Mass Communication Division
Business Meeting Minutes
New Orleans, La.
April 4, 2014
2013-2014 Officers:
Chair: Lauren Reichart Smith, Auburn University
Vice-Chair/Program Planner: Dedria Givens-Carroll, University of Louisiana-Lafayette
Vice Chair Elect/Secretary: Gyromas W. Newman, University of Mobile
Chair Lauren Reichart Smith called the meeting to order at 5:50 pm. Vice-Chair Dedria Givens-Carroll distributed the minutes from the 2013 meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. Minutes were amended to reflect proper officer positions. The minutes from 2013 were approved with changes.
Chair Smith introduced the officers (listed above). Officer reports followed.
Chair Smith announced that the theme for the 2015 convention in Tampa, Fla., was “Communication as Art and Craft" (or "Arts and Crafts”) and that the deadline for submissions should be in late September with the call for submissions being publicly announced in June. Chair Smith announced Nashville, Tenn., as the convention site for 2018 and reported that SSCA does not plan to incorporate.
The issue of low division membership was discussed. Vice-Chair Givens-Carroll reported 57 division members for 2014. SSCA members not checking divisional affiliation boxes was thought to be the main cause of the low divisional membership.
The 2015 convention in Tampa was briefly discussed. However, the planning meeting for 2015 had not yet taken place, so discussion was limited.
Vice-Chair Givens-Carroll raised the issue of no media showcase submissions in 2014. It was noted that BEA (Broadcast Education Association) meets around the same time as SSCA; thus, it may attract most of the multimedia/broadcast submissions. Allison Slade suggested that moving the submission deadline to Dec. 1 may attract more student submissions because students will have completed projects from class. Chair Smith suggested adding a chair position for multimedia. Past Chair Brian Brantley noted there was a committee formed the previous year for multimedia.
Limiting submissions was discussed. Previous procedure limits authors to one first-author submission and unlimited second-author submissions. It was resolved that these standards would be emphasized in the 2015 call for papers and that the issue would be discussed in future meetings.
Mike Devlin was elected as Vice-Chair Elect/Secretary for 2015. Devlin will be responsible for planning the division at the 2016 convention in Austin, Texas.
Chair Smith announced the top papers for student and faculty submissions, and the meeting was adjourned.