Minutes
of the
PUBLIC RELATIONS DIVISION ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING
International Communication Association
San Francisco, California --- The United States of America
May 26, 2007, 3:00-4:15 p.m.
Chair: Hochang Shin, Sognag University, Korea
Vice Chair: Betteke van Ruler, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Secretary: Juan-Carlos Molleda, University of Florida, USA
I. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION OF OFFICERS
The meeting was called to order by division Chair Hochang Shin on May 26, 2007, at 3:06 p.m. Shin introduced Vice Chair Betteke van Ruler and Secretary Juan-Carlos Molleda. Shin also announced dinner to take place at 6:00 p.m. Van Ruler excused the absence of Past-Chair Sherry Ferguson for personal reasons and asked attendees to sign a greeting card during the meeting.
II. OLD BUSINESS
a. Approval of minutes from Dresden, June 2006
Copies of the minutes from the 2006 meeting were distributed. Bonita Neff moved to approve the minutes, Lynn Zoch seconded it, and all attendees (N = XX) approved the minutes without modification.
b. Election results and introduction of officers for 2007-2008
Craig Carroll was introduced as the Vice Chair-elect for 2007-2008
c. Special announcement from ICA Board
Patrice Buzzanell, President-elect (ex-officio) pointed out that a short call for paper submissions for the 2008 conference is included in the event’s registration packet and a longer version will become available in July. She talked about Montreal as the location of the next conference, addressing aspects such as: estimated cost of hotel accommodation (US$ 133); details of social and cultural programs; the coordination of 7-9 pre-conferences; programming similar to the past two conferences; and the November 1 deadline for papers, panels, and pre conferences. Van Ruler asked about the possibility of an additional time slot for the Division considering the record number of submissions received for the 2007 Conference. Buzzanell explained the formula to determine the number of sessions and asked to send a formal petition via e-mail. In addition, she asked for suggestions to revise ICA logotype.
d. Activities review by Chair, with sub-reports by committees or individuals
1. Cross-national Research Committee
Carroll introduced the research initiative as a clearinghouse of opportunity for those interested in cross-national inquiry. He addressed issues of funding, an online database ready to be launched; a portal with interactive capability. For instances, researchers could upload their profiles and update it regularly. Similarly, description of research projects and ideas could be shared with the Division’s membership. Each member of the Division will be able to enter and modify information. Craig Carroll showed the sections of the portal, including relevant links, members contact information, upcoming conferences and events, call for papers, calls for collaborative projects, working examples, funding, scholarship programs, documents, news archive, and contact. Mark Eisenegger designed the system and explained that it took 2-3 years to put the system in place. Carroll nominated Mark Eisenegger as chair of the task force; Shannon Bowen seconded and the attendees unanimously approved Marks’ nomination.
2. Membership numbers
Shin announced that the Public Relations Division had 390 members. This is an increased of almost 20% in relation to the membership size of 2006 (N = 326). In 2005, there were 289 members of the Division. Non-U.S. members account for 40% of the total membership, which is the highest proportion of any other ICA division. Shin acknowledged the contribution of Bonita Neff for the significant increase of non-U.S. members.
3. ICA Young Scholar Award nomination
Thirteen scholars were nominated.
4. ICA Committees and Awards
5. Announcement of January 1, 2008, as deadline for submitting theses and dissertations for Grunig Award
January 1, 2008 deadline was announced. Bey-Ling Sha was introduced as the Chair of the Grunig Award committee.
6. News on new journals and Yearbooks
Derina Holtzhausen announced the publication of the first issue of the International Journal of Strategic Communication. The editors are working on the fourth issue that will be distributed to the Division’s members with a special discount. Holtzhausen urged the attendees to the annual meeting to submit papers through the online submission process.
Bob Heath announced the publication of a new journal on Environmental Communication.
7. Website and listserv
Shin acknowledged Sun-Un Yang for his excellent work maintaining the Division’s website and listserv. Yang will continue to collaborate with such communication duties.
8. Research proposals for KPRA
For the third time the Korean Public Relations Association is receiving research proposals. The deadline for submissions is June 10. Shin recommended to also submitting proposals for projects in progress. One award will be given to a non-Korean scholar.
e. Report by Program Chair
1. Competitive paper and panel submissions – statistics
Van Ruler announced that 112 papers and 11 panel proposals were submitted; that is, 50% more papers than in 2006. The Division’s conference program included four panels and 19 time slots. The acceptance rate for 2007 was 60%, which is five percent higher that the overall ICA acceptance rate (55%).
2. Comments on process
Van Ruler thanked the reviewers and highlighted how well the review process resulted despite the tight schedule. Each paper was judged by three reviewers. Van Ruler shared the concern of the reviewers that the abstract for panel proposals are too brief and expansion is needed to better understand the nature and relevance of the proposed panels. The brief abstract may be biasing the process, increasing the likelihood of accepting proposals from well-known scholars.
3. Others
Van Ruler stated the success achieved by the pre-conference on how to conduct research in a globalization context. Sixty papers were presented and 80 participants attended from various divisions. ICA plans to organize a similar pre-conference next year. Van Ruler posed the question: are we interested in co-sponsoring next year? The focus of next year pre-conference will be on citizenship. Carroll will be taking proposals. Van Ruler clarified that at this moment only topic ideas were requested and they could be submitted to Carroll via electronic mail.
f. Acknowledgement of member efforts by Chair
Shin thanked the collaborators of the different initiatives carried out by various committees and individuals in behalf of the Division.
III. NEW BUSINESS
a. San Francisco and other conferences update
b. ICA membership numbers
ICA membership 4,064 (68% U.S. members). Fifty percent of U.S. and 50% non-U.S. committee members.
c. Establishment of committee for top student award, Robert Heath Top Paper Award and Grunig Award
d. Support for division newsletters
Molleda addressed the importance of the membership’s contribution to the Division’s newsletter. He will send a monthly message as a reminder for news and items to be shared with the members.
e. Other ICA annual board meeting topics
f. Presentation of awards
1. Plank Center Award and Top Student papers
The four winners were: Andreas Schwarz ($ 500), Euiyeon Lee ($ 200), Hua Jiang ($ 200), and Sun-A Park ($ 200).
2. Robert Heath To Paper Award
This award was given to Shannon Bowen of the University of Maryland.
g. Other business or announcements of interest to division members
Bob Heath and James Grunig will be nominated again as ICA fellows, which are needed in ICA.
Bonita Neff proposed the creation of a journal offering English translations of articles and abstracts produced by scholars throughout the world. Issues of quality of papers, accurate translations, and funding raised doubts on the likelihood of success of such publication. Botan supported van Ruler’s argument that it is important to share knowledge produced worldwide and, therefore, other perspectives, but that a journal with translations may not be the best alternative for such exchange of knowledge. Botan suggested that the international taskforce identifies and posts articles in other languages on the Division’s website. Molleda agreed with the idea of uploading papers in their original language with an English translation of their titles and abstracts. Holtzhausen explained that the International Journal of Strategic Communication helps with editing, especially for papers submitted by scholars from the Asian Pacific region.
Heath announced the publication of a new journal, Communication, Culture and Critique, which is accepting submissions of articles with a public relations perspective. This information was well received by the attendees considering that the ICA journals hardly accept public relations papers.
IV. Adjournment
Having been moved and seconded, the meeting was adjourned by van Ruler at 4:00 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Juan-Carlos Molleda, 2006-2008 Secretary
ICA Public Relations Division
Archived Minutes:
2005
PR Division Minutes
2004 PR Division Minutes
2003 PR Division Minutes
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2002 PR Division Minutes
2001 PR Division Minutes
February 18, 2008