1998 Minutes of the Interpersonal Communication Division Business Meeting
Thursday, April 2, Concepcion,
La Mansion del Rio, San Antonio, Texas
Chair Tom Socha called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Current officers include: Tom Socha, chair; Bill Edwards, vice-chair; Randy Dillon, secretary; Sandra Halvorson, representative on the nominating committee.
OLD BUSINESS
Minutes: Minutes from the 1997 business meeting in Savannah, Georgia were approved.
NEW BUSINESS
Chair's Report: Tom made several announcements that affect Southern membership. These included the allowance of members to check off two interest groups for Southern membership without additional charge; an upcoming special issue of the Southern Communication Journal focusing on Martin Luther King; an increase of $5 in dues for sustaining and patron members of the association; and member suggestions for convention sites in 2002 and 2003.
Tom reported on the status of the interpersonal division. Since its beginning in 1994 the division has increased membership from 0 members to 177 members in 1998, and is the fourth largest division in the SSCA structure. The budget has also increased by $50 to $150.
Tom thanked this years paper readers: Ken Cissna, Karen Fountenot, and Lynn Reynolds. The Top Paper Award will be presented to Stacy Young of the University of Texas, Austin at the awards luncheon. Stacy's paper is entitled "He loves me; she loves me not: Patterns of self deception in unrequited love." The spotlight person for the interpersonal division is James Applegate. Tom encouraged members to attend the panels, convention breakfast and awards luncheon, and the spotlight program. Tom also thanked Jim Roiger for his hard work establishing and maintaining the division's webpages.
Vice-Chair's Report: Bill Edwards reminded members about the joint conference with CSCA in St. Louis, April 1999. Bill reported that the division will work with Central's interpersonal communication and small group communication divisions, and gave information about the organization of papers and panels. The top 3 programs will be SSCA and CSCA combined. Bill welcomes ideas for panels and spotlighted programs.
Outreach Committee Report: Sue Hinton encourages input and volunteers to serve on a committee focusing on the topic of diversity. Sue can be reached at P.O. Box 1283, Mississippi State, MS 39762; Telephone: 601-325- 8942; or the internet: Shinton@comm.msstate.edu
Webb Master Report: Jim Roiger reported on a work session about the Association's website and asked for directions on what information members want on the website. After discussion, the feeling of the division was to highlight scholars in SSCA on our homepages, and to tell how to link to scholars outside the association in communication as well as those in other disciplines. Jim welcomes others to add pages including information about academic departments in the Division, information about scholars in the region, departments that have graduate programs or emphases in interpersonal communication, and course syllabi.
Other New Business: Discussion centered on increasing the division's visibility. Suggestions included sponsoring panels, spotlighting prominent Southern scholars, and recruiting graduate students as panel chairs.
Members expressed concern that having only two time slots for business meetings meant that they had to miss one business meeting in order to attend another business meeting. A suggestion was made for Tom to convey to program planning to schedule three meeting time slots instead of the current two.
Elections: Judy Carter was elected vice-chair elect. A review panel for paper submissions was formed and will include Richard Conville, Karen Fountenot, Marcia Hudson, and Rodney Reynolds. A motion to elect Richard Conville and Lynn Reynolds as members of the division nominating committee was passed.
1998-1999 Officers:
The officers for 1998-99 are:
Chair: Tom Socha, Old Dominion University
Vice Chair: Bill Edwards, Columbus State University
Vice Chair Elect: Judy Carter, Amarillo College
Secretary: Randy Dillon, Southwest Missouri State
Nominating: Sandra Halvorson, Florida State University
The meeting was adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Randy K. Dillon
