Political Communication Division
Business Meeting Minutes
April 5, 2014
2014-2015 Officers
Immediate Past Chair: William Harlow
Chair: Melissa Smith
Vice Chair: Lauren Reichart Smith
Vice Chair Elect: Darrell Roe
Secretary: Brian Brantley
Web Editor: Barry Smith
Nominating Committee (past chair and chair): William Harlow and Melissa Smith
The meeting was called to order by Chair William Harlow at 5:46 p.m., who then welcomed all attending. Nine people attended the meeting: Barry Smith, Kenny Smith, William Harlow, Melissa Smith, Darrell Roe, Lauren Reichart Smith, Brian Brantley, Larry Powell, and Pat Wheaton.
The minutes of the previous business meeting (from April 13, 2014, in Louisville, KY.) were approved after a motion by Barry Smith and a second by Brian Brantley.
Announcements from the Executive Council were reported, as follows:
1) The spring 2018 Convention will be held in Nashville, TN.
2) NCA has suggested that SSCA should become incorporated, but SSCA will tell NCA that we don’t wish to do so at this time.
3) The location of the 2015 SSCA Convention will be in Tampa, FL.
4) SSCA membership is up overall.
5) There are 67 members currently in the Political Comm. Division, which is up by 2 from last year.
A suggestion was made by Larry Powell to stagger the business meetings, both in time and days that they are held.
The Vice Chair's report (by Melissa Smith):
There were three paper panels proposed. All were accepted. Three other panels were submitted, and they were all accepted, for a total of six panels. One was a co-panel with Mass Comm. Overall, 17 papers were submitted, and 12 were accepted (71% acceptance rate). The Top Paper in Political Communication was “Private Option Flip-Flop: Tracing Medicaid Expansion Through Arkansas Legislators’ Twitter Use,” by authors David Keith, Ashley Smith, and Matthew Weeks.
There was a discussion about getting more panels submitted and people submitting to our division who may not think about it. Perhaps we will send a survey to our division membership to see where they’re submitting papers.
The Vice Chair-Elect's report (by Lauren Reichart Smith):
The theme for the 2015 SSCA Convention is “Communication as Art and Craft” It will be at the Marriott Waterside in Tampa, FL. The call will go out in June. And the papers will be due in September.
Report from Immediate Past Chair (and Nominating Committee Chair):
The nominating committee has asked that Darrell Roe be nominated for the Vice Chair-Elect position (for 2016 in Austin, TX.). There were no other nominations from the floor. Larry Powell made a motion, and Brian Brantley made a second to close the nominations for this position. Roe was elected by acclamation.
The nominating committee picked Barry Smith to again be the division Web Editor: Brian Brantley made a motion to accept Barry by acclamation, which was seconded by Larry Powell. All approved re-electing Barry by acclamation.
For division Secretary for 2014-2016, the nominating committee suggested that Brian Brantley be elected. Larry Powell made the motion, which was seconded by Lauren Reichart Smith to elect Brian by acclamation. All approved.
New Business:
William Harlow suggested that we should accept extended abstracts for the 2015 call (for September deadline) since it’s midterm, 2014 elections. This will not be allowed for top paper candidates. There was no vote on this, just a discussion.
Melissa Smith wants to limit paper length. A suggestion was made to include a 30 page paper limit-just for the 2015 paper call. This means 30 pages total, all inclusive, including references, charts, etc. (as a trial for this year only), A motion was made by Pat Wheaton, and seconded by Larry Powell. In discussion, Brian Brantley says we should stick strongly to this limit. All approved the motion.
The question was raised as how to verify a person is a faculty member. Other questions were raised about submitting a paper to multiple divisions, as well as to multiple conventions. Stronger surveillance across SSCA will be given to prevent this. Also, discussion was made about one author submitting multiple papers per division, but it was decided not to act on this.
Finally, Lauren Smith volunteered to design and implement a survey to send to members in the Political Communication division to see if they are submitting papers and proposals to other divisions as well.
Old Business:
More progress has been made to create and fund an SSCA award for Service to the Community in honor of Dr. Gary A. Copeland. Kenny Smith reported that he has sent a letter to Brian Brantley and also to Dr. Copeland’s children. Both parties seemed to approve the idea. Now we should move to get some groups to fund it before implementing it. There are still several steps in getting this underway. No specific money amount has been settled on. The Mass Communication Division is also working on this issue. William Harlow created an ad hoc committee to follow up on this process. He appointed Brian Brantley and Kenny Smith to this committee.
Announcements:
Everyone was encouraged to attend the Osborne Reception at 7 p.m.
Outgoing Chair William Harlow thanked Melissa Smith for her hard work and good service in scheduling and coordinating the call for papers and setting up the division panels. William Harlow was praised for being a good division chair.
The meeting was officially adjourned at 6:39 p.m. after a motion by Brian Brantley and a second by Kenny Smith.