Minutes of 11-4-99
MINUTES
The National Communication Association’s
Group Communication Division
1999 Annual Business Meeting
Chicago, November 4, 1999
[To be approved by the Division November 2000 in Seattle -- if you find any errors or omissions please contact Lisa Millhous -- lmillhous@wcupa.edu]
1. Welcome and Call to Order (Scott Poole)
The second annual meeting of the Group Communication Division was called to order by the chair, Scott Poole. Twenty-one members attended the meeting and signed the attendance roster. Division membership as of November 1999 was at 232 members, up from 96 last year.
2. Report from the Legislative Council (Scott Poole)
Scott Poole attended the Legislative Council meetings on behalf of the Division. Noteworthy issues included a request by Vice President Applegate to reduce panels by 10%, but this should not affect us since the Group Division did not submit an excessive number of panels this year. The NCA headquarters has moved to downtown Washington DC, which is heralded as a good move on all sides. NCA has also created a new journal, The Communication Review, an online journal that will feature reviews of current works in communication (book review essays are preferred). The journal will be tried for 3 years and then evaluated.
3. Report on the 1999 Conference Program (Larry Frey)
The submissions for the 1999 Conference included 26 papers and 5 panel proposals, which were evaluated by a pool of 8 reviewers. This resulted in the acceptance of 16 papers and 4 panels, organized in 9 program slots. The committee reported that having a larger pool of referees (i.e. 8 instead of 2-3) was helpful, and requested more interactive/small group panels for 2000 in Seattle.
The Division would like to thank Carolyn Anderson (The University of Akron), Steve Corman (Arizona State University), Michele Jackson (University of Colorado), Jane Macoubrie (North Carolina State University), Beatrice Schultz (The University of Rhode Island), Craig Scott (University of Texas), G. Scott Sintay (Purdue University), and Kevin B. Wright (West Virginia University) for their diligent work as reviewers.
Top 3 Paper Awards were announced and commended.
"Communication Technology Use and Key Outcomes in Groups: A Comparison of Site and Virtual Teams." Craig R. Scott, University of Texas, Austin, Volker Frank, University of Texas, Austin, Karen M. Wolff, University of Texas, Austin, Charlotte Sullivan, University of Texas, Austin, Barbara Forster, University of Texas, Austin
"Exploring Argumentative Competence in Group Decision-making Interactions." Tara Wachtel, Hatch Staffing Services, Renee A. Meyers, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Dale E. Brashers, University of Illinois, Urbana
"Telling Tales in Jury Deliberations: Jurors' Use of Fictionalized and Factually-based Storytelling in Argument." Sunwolf, Santa Clara University
4. Approval of Minutes (Scott Poole, Lisa Millhous)
A motion was passed to accept the minutes as distributed. Lisa announced that the website has moved to West Chester University, PA, although a mirror site at the University of Minnesota will be maintained until Summer 2000. Scott Poole and the members thanked Lisa for her work on the website.
5. Approval of Bylaws (Joann Keyton)
After some discussion of parliamentary procedure and a friendly amendment. The amendment clarified the wording of Article V, Section 1 to read, "No officer, other than the Immediate Past-Chair, shall serve on the Nominating Committee, and no member shall serve on this committee in two consecutive years." The revised Bylaws were passed by a majority vote and thanks were expressed to Joann Keyton, Carolyn Anderson, and Carole Barbato who worked on the By-Laws Committee during 1998-1999. (Link to full version of the Bylaws)
6. Election of Officers for 1999-2000 (Scott Poole)
The Nominating Committee presented a slate of candidates for open positions and accepted nominations from the floor. The following slate of candidates was voted by the membership:
Vice Chair Elect: Dennis Gouran
Nominating Committee: Scott Poole (chair), Michele Jackson, Sunwolf.
Awards Committee: (see section 8 below)
Paper Readers for the 2000 Conference: Beth Haslet, Ed Mabry, Renee Meyers, Abran Salazar, Tom Socha, Karen Tracy.
(Since some officers were elected last year, the full slate of officers is available in the Division Directory)
7. Meeting with Bill Eadie, NCA Office
Bill Eadie, representative of the NCA Office, officially welcomed the Division to Chicago. He announced that current membership of the Division was at 232 members and needs to get above 300 by January 2001, and stay above 300 when a census is taken each January. The advantage to being a Division is that a representative serves on the Legislative Council, although President McKerrow has appointed a taskforce to revise the NCA Constitution. The NCA office is busy with the move and converting the Association's databases to Y2K-compliant software, which will have a number of new features as well. There is also some excitement about integrating our association into the larger scholarly community through grant writing and joining the American Council of Learned Societies. Conferences are scheduled in Seattle (11/8-11/12) in 2000, in Atlanta (11/1-11/4) in 2001, and in New Orleans (11/21-11/24) in 2002. Eadie also highlighted five summer conferences: in June, focusing on political communication; in July, focusing on cultural communication; a doctoral honors conference in August; a faculty development conference in August; and an NCA trip to Finland and Russia.
8. Report of the Division Awards Committee (Renee Meyers)
An extended and fruitful discussion was held to determine an effective way to organize the Division awards. The guidelines for making Division awards were drafted and a motion was passed to create a special Division Awards Committee that would be charged with following these guidelines. (See also Call for Awards).
Nominations for the Division Awards Committee were accepted and the following members were elected by the Division:
Renee Meyers (1999-2000) Committee Chair
Carolyn Anderson (1999-2001)
Dale Brashers (1999-2002)
The membership also accepted the committee's proposal that the Top Student Paper Award be a monetary award and the Top Three Paper Awards be certificates. These awards are determined by the Vice President based on rankings by the paper readers. Nominations are not necessary and recipients need not be members of the Division.
9. Recognition of the New Chair (Scott Poole, Larry Frey)
Outgoing Chair Scott Poole thanked members for their support and energy and turned the office over to incoming Chair Larry Frey. Frey thanked Poole for his work in the past 2 years to get the Division active and running. Frey took as a central mission to build the Division to 300 members and urged those present to invite their colleagues and especially their students to join.
10. Planning for 2000 Conference Program (Joann Keyton)
Our charge for next year's conference is to "be engaged" and "celebrate our engagement" with those outside of our immediate scholarly community. We need to begin thinking of ideas that go outside the usual conference pattern. Several ideas were discussed. One preconference idea is to have a time when four Divisions (Group, Interpersonal, Applied, and one other) could meet to have a research incubator and create alliances across division lines. We could invite those who win the research awards to present the following year. We should consider a presentation on group communication pedagogy and/or a spotlight on established scholars.
11. New Business
Michele Jackson announced that currently 12 people are signed up for the listserv, so the idea that people will self-register did not work. It was decided that the list should become a moderated list, that it should be sent to all members of the Division, and that members would be able request they be removed from the list.
The meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Lisa Millhous, secretary (term to 11-00)
West Chester University