| "In many respects, communication is the phlogiston of society." --B. Aubrey Fisher |
October 1999 |
Contents
Good Times
Treat Yourself to WSCA 2000!
Letter from Your Local Host--Sacramento 2000
Let's Really Make a Push for New Members
Plan Now to Attend the Basic Course Conference on Service Learning
Special Issue of Southern Communication Journal
2000 WSCA Distinguished Service Award Nominations
A Wee Note from David Natharius
Editor's Notes
Good TimesDennis C. Alexander, WSCA President
In truth, I must tell you that I like being President. When I was Executive Director, this was a hectic time in mailings for membership renewals and reminding people of the Fall tasks for WSCA. As President-Elect last year, I was deeply in the middle of creating and organizing the Vancouver convention and the printed program. This year as President my task is to write a letter to the members for the WSCA Newsletter (that is enjoyable and much easier).
Dawn Braithwaite is the person busily preparing the 2000 convention in Sacramento. Her theme of "Centering Communication in our Communities'' looks to have great potential. She will describe some of her programs elsewhere in this newsletter. What I know from watching Dawn is that the program will be stimulating and well planned. John Williams and the Sacramento faculty are working on making the 2000 convention as fun and collegial as WSCA has come to expect.
The Executive Council of WSCA will meet before the NCA convention begins in Chicago. Some of the important issues for the November meeting are: 1. Selection of a new Communication Reports editor to replace Ron Lustig, 2. Selecting a new brochure design from the design competition being managed by Sandra Petronio and Leah VandeBerg, 3. Receiving an update on the search for our next Executive Director (Connie Conlee's term ends in June 2001 and we make the selection in February 2000), 4. Hearing from Time and Place about bids for the 2003 convention (2001 is Coeur d'Alene and 2002 is Long Beach), and 5. Entertaining the routine reports and business of the Association. I also look forward to the new make up of the Executive Council with the chairs of the WSCA standing committees participation.
Kathy Adams is heading the annual membership campaign for new members. Kathy has many exciting ideas. Membership is more than the responsibility of the Second Vice President. I hope all of us are ambassadors for WSCA. Encourage your colleagues to join or renew their memberships in WSCA. Tell graduate students about the benefits and advantages of WSCA and how we try to mentor students into our discipline. Also, does your department have a membership so the journals and newsletters are available to all people in your department. With so many small and targeted organizations, we all need to help keep WSCA a viable part of our colleagues' development and mission to serve all students in community and four year colleges.
I hope to see everyone in Sacramento.
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Treat Yourself to WSCA 2000!
Dawn O. Braithwaite, President-Elect
I'll admit it-- every year I look forward to the WSCA conference as my opportunity to treat myself! I treat myself to outstanding scholarship and pedagogy, invaluable collegiality, warm friendships, a special time with my students and colleagues, and, well, all the fun, festivities, and local cuisine the convention and host city has to offer. WSCA is one party I never miss!
We are well underway in our planning for an outstanding Year 2000 WSCA convention at the Sacramento Hyatt February 25-29, 2000. Please make your plans to join and kick off the new century (or the year before it, as you sticklers out there might point out) in style!
Our conference theme is "Centering Communication in Our Communities.'' As we meet together, we will highlight ways our scholarship, teaching, and service takes place in our communities and makes a contribution within our communities. Interest groups and members have submitted a variety of workshops, panels and papers that speak to this theme in a very meaningful way. In addition, our crack Local Arrangements Committee Chair, John "Dr. Fun'' Williams and his Sacramento colleagues are planning events you won't want to miss! Sacramento is a great conference city, the hotel is beautiful, and the program will be top-notch!
We'll kick off the convention on Saturday, February 26th with the Basic Course Conference on "Preparing Students to be Community Members: Implementing Service Learning in the College Classroom.'' Betsy Bach has planned this interactive workshop focusing on the exciting national trends in service learning for faculty and student instructors in K-12, community college, and university settings. More details appear elsewhere in this newsletter. In addition, there will be eleven excellent workshops offered on a variety of other topics that day.
The Western Forensics Association will be sponsoring their annual tournament and we encourage you to bring your students and attend. There will be golf and other fun events to choose from. We'll end Saturday with a Newcomer's Reception, a Convention Kickoff featuring one of our grand (and always raucous) "WSCA Great Town Hall Debates,'' followed by our traditional No-Host gathering, to greet old friends and make new ones.
The highlight of Sunday, February 27th will be a brunch and Keynote Address, featuring Dr. John P. Kretzmann, Co-Director of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute, of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. The title of his talk will be, "The Gifts of Community: Strengthening Relationships between Universities and Communities.''
We will program a great variety of informative and intriguing panels Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday morning, presenting state-of-the-art scholarship and pedagogy. Interest groups will be conducting their business meetings. And, of course, not to be missed are two staples of the WSCA conference: the always fun WSCA Sock Hop on Sunday evening and the Convention Luncheon on Monday.
Let me close by talking with you about a serious subject--supporting our organization. Your membership is vitally important to our organization, as are the memberships of your colleagues and students. If you have ever attend one of our WSCA conferences, if you ever read or publish in our excellent journals, if your students present papers at WSCA, if your colleagues are active in WSCA, then you know the many benefits this organization brings to individuals, campuses, and to our discipline. I know there is great competition for your dollars. We need your membership to continue to carry out the business of the association and to remain the strongest and healthiest of the regional associations. I ask that you please renew or join WSCA and support an organization that gives so much to students and faculty in our discipline.
See you in Sacramento!
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Letter from Your Local Host--Sacramento 2000
Dear Members of WSCA
We are all looking forward to hosting next year's WSCA convention. Once again WSCA will have Sacramento's Hyatt Regency Hotel as its convention cite. Dawn and the interest group planners are putting the final touches on an exciting and interesting convention program.
We think you will find Sacramento's location ideal for making a variety of side trips. The famous wineries and tasting rooms of Napa and Sonoma are within easy driving distance. For those who wish to stay closer, you can explore the foothill wineries just above Sacramento.
Sacramento itself offers a wide range of points of interest. The Hyatt Regency's downtown location will place you within easy reach of the State Capital and the park which surrounds it. Old Sacramento can be reached in a matter of minutes and features the California State's Railroad Museum which includes vintage railroad locomotives and cars restored to working order.
The Hyatt Regency is also located within walking distance of the recently developed downtown plaza featuring some unique shopping opportunities and a brew pub. Located near they Hyatt Regency are a number of independent and used book stores as well, one within a two block walk of the hotel.
We are planning to continue the traditional sock hop on Sunday night. In addition this year we have reserved tee times at one of the local gold courses, Wildhawk. The course will allow you to use all your clubs and will provide an enjoyable outing on Saturday.
Sacramento's diverse ethnic community provides you with the opportunity to sample a wide range of foods. The hotel features two fine dining options and near the hotel you will find Frank Fat's which features both Chinese cuisine and excellent banana cream pie (really). You can find at least forty-two types of restaurants many in downtown Sacramento.
We hope you will agree that Sacramento provides an excellent location for our year 2000 convention and hope you will consider attending. We look forward to seeing you in Sacramento.
Cheers,
John Williams,
Local Arrangements HostPS I have put several good links together on a webpage to help you find out about Sacramento--from shopping to driving directions to restaurants!
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Let's Really Make a Push for New Members
Kathy Adams, WSCA Second Vice President
I want to take this opportunity and "ditto" our President-Elect's call for renewals of memberships. Although one of my formal duties as Second Vice President is recruitment of member, I wish to remind all of us that membership recruitment falls on all our shoulders. Quite simply, the health of our discipline and the programs on our separate campuses is tied to active professional association and WSCA is an integral piece of the professional puzzle. This association has a long history of strong professional ties and even deeper personal ones and it is not as healthy as we would like to think. Membership is down and we simply cannot loose sight of the fact that all that is good about WSCA is so because of membership activity and, yes dollars.
I know several associations compete for your money. I want to remind you that the regular fee of $40 and the student fee of $20 is still one of the best bargains in the country. Life membership is possible through different payment plans and is tax deductible. I strongly urge all of you to not only renew your membership but to seek out others and actively take part in my membership campaign. Keep me busy with your requests for more application forms!! My goal is to report a record number of mem-berships for the year 2000. Please help me to do just that.
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PLAN NOW TO ATTEND THE BASIC COURSE CONFERENCE ON SERVICE LEARNING!Communication instructors in K-12 and at all levels of higher education are using service learning as a way to prepare students to become active members of their communities. As such, the Basic Course Conference will be devoted to the understanding and practice of service learning in the classroom.
The conference will kick-off with an address by Irene Fisher, a service-learning pioneer, on "Re-engaging With Our Communities: Service in the Curriculum." She will be followed by representatives from the National Communication Association who will (1) define service-learning and discuss the unique contributions that our discipline is making in this area, (2) identify the kinds of courses that can be taught using service learning, and (3) highlight the benefits and obstacles of and tips for teaching service learning. After a break for lunch, we will (1) hear from faculty who include service-learning in their communication courses, and (2) interact with these and other faculty in break-out sessions to learn more about how to incorporate service learning within the communication curriculum.
DATE: Sat., February 26
TIME: 9:00 a.m. - 4:40 p.m.
For information or questions please contact Betsy W. Bach, University of Montana, at ic_bwb@selway.umt.edu.
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Southern Communication Journal
SERVICE-LEARNING AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES
Deadline Extended
Manuscripts should be submitted on or before November 1, 1999.
Service-learning provides opportunities for students to affect the quality of life in real world communities by applying what they have learned in the classroom and to assess their classroom learnings using their community service exper-ience.
Manuscripts may address a number of possible questions, including but not limited to (a) how can the field of communication enhance our understanding of community service in general or service-learning in particular; (b) how
can service-learning courses in communication contribute to the development of communication theory; and (c) what are some proven models of service-learning in the field of communication?
Manuscripts should comply with the Notice to Contri-butors for SCJ published in the Fall, 1998, or a subsequent issue, except that 5 copies should be submitted to:
Richard L. Conville, Guest Editor SCJ
Department of Speech
Communication, Box 5131
Univ. of Southern Miss,
Hattiesburg, MS 39406
(601) 266-4271 (w); (601) 264-2274 (h); (601) 266-4263 (f)
richard.conville@usm.eduUp to Contents
2000 WSCA DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
The Western States Communication Association's Distinguished Service Award honors persons who have made considerable and long lasting contributions to WSCA and the discipline of Communication. The 1999 award winner was Dr. David Natharius of California State University, Fresno. The full list of those honored in past years is on the WSCA website.The WSCA Distinguished Service Award Committee seeks nominations, which should include a detailed listing of the nominee's accomplishments (and/or a vita) and one or more letters detailing the nominee's contributions to WSCA and the discipline.
Past nominee materials may also be updated. Nominations should be received no later than December 1, 1999.
Direct questions and nominations to the committee chair:
Paul A. Mongeau
Dept. of Communication
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056.
Phone (513)529-7413
FAX (513)529-1268
mongeapa@muohio.eduUp to Contents
A Wee Note from David Natharius
David Natharius has retired from teaching at California State University, Fresno and now resides full time in Chandler, Arizona, with his wife, Dr. Mary-Lou Galician. He is currently President of WSCA's Executive Club.
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by John A. Cagle
Our hope to make the newsletter a useful tool for WSCA and our members to communicate with one another. There is also a print version mailed to members.
The website version, WSCA News on the Web, has "late-breaking" news between the print editions, and it is of course in color. If members or interest groups have webpages of interest, we can put links on our homepage to them.
WSCA News generally comes out three times a year: April, October, and January--not exactly a calendar year, but facilitative of our convention schedule. Material is cordially invited, especially scatalogical humor or anecdotal narratives or germane editorials, although reports on the activities and vicissitudes of our interest groups and members may well be more appropriate. The January 2000 deadline is about December 11th, 1999.
Comments and suggestions to me, johnca@csufresno.edu, are welcome, either for the print or electronic versions of the WSCA News.
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Link to WSCA Homepage