Public Address Division
2003 Business Meeting Minutes
NCA Public Address Division
Business Meeting Minutes
Friday, November 21, 2003
Miami Beach, Florida
I. Meeting called to order by Shawn Parry-Giles, Vice-Chair, at 3:35.II. Minutes from the 2002 business meeting, available to PAD members online at http://www.ncapublicaddress.org/2002BusinessMinutes.htm, were approved.
III. Report from the Nominating Committee (Angela Ray, Chair) and division elections.
A. Thanks to members of the Nominating Committee and candidates
B. Distribution of Ballots: Angela Ray announced the positions and candidates on the ballot. She called for additional nominations from the floor; there were none.
C. Ballots were collected and results announced later in the meeting.IV. Report from the Legislative Assembly, by Mari Boor Tonn (Chair). The Legislative Assembly would meet again after the PAD meeting, so the report only covers issues discussed prior to the PAD meeting.
A. NCA Membership: NCA has recovered the membership lost from the fire.
B. NCA Dues: The LA voted to increase membership dues by 11% (on average). Patron dues will increase from $300 to $330, regular members from $135-$155, sustaining members from $230-$250, and students from $55-$60. Rationale: (1) The last increase was made in 2002, (2) NCA's expenditure and income lines were too close this year, and (3) there was a year when the NCA budget had a deficit and the by-laws state that NCA must keep a balanced budget for two out of three years running.
C. New NCA Journal Editors:
i. Quarterly Journal of Speech, David Henry
ii. Communication Monographs, Alan Sillars
iii. Communication Teacher, Kent Menzel
iv. Critical Studies in Media Communication, Linda Steiner
D. The LA is moving forward in transitioning to a system of electronic ballots.
E. The LA has amended the awards policy, in part due to the Kohrs-Campbell Prize in Rhetorical Criticism, to allow endowed awards to be presented at larger awards ceremony.
F. The LA approved an investigation into development of a web-based journal.
G. The remainder of the LA will be devoted to discussion of and voting on by-laws that were passed by NCA members last fall.
H. Discussion.
i. Karen Rasmussen (Immediate Past Chair) reported on two important by-law changes that would be voted on.
1. Membership on the Legislative Assembly and LA committees should be determined by members of the divisions instead of automatically coming from the Chair and Immediate Past Chair to allow more flexibility.
2. Membership on the Association boards should be expanded to 6 members (3 from LA and 3 outside members) and a director (elected by LA) with three-year staggered terms.
ii. NCA journals: A member asked if the new Communication and Critical Cultural Studies is included in the list of journals available with membership. He was told that the LA would have to approve the inclusion of the journal on the list. Mari Boor Tonn said she would check. Another member asked how many journals members get with a membership and Karen Rasmussen responded that members get one journal subscription.
iii. LA representatives: Discussion turned to whether the division might be entitled to a third representative on the legislative assembly. James Darsey responded that with 614 members (down from previous membership of 800), the division should have a third representative.
iv. Program Slots: A member asked how many panel slots the division will have next year. Amy Slagall responded that the division would have 28 slots (an increase from 21 in 2003). She and James Darsey encouraged increased submission rates so that the division could maintain a good rejection rate and quality papers. A member who attended the Rhetoric and Communication Theory Division stated that because the RCT division's allotment increased from 23-55, the RCT division might seek co-sponsors for panels.V. Chair's Report by James Darcy.
A. Discussed results of last year's survey. Darsey thanked members for participating in the survey and said that he will ask Trevor Parry-Giles to post the results of the survey on the PAD web site.
B. Conference on the Status and Future of Public Address: This conference was a response to the results of the survey. The conference took place on Wednesday, November 19, 2003 and was attended by older and younger scholars from across the country.
i. Participants agree that scholarship in public address is robust, but are concerned about the failure to bring in undergraduates and train graduate students into the tradition. Participants agreed that the division and members must take steps to protect its intellectual and institutional health.
ii. Participants were concerned with membership numbers in PAD. Membership in the PAD division was about 800 in 1998, but is now 614. The Rhetoric and Communication Theory Division has a higher membership now, even though RCT and PAD used to have comparable membership numbers.
iii. Objective of the Conference was to create proposals for discussion. There were three proposals.
