NCA 2004 Public Relations Division Business Meeting Minutes

November 12, 2004, 8 - 9:15 a.m.

Chicago Hilton, Boulevard A

Chair Theresa Russell-Loretz called the meeting to order. She asked everyone present to review last year’s minutes, which were unanimously approved.

Chair’s Report: Theresa started by mentioning the special program at the Shedd Aquarium (Right Bite campaign) that would immediately follow the business meeting. She mentioned that the organizers Tim Coombs and Kathy Rowan would provide details at the end of the meeting. She next reported on the proceedings of the NCA Legislative Assembly. At this meeting a proposal to charge for CRTNET job postings was made since the trend of bypassing Spectra in favor of CRTNET is causing NCA to lose money. The new constitution was approved and a new division of non-verbal communication was added.

Vice-Chair’s Report: Vice-Chair Tim Coombs reported that the PR Division was allocated 16 slots this year. Two late additions brought the total to 18. Fifty-nine papers were submitted and 51 were paneled and 19 panels were submitted and nine were paneled. Tim also mentioned how the many glitches with Allacademic made the process cumbersome this year. Vice-Chair Elect Maureen Taylor added that Allacademic has hired another person to deal with the problems that arose this year. Theresa added that there was a lot of discussion about Allacademic at the Legislative Assembly and that NCA wants to know what the problems are. Tim finished by stating that the allocations are down for next year and that slots for the larger divisions will be cut to reflect divisions more proportionately.

Nominating Committee Report: Debra Worley thanked the committee for its work, and started the election process. She called for nominations in addition to those already on the list.

Elections:

Vice Chair Elect: Carl Botan withdrew his name from the running for Vice-Chair Elect. Michael Kent, the only other nominee, was elected by acclamation.

PRIDE Committee: Denise Ferguson was nominated in addition to Katerina Tsetsura and Seth Oyer. (There was some discussion at this point about the criteria for the PRIDE Awards. Bonita Dostal Neff offered that it started out as the ‘best PR work.’ Other feedback from those present included that awardees should be members of NCA and the PR Division). Denise Ferguson and Katerina Tsetsura were elected.

Nominating Committee: Shannon Bowen was nominated in addition to Bey Ling Sha and Arla Bernstein. Bey Ling Sha and Shannon Bowen were elected.

Paper Reviewers for 2005 (additional nominations were made and reviewers were approved by acclamation)

Tricia Hansen-Horn, Central Missouri State

Greg Leichty, University of Louisville

Mihaela Vorvoreanu, University of Dayton

Karyn Jones, Clemson University

Elizabeth Johnson, University of Georgia

Isaac Blankson, Southern Illinois University – Edwardsville

Ahlam Muhtaseb, California State University, San Bernadino

Rise Samra, Barry University

Michelle O’Malley, Kansas State University

Shannon Skarphol, Metropolitan State University

Ken Plowman, Brigham Young University

Gerald Slaughter, Indiana State University

Michael Palenchar, University of Tennessee

Zoraida Cozier, Purdue University

Vice-Chair Elect Report: Maureen reported on next year’s convention, which will be held Nov. 16-20 in Boston, Mass. The theme for the 2005 convention is “Health of the Discipline” and she mentioned that this would be an opportunity for us to look into the health of our own field. Deadline for submissions is Feb.15, 2005 (Wed.). Maureen said that she’ll send the papers out with a deadline of two weeks and that she would like to get into the system early. We have 18 slots for next year and she hopes to get good slots. Maureen added that she would like to send out acceptance/rejection letters/emails by June 3, 2003. There was some discussion about the slots and 8 a.m. panels (especially for the business meeting) and Tim explained that this year the computerized grid system determined how panels were scheduled. Maureen asked if Friday is a good day for the meeting and there was general agreement from those present. She requested people to consider papers on the theme, work with colleagues in other compatible divisions such as organizational communication to increase our visibility and said good student paper submissions would be a plus. Bonita suggested a pre-conference session on crisis communication and PR.

PRIDE Awards: Debra thanked the committee for its work and the awards were presented.

Best Book: Millar, Dan, & Heath, Robert (Eds.) (2004) Responding to crisis: A rhetorical approach to crisis communication. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Best Journal Article: Leichty, Greg (2003) “The cultural tribes of public relations,” Journal of Public Relations Research, 15 (4), 277-304.

Theresa thanked Debra and the committee and moved to old business. Debra addressed the issue of revisions to the bylaws and explained that the changes reflect the new NCA bylaws. Those present were asked to review at their copies and offer comments. Some minor typos were pointed out and noted, a motion was made to approve the revisions, and they were unanimously approved. Theresa thanked Debra and those involved for their work on this. She added that the position of a newsletter editor is included in the bylaws, that in 2002 an effort was made to have someone in such a position and that this project didn’t materialize, and that now we have an agreement with Virginia Tech University (with Rachel Holloway as liaison) to host a website (in place of a newsletter) for our division.

Report on proposed website: Rachel did an overhead demo of the website frame and took suggestions from those present on possible links and resources to be included in the website. Suggestions included PRIDE awards, links to relevant journals, an archive of teaching materials, and job postings. A motion to form a committee to assist Rachel with this project was made and approved. Theresa suggested a website editor. Debra nominated Mihaela Vorvoreanu and she was elected by acclamation. Theresa thanked Rachel for taking on this responsibility.

Next, Theresa moved on to new business. She said that the NCA Research Board is putting together an experts database for the media and lay persons and that we need to submit five key terms/phrases for our division by Dec.1, 2004. Suggestions were solicited from those present. Debra suggested that one person be assigned as the ‘terms gatherer’ through the listserv and Theresa took on this responsibility. She said that after the convention she would post the suggestions on the listserv, ask for feedback and submit the top five terms/phrases to NCA. Theresa also said that NCA is putting together a concept map, that we need to submit a concept map for PR and that someone with breadth of knowledge in the field would be a suitable person for this task. She requested Bob Heath for his help and he agreed. Next, she asked for suggestions for pre-conventions for next year. Tim suggested risk and crisis communication as topics and added that we could bring in practitioners from the Boston area.

In closing, Theresa asked Tim and Kathy to provide details about the special Shedd Aquarium program to follow the business meeting, which they did. She thanked them and reminded the attendees of the special panel scheduled for 8 a.m. on Sunday that would honor PR scholars. She added that this panel would be recorded. She finally asked for announcements from the floor. These included Bob Heath’s announcement of the publication of his edited Encyclopedia for Public Relations and Sage’s great work with publishing and marketing the volume - he thanked all those who helped in this effort; Derina Holtzhausen announced that a new journal titled “International Journal of Strategic Communication” would be published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and she provided editorial board, submission and other details; the last announcement was about the upcoming plans by the Commission on PR Education to update the Port of Entry study. Carl reminded everybody that NCA has played a large role in this endeavor before and that we should be involved this time too.

Theresa adjourned the meeting.

Respectfully submitted by Nilanjana Bardhan, Secretary.