so we carry it forward.
• We also don't want to be seen to be working for certain people or institutions.
• What are the action items?
  • RV: adjust language for application to Council election: travel and conference fees will be covered. JL: "Council work is not formally compensated." MS: Make clear how much work is involved and how many meetings we have.
  • HC: Propose to the Board that Council members get free future travel.
  • JJ and MB: Draft a proposal for an honorarium for Council members. Everyone gets it unless they opt out, perhaps with money saved from opting out going towards bursaries for the conference. OR honoraria for people who simply indicate that they need it (keep it simple without having to prove "need" etc).

Maintenance of TEI Tite — general question

• this came up when MS discovered a very old issue, assigned to Kevin Hawkins: https://github.com/TEIC/TEI/issues/869
• postponed to next meeting