1. Short Courses.
a. PAD should sponsor a short course each year at NCA to help develop pedagogical strategies for teaching public address. The Immediate Past Chair should be responsible for seeking and filtering nominations a year in advance. The course would be announced a year prior to the conference.
b. Discussion included four issues.
i. What is planned for next year? James Darsey announced that Mari Boor Tonn, David Zarefsky and Carol Jablonski agreed to present a reprise of their short course on teaching the rhetoric of the 60's.
ii. Should we limit ourselves to just one? The main idea is to make sure that the division should sponsor at least one short course every year. This does not limit the possibility of more. The wording of the proposal was amended to say the division would officially sponsor at least one short course every year.
iii. Cost. Members discussed keeping the extra cost of the courses low to encourage participation.
iv. Other venues. Other venues such as panels and pre-conferences were discussed. Pre-conferences might be more expensive for participants (especially graduate students).
c. The proposal to sponsor at least one short course on teaching public address each year at NCA was passed unanimously.
2. PAD justification packet.
a. Several years ago NCA developed a packet of materials for departments of communication to use if their programs were in jeopardy. The second proposal was to create a packet of materials and rationale specific to public address that can be used by departments that want or need to justify public address offerings in the curriculum.
b. Discussion included three issues.
i. Will the materials be web-based? Darsey said that the materials could be available on the PAD web site.
ii. What is the process of developing and writing? Darsey said that the division would seek a volunteer committee to work on the project.
iii. Is there a prototype? The NCA general communication packet will serve as the prototype.
c. The proposal to create a PAD packet of materials was passed unanimously.
3. Round Table Discussion. Members suggested that the division host a round table discussion of strategies to protect the health of the division. Darcy said that because this overlaps with the first two it will not be a formal proposal.VI. Vice Chair's Report by Shawn Parry-Giles
A. Submission and Program Planning for the 2003 convention.
i. Submissions. 40 papers, 12 thematic panels (lower than previous year), 26 student papers (increased from last year). The increase in student papers may have been due to the top student paper award. The faculty submission rate was lower this year than last year.
ii. This year's program included 21 panels with 32 competitive papers, 10 thematic panels.
iii. Three readers reviewed each submission. Reviews were submitted online. Thanks were extended to the readers.
B. Online Submission
i. Online program submission was problematic for the PAD program planner and readers. Parry-Giles stated that NCA is aware of the problems and glitches from this year and is confident that these issues will be resolved. NCA seeks feedback from members about the All Academic online submission process. Comments can be sent to Donna Porter (NCA Meeting Coordinator).
ii. There was a problem with respondents receiving papers. Shawn Parry-Giles had requested that individuals send copies of their papers to the respondents (to account for revisions), but not all of the respondents received papers. This will be solved next year with online submission of all papers.
iii. Overall, this was a challenging year, but she thinks that on-line submission will be smoother in the long-term.
C. Shawn Parry-Giles thanked James Darsey and Karen Rasmussen for their help.
D. Darcy extended a thank you to Shawn Parry-Giles for her work.VII. Presentation of Awards.
A. The Gunderson Award for top student paper, presented by Shawn Parry-Giles, went to David Dzikowski, Pennsylvania State University, "Locating Herbert Hoover's Inaugural Address: Kairos and Genre in the Rhetorical Presidency."
B. The Wrage-Baskerville Award for top contributed paper, presented by Shawn Parry-Giles, went to John M. Murphy, University of Georgia, "The Language of Liberal Consensus: John F. Kennedy, Technocratic Reason, and the 'New Economics' at Yale University."
C. The Marie Hochmoth Nichols Award for outstanding book or monograph, presented by Karen Rasmussen, went to Kirt H. Wilson, University of Minnesota, The Reconstruction Desegregation Debate: The Policies of Equality and the Rhetoric of Place, 1870-1875 (Michigan State University Press, 2002)VIII. Reports from NCA Committees
A. The Nominating Committee had no report.
B. The Resolution Committee had no resolutions to report.
C. The By-laws Committee had no report because the Legislative Assembly had yet to vote on the by-law amendments.
D. There were no reports from other committeesIX. New Business
A. Discussion of the Carol C. Arnold Dissertation Research Award.
i. Background. James Darsey said that he discontinued the award (which was last awarded in 2002) because sufficient progress was not made to endow the fund. Because there are so many awards already in the name of Arnold it would be difficult to raise funds because sources may already be committed to other awards. The award was kept alive in 2002 with division funds, but Irene Wang (NCA Chief Financial Officer) said that division funds should not be used for the award.
ii. Discussion: Should we continue to grant an award for dissertations?
1. Darsey announced that the commitment for such an award would be to raise $10,000 in a five-year period and allow the money to sit in the bank for a year before we can start giving awards.
2. Sue Zaeske spoke to the background of the award and previous fundraising attempts. She said that previous attempt to raise money were difficult because potential donors had already given money to other Arnold awards. She opened the possibility of changing the name of the award. She said she and Marty Medhurst might be interested in working on a fundraising committee.
3. Members discussed the possibility of having the award underwritten by a book publisher. This would mean that the time frame of the award would change from granting it to someone who is early in the dissertation writing process to someone who has finished her or his dissertation.
iii. Outcome. Darsey recommended creation of an ad hoc committee to discuss the prospects for a dissertation award and report on their results at the next meeting. This was passed unanimously.
B. Discussion of PAD bylaws
i. The ad hoc by-laws committee will be resurrected and report on the LA's decision at next year's PAD meeting.
ii. Publicity Person.
1. Background and Discussion. Darsey asked that the division address one of the by-laws at the current meeting. The proposed by-law would split the current duties of the Secretary and Publicity Person to create a Web spinner who would be in charge maintaining the PAD web site. Trevor Parry-Giles who developed the current site volunteered to serve the first three-year term as Web spinner.
2. Outcome: Approved unanimously.
C. Use of Division Funds
i. Background. Darsey reported that division funds are granted by NCA according to group memberships. This year's division funds amounted to $800, some of which was spent on the PAD awards and the all-day seminar. The division may not have spent all of the division funds this year (due to the move away from a printed newsletter). If not, the remaining balance will not rollover to next year. Darsey opened the floor for discussion of how to ensure that the division uses the funds.
ii. Discussion.
1. Can the Funds be used for the Arnold award? Mary Kahl stated that all division awards have to be approved by NCA. The other three awards were approved long ago, but when the division asked NCA to approve the Arnold award, the organization said they were not approving any new awards at that time. The division has not tried to get the award approved since that time.
2. Members suggested that the division use the funds to underwrite the cost of the short course materials for graduate students or other ways of helping defray costs for graduate students.
3. Darsey proposed that some of the funds could be used to provide a small stipend (approximately $300-$400) for an assistant to the Web spinner.
4. John Murphy said that because the consensus of the group indicated that the money should be used for educational purposes, the division should vote to allow the chair to decide how the money will be used to serve the educational goals of PAD.
iii. Outcome. Darsey proposed that the division authorize the PAD executive committee to consider these proposals and report back at next year's meeting. The proposal passed unanimously.
D. There was no other new business.X. Vice-Chair Elect's report, by Amy Slagell
A. Call for members to volunteer to be reviewers, chairs, and respondents.
B. Next year's conference theme will be "Moving Forward, Looking Back." The Conference will be in Chicago. The Deadline of February 16th will be standardized for all divisions with on-line submission. Late submissions will not be allowed. The division's call for papers will be posted to the web site on December 15th.
C. Discussion Panels. To respond to concerns that the intellectual exchange on conference panels is low, 25% of PAD panels (7 panels) will be discussion panels. Discussion panels are different from round tables. In a discussion panel the papers will be posted on-line prior to the conference, audience members should read the papers beforehand, and the focus will be less on presentation of papers and more on discussion of the papers. Discussion panels will be indicated as such in the convention program. Submitters may propose discussion panels and the program planner may also try to create discussion panels from paper submissions. Discussion panel papers will undergo the same review processes as competitive thematic panels and papers. Competitively submitted papers that are on discussion panels would still be eligible for awards.
XI. Announcements
A. PAD Elections. 53 people voted.
i. Vice Chair Elect: Susan Schultz Huxman, Witchita State University
ii. Secretary: Kirt H. Wilson, University of Minnesota
iii. Nominating Committee:
1. Lynn Clark, Vanderbilt University
2. Sara E. Hayden, University of Montana
3. Jennifer R. Mercieca, Texas A&M University
4. Laura Sells, Louisiana State University
5. Mary E. Stuckey, Chair, Georgia State University.
iv. Member of NCA Resolutions Committee: Mari Boor Tonn, University of Maryland
v. Member of Nichols Award Committee: Vanessa B. Beasley, Southern Methodist University.
B. Winans-Wichelns Award Winner: Kirt H. Wilson.
C. Announcements from the Floor
i. Mari Boor Tonn announced the Public Address Conference, sponsored by the University of Maryland, that will take place in Washington D.C. in September 2004. The theme is Constituting Political Culture. Deadline for submission of completed papers and extended abstracts is December 1st.
ii. Kurt Ritter announced the 10th Annual Presidential Rhetoric Conference that will be held in the first weekend in March and asked members to see the web site.
iii. The Kohrs-Campbell Prize was awarded to David Frank, University of Oregon and Robert Rowland, University of Kansas, for their book on the Arab-Israeli conflict.XII. Meeting was adjourned, by James Darsey at 4:50pm
Respectfully Submitted,
Danielle Endres, substitute for Leah Ceccarelli, Secretary, Public Address Division.
© 2004, NCA Public Address Division, all rights reserved. For comments or questions about this website, contact Trevor Parry-Giles.