Minutes of 11-21-98
MINUTES
The National Communication Association’s
Group Communication Division
1998 Annual Business Meeting
New York, November 21, 1998
[Approved by the Division, November 3, 1999]
1. Welcome and Call to Order (Scott Poole)
The inaugural meeting of the Group Communication Division was called to order by acting chair, Scott Poole.
2. Approval of Temporary Bylaws (Scott Poole, Joann Keyton)
A motion was made to adopt the provisional by-laws drafted by Joann Keyton for use during the 1998-1999 year. A committee was assigned to poll the membership and present a finalized version of the by-laws at the next meeting for adoption by the Division. The motion was passed.
Joann Keyton, Carolyn Anderson, and Carole Barbato will serve on the By-Laws Committee.
3. Report from the Legislative Council (Scott Poole)
Scott Poole attended the Legislative Council meetings on behalf of the Division. Noteworthy issues included a proposal to provide financial assistance to student members of NCA, a policy to remain neutral in any faculty-university disputes but provide informational support to members surrounding such issues. There are two new groups in NCA this year: the Commission on Communication and Technology, and the Division of Ethnography.
4. Report on the 1998 Conference Program (Scott Poole)
The submissions for the 1998 Conference included 23 papers and 9 panel proposals. These were read and ranked by a pool of 10 reviewers resulting in the acceptance of 10 papers and 6 panels, for an overall acceptance rate of 50%.
The Division would like to thank Carole Barbato (Kent State University), Michael Holmes (University of Utah), Sandra Ketrow (University of Rhode Island), Ed Mabry (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Charles Pavitt (University of Delaware), Abran Salazar (Texas A&M University), Craig Scott (University of Texas), and Gwen Wittenbaum (Michigan State University) for their diligent work as reviewers.
5. Election of Officers for 1998-1999
There being no elected officers at the start of the meeting, all offices were opened for nomination. The following slate of candidates was accepted by the membership:
Chair: Scott Poole
Vice Chair: Larry Frey
Vice Chair Elect: Joann Keyton
Secretary (2-year term): Lisa Millhous
Awards Committee: Renee Meyers (chair), Karen Tracy, Faye Mangrum
Nominating Committee: Scott Poole (chair), Renee Meyers, Sandra Ketrow, Kathy Propp
Paper Readers for the 1999 Conference: Jane Macoubrie, Steve Corman, Beatrice Schultz, Carolyn Anderson, Kevin Wright, Scott Sintay, Michele Jackson, Craig Scott.
Since there are presently no awards offered by the Division, the Awards Committee was charged with drafting a proposal of appropriate awards to be sponsored by the Division. This proposal will be voted on at next year’s convention with the first awards bestowed the following year. The membership was invited to make suggestions to the committee.
6. Planning for 1999 Conference Program
February 10 is the deadline for submissions to next year’s conference. The planners are looking for especially innovative and interactive panels. They will not be turning panels into poster sessions, instead members should submit poster proposals to a separate coordinator. They will also not block schedule all of the division meetings at the same time. We will request that the Group Communication Division not be scheduled against the meetings of the Applied, Organizational Communication, and Interpersonal Divisions.
There was some discussion about the possibility of having a live internet connection as an AV resource for panels or papers. It is critical that paper/panel submitters indicate their audio-visual needs at the time they originally make the submission. Because of the hotel negotiation process it is too late to wait until your paper is accepted before requesting AV. There was some discussion that it was reasonable to get a live phone wire to be used by a modem in any hotel, Bill Eadie suggested that it was generally too expensive to get an LCD projection panel.
Several members suggested that the pre-conference sponsored by the Applied Division had been a good idea. Members thought it might be too late to plan such a workshop for next year, but perhaps in the following year.
7. Meeting with Bill Eadie, NCA Office
Bill Eadie, representative of the NCA Office officially welcomed the Division. Next year’s conference will be the first week in November (11/4-11/7) in Chicago, again split between 2 hotels because the association has grown too large to fit in one. In 2000 the conference will be in Seattle at a convention center with the membership split between 6 hotels nearby. This will be an experiment to see how well members like the arrangement. Bill Eadie also highlighted three summer conferences: NCA summer conference on technology (July 22-25, Washington, D.C.), NCA summer conference on ethics (July 25-26, Washington, D. C.) and the NCA trip to South Africa in August.
8. New Business
Our first act of business as a new Division is that we must get everyone who signed the petition to join the Division so that we have enough members to keep that rank. Larry Frey has been building a list of interested individuals and will contact them to make this request. The list of those who signed the petition can be made available if members want to extend personal invitations to anyone. Contact Larry Frey if you are interested (lfrey@luc.edu).
There was some discussion of establishing a listserv and/or a website for the Division. Lisa Millhous offered to build a Division website and Michele Jackson offered to set up a listserv.
The meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Millhous, secretary (term to 11-00)
University of Minnesota