In This IssueWSCA Annual Meeting, March 5-9, 2010 , Anchorage, Alaska:A Call for the Wild to Attend, Serve, and Enjoy Anchorage!Anchorage 2010:Alaska Comparisons & InformationLegislative Assembly 2010:Nominations for WSCA Executive Council Members-at-LargeWSCA Journals:Table of Contents for Vol. 74(2) of the Western Journal of CommunicationCommunication Reports Call for Papers & Year-end ReviewAwards:WSCA Member Receives NCA Award |
WSCA Annual Meeting, March 5-9, 2010 , Anchorage, Alaska
A Call for the Wild to Attend,
Serve, and Enjoy Anchorage!
by Daniel J. Canary, WSCA President
As the WSCA Convention draws near (March 5-9, 2010), the excitement about visiting Anchorage among the people attending increases exponentially. At first I was unsure about the site (Alaska in winter?). But as more information about Anchorage and its many attractions emerged, the more excited I became about this year’s WSCA convention. (Later I paraphrase Doug Parry’s report in the WSCA News (Oct ‘09 issue.)
In light of WSCA’s semi-official motto (We work hard—We play hard), I am asking those of you still on the fence about this year’s convention to come to WSCA to ATTEND the panels, SERVE as you can, and ENJOY the fabulous attractions in Anchorage.
A Call to Attend!
Heather Hundley, First Vice-President and Primary Program Planner, organized an intriguing convention on the theme “Power and Communication.” Heather and her very fine program planners built a packed-full array of panels. Please see the convention that Heather and our program planners have provided (www.westcomm.org). The call for papers is now a CALL TO ATTEND this year’s convention. Again, check out the program to see.In 2008, Sue Pendell’s convention theme was “Engaging through Service.” Last year, my convention theme was “Mixing Metaphors.” This year, Heather Hundley’s convention theme is (still) “Power and Communication.” Because Sue Pendell wanted more time to showcase WSCA award winners, she humbly did not offer her Presidential Address at last year’s convention. With all humility aside, I shall incredulously elaborate on my theme of mixing metaphors and you will want to hear it! Consider the above three convention themes combined into one: “Engaging Power through Service by Communicating Metaphorically and Mixing with Pleasure.” OK, so I added a couple of words. In the words of Steve Martin, “Well, EXCUSE ME”! Seriously, Anchorage provides our site to enjoy this year’s WSCA convention intellectual delights.
A Call to Serve!!
Sue Pendell, Immediate Past President, continues the call for WSCA members to become involved in serving our wonderful association. Sue’s convention theme in 2008 (“Engaging through Service”) reflects her own long-term and tireless dedication to WSCA. Her service has positively affected all of us and invites us to help WSCA.In my view, the best way to serve includes attending the convention; the convention provides the best means for supporting WSCA, as well as discovering what needs to be done and how. In the WSCA News (Jan ‘09 issue), Sue noted several ways we can serve. Allow me to paraphrase a few of Sue’s points for you:
First, WSCA members can help in the WSCA Legislative Assembly, the WSCA Executive Council, and/or your Interest Group Business Meeting. The WSCA Legislative Assembly (LA) constitutes the primary policy-making WSCA group. LA comprises Interest Group chairs and vice chairs, two ORWAC representatives, delegates elected at large in the November election, and members from departments that contain five or more WSCA members.
You can have a direct voice in WSCA decision making at the LA in two ways. (a) If you’re an Interest Group chair or vice chair, you have a direct voice, but if the IG chair or vice chair is unable to attend the LA meeting, you can volunteer to do so in their place. (b) If your department has five or more WSCA members, ask your department chair if you can be the departmental representative to the LA.
Sue also urges us to consider being nominated for the EC member-at-large positions during the LA by your IG representatives or your colleagues. We need a wide range of members-at-large on the EC to provide differing perspectives and experiences to EC decision making. And please consider being nominated for WSCA’s Nominating Committee to help decides who stands as candidates for elected offices.
A second opportunity involves the WSCA Executive Council (EC). The EC has responsibility for the financial wellbeing of WSCA. The EC also engages in executing WSCA policies adopted by the LA, administers the affairs of WSCA, decides convention registration and publication fees, and determines future convention sites, among other functions. At the WSCA convention, the EC meets on Friday prior to the start of the convention and on Tuesday morning of the convention.
The EC comprises elected officers of the Association, which include the Immediate Past President and four members-at-large elected by LA. (FYI: appointed officers of the WSCA and the President of the Executives Club serve as non-voting members.)
So, you can influence EC directly if you are an elected officer of WSCA or a member-at-large elected by the LA. Also, your voice is heard indirectly by voting for officers and members-at-large to represent you.
A third place to serve, which is most important for networking, concerns attending your Interest Group (IG). Members elect IG officers during the convention IG meeting. The IG officers represent the IG at the Legislative Assembly, send motions for action to the LA, and help decide what panels to accept for the next convention.
Finally, Sue asks us to consider the following: “What items of concern do you have? What should we be doing that we’re not? What are we doing well? Your input is welcome and valuable--we look forward to hearing from you!”
A Call for Fun!!!
Doug Parry, this year’s WSCA Local Host, provides this information for us in the October issue of WSCA News. For those still pondering whether Alaska is worth the journey, consider the following (which I paraphrase from Doug):Our convention hotel (Downtown Anchorage Hilton) offers a central location. You can enjoy the Coastal Trail, music and other art events, fine coffee houses and, and local Alaskan gifts. The hotel is also near the start of the Iditarod race to Nome. The nearby Chugach Mountains offer splendid hiking and or skiing. Here are a few web sites about Alaska.
Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau site includes sections on “Planning a Trip”, “About Anchorage”, “Art and Nightlife”, and “Experiencing Anchorage on a Budget: 20 things to do under $10”. http://www.anchorage.net/
For the Chugach Mountains at the edge of Anchorage, see
http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/chugach/
To learn about the Iditarod dog sled race, see: http://www.iditarod.com/
To read about the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous events near the Hilton view http://www.furrondy.net/
Also, the Alyeska Resort lies in the scenic town of Girdwood, 40 miles south of Anchorage. The drive to Girdwood is breathtaking. The following two web sites include information about the Alyeska Resort as well as downhill and cross-country skiing, hiking and dining:
www.alyeskaresort.com; http://www.girdwoodalaska.com/ So, make your plane reservations now, pack your warm (and hot) clothes, and prepare for a wondrous and wild experience at this year’s WSCA convention in Anchorage!
Anchorage 2010
Alaska Comparisons & Information
by Heather Hundley, President-Elect
Now that you’ve booked your flight and hotel, have paid for your WSCA conference registration, and have written your paper and practiced your presentation, it’s time to start setting up your expectations for this unique location. As I write this article, it is currently 37 degrees in Anchorage. While that may sound cold to many Californians, its only two degrees colder than Washington DC (registering at 39 degrees), four degrees colder than Flagstaff, Arizona (coming in at 41 degrees), and seven degrees colder than Seattle (reporting 44 degrees), according to weather.com. In my conference planning, I’ve been in touch with conventioneers coming from the DC area (home of NCA) and Flagstaff (where Northern Arizona University is located) and they should be nicely acclimated to the Alaska temperatures.
In terms of daylight hours, during our stay in Anchorage we should expect between 10 ½ to 11 hours of daylight. The sun is “scheduled” to rise about 8 am and will set about 6:40 pm. Compare this to Los Angeles which should see approximately 11 ½ hours of daylight during the same time period (for more details go to http://timeanddate.com).
In learning about “America’s Last Frontier,” Alaska officially became the 49th state on January 3, 1959. How many of our members can fondly remember this date? In terms of production, did you know that 25% of the US oil produced comes from Alaska but that the state's largest private industry employer is the fishing and seafood industry? In fact most of the salmon, crab, halibut, and herring in the United States hail from Alaska. I hope you’re excited about seafood and ready to eat some great meals. If seafood is not to your liking, however, please indulge in a reindeer sausage (yes, they have that too.) On the sports front, in 1972 the Alaska Legislature determined that dog mushing is the official state sport. Yet, I doubt if the athletes are paid as much as football or basketball players. Geographically the state's coastline extends over 6,600 miles and Alaska is the United State's largest state, that is, over twice the size of Texas! (For more information on Alaska see http://www.50states.com/facts/alaska.htm).
The local hosts, hotel employees, interest group planners, WSCA officers, and others have done a tremendous amount of work to help ensure you have a wonderful and successful conference. We all look forward to seeing you there!
Legislative Assembly 2010
Nominations for WSCA Executive Council Members-at-Large
by Sue D. Pendell, Immediate Past President; Chair, WSCA Nominating Committee
I’m pleased to let you know that Karen Lovaas and Brian Heisterkamp have agreed to be candidates for WSCA Executive Council members-at-large. Additional nominations will be accepted from the floor and the election held at the Legislative Assembly meeting in Anchorage on Monday, March 8, 6:30-8:00 pm in the Alaska Room.
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WSCA procedures specify that, in order to be nominated from the floor of the Legislative Assembly, an individual must indicate in writing a willingness to serve if elected or be present at the meeting to so indicate orally. If indicating in writing, that document is to be delivered to the President prior to the nomination.
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“When it appears that no one else wishes to make a nomination, the chair should again ask if there are any further nominations; and if there is no response, he [sic] normally declares that nominations (for that office) are closed, without waiting for a motion to that effect…” (Robert’s Rules (10th Edition), p. 422).
After nominations are closed, either the nominee or someone else presents a brief review of the qualifications of each nominee. I will present a brief bio of each of the Nominating Committee’s candidates, followed by bios of those nominated from the floor.
Then election is by paper ballot.
Executive Council member-at-large is an important position as those individuals represent the membership of the Legislative Assembly and vote on all issues before the Council. Please join me in thanking Brian and Karen for their willingness to serve if elected, and please consider nominating someone or volunteering for nomination yourself during Legislative Assembly.
WSCA Journals
Table of Contents for Vol. 74(2) of the
Western Journal of Communication
by Brian Ott, WJC Editor
Critical Museology, (Post)Colonial Communication, and the Gradual Mastering of Traumatic Pasts at the Royal Museum of Central Africa (RMCA)
-- Marouf Hasian and Rulon Wood
Ground Zero and Place-Making Authority: The Conservative Metaphors in 9/11 Families’ “Take Back the Memorial” Rhetoric
-- Theresa Ann Donofrio
The Presence of the Present: Hijacking ‘The Good War’?
-- Carole Blair, William V. Balthrop, and Neil Michel
The Failure of Memory: Reflections on Rhetorical Studies of Public Remembrance
-- Kendall R. Phillips
WSCA Journals
Communication Reports Call for Papers & Year-end Review
by Bill Sharkey, CR Editor
Call for Submissions
CR publishes original manuscripts that are short, data/text-based, and related to the broadly defined field of human communication. The mission of the journal is to showcase exemplary scholarship without censorship based on topics, methods, or analytical tools. Articles that are purely speculative or theoretical, and not data analytic, are not appropriate for this journal. Authors are expected to devote a substantial portion of the manuscript to analyzing and reporting research data. Research articles should 5000 words or less. This restriction includes the abstract, text of the document, references, footnotes, appendices, and the captions for tables and figures, but longer manuscripts may be considered. If you are not sure of the appropriateness of your manuscript in terms of its length or content, please contact the Editor, Bill Sharkey, at creports@hawaii.edu.
Communication Reports Vol 23:
Issue #1 (January – June 2010):
The Effects of Altercasting and Counter-Attitudinal Behavior on Compliance: A Lost Letter Technique Investigation. (Monique Mitchell Turner, John A. Banas, Stephen A. Rains, SuAhn Jang, Jessica L. Moore, & Dan Morrison)
Consumer satisfaction and repatronage intentions following a business failure: The importance of perceived control with an organizational complaint. (San Bolkan, Alan K. Goodboy, & John A. Daly)
Are Emotional Intelligence and Contagion Moderators of the Association between Students' Perceptions of Instructors’ Nonverbal Immediacy Cues and Students’ Affect? (Tiffany R. Wang & Paul Schrodt)
Mobile Communication in Romantic Relationships: Mobile Phone Use, Relational Uncertainty, Love, Commitment, and Attachment Styles. (Borae Jin & Jorge F. Peña)
Communication Reports
Acceptance Rates
(January 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009)
Original (i.e., new 1st round) Manuscripts Submitted to Comm Reports Manuscript Actions: |
62 |
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Manuscripts withdrawn by Editor before review process |
08 |
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Manuscript withdrawn by author(s) after first round of reviews |
01 |
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| Manuscripts rejected first round | 41 |
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| Revise and Resubmit (R&R) Manuscripts | 02 |
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Manuscripts under first round of review |
04 |
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| Total Number of Accepted Manuscripts | 06 |
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| Total Acceptance Rate | 9.7% (6/62) |
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| Average time for first round reviews | 31 days |
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| Min/Max time for first round reviews | 1 – 92 days |
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| Median time for first round reviews | 27 days |
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Review time for decisions made on the 58 original manuscript submissions |
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| 00 - 30 days | 31 manuscripts |
| 31 - 60 days | 16 manuscripts |
| 61 - 92 days | 11 manuscripts |
Awards
WSCA Member Receives NCA Award
submitted by Sue Pendell, Colorado State University
Bernadette Marie Calafell, University of Denver, was the recipient of the 2009 Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies. NCA president (and former WSCA president) Betsy Bach is pictured presenting Professor Calafell with her award